World Cup Handball: The Final Stretch

Come on folks, the Russians are total losers 🙂

Write home if the neighbors keep up with this forced silence.

The Austrians really dropped the ball on this one... 😁

And honestly, this Dinart guy is just a total jerk 🙂

Two players short 🙏

The Frenchmen should’ve played the whole damn game with two fewer players on the field. At least then there might have been some actual tension...

Two players down, so it's -2. 🤦

Did they really pull off a 2-0 win while playing two men down?🤣

The French managed to sink two goals despite playing with only 4 men on the pitch🙏

The whole system's falling apart over in France 😁

The refs are giving the Frenchmen way too many favorable bounces here... though honestly, even that isn't doing them any favors 🙂

No, it doesn't help 🤣

trampling

This feels off. Canadians have no clue how to handle the French. It’s a total mess... And then you’ve got these guys on the other side just tearing everything apart.

At least the final score isn't a total disaster—it’s basically what we were looking at halfway through the game.

Look, alright—being -3 isn't a total disaster. There's still plenty of room to play around with it. But man, we seriously gotta figure out how to break through that French defense.

Given how many mistakes were made, I’d say the first half was actually a decent enough result. Now they just need to tighten things up right out of the gate in the second half and start closing the gap.

Even with a decent lead, I guess the Canadians need to play a bit more aggressively. Like, maybe throw an elbow in their ribs when the ref isn't looking? That way the Frenchmen might start getting twitchy and committing those obvious fouls, just totally shutting down the opposition.

gorguc said:This young French lineup looks incredibly powerful, especially when you look at their defensive structure. Meanwhile, the Canadians are really showing off with that rapid ball movement.

The French roster possesses the kind of talent capable of dominating the sport for at least another decade. We are truly on the precipice of a new era of superstars waiting to emerge. The singular, looming challenge will be finding a way to effectively succeed Omeyer.

Solid result considering how much of a mess things were. Especially since they ripped through our defense three times while we were playing shorthanded with just two guys out 🤦 But whatever, we just had some jitters, finally found our rhythm, and managed to keep it to a one-possession game.

It actually played out exactly how I feared it would. They’re just letting them shoot from deep while we can't get anything going inside. They aren't allowing any assists to the wings or any entries to the big men. If our perimeter shooting doesn't heat up—which would force them to adjust their defense—they're walking away with an 8-point win.

Honestly, I'm just glad the whole system hasn't completely fallen apart yet. 🙂

I gotta say, I wasn't exactly blown away by the Frenchmen. They try to muscle their way through everything; sure, they're beasts one-on-one and they caught us on a couple of fast breaks, but as far as cohesive play against a set defense goes? Nothing. Their perimeter shooting is also pretty shaky right now, which is basically the only reason we didn't let them run away with it.