World Handball Championship Finals

I guess Gustavsson is working his magic too 🙏

There we go, the classic Frenchies are at it again; feels like we're heading straight for Gazimestan at this rate.

Man, those Danes are just on another level. These top-tier teams absolutely crush it every single time—except for us.

1/4:

USA - Poland
Qatar - Germany

Denmark - Spain
Canada - France

The highlight is definitely the matchup between Spain and Denmark. In the top-tier games, Belarus cruised past Canada and the Czech Republic took down the Russians. Among the underdogs, Saudi Arabia beat Algeria and Iran edged out Chile, so at least someone else in our group besides us actually managed to win these knockout games 😁

Iceland is a total disaster, and honestly, it’s no surprise they got absolutely crushed by Canada in the qualifiers. Now, in this latest qualifying cycle for the European Championship, they’ve gone and run straight into the Mexicans.

Mark Howard7 said:Iceland is a total disaster—honestly, it’s no shocker they got knocked out by Canada in the qualifiers. And now? In this new qualifying cycle for the Euros, they just went and lost to the Mexicans.

Look, even if their play is absolute garbage, they do have a world-class keeper, I'll give them that. 😁

We’re incredibly lucky we don't have to deal with the Dance because everything seems to go their way. 🙏

And just like that, once again, we see the sheer dominance of the European powers.

FRA-SLO 95% - 5%
The Americans need to pull off one of their best performances since gaining independence if they want to walk away with this one. Honestly, I’m calling it now: I see a similar outcome for them as we saw against the Spaniards in the group stage, just another loss.
DEN-ESP 50% - 50%
Anything can happen here. The Danes haven't forgotten that heartbreaking loss in the finals two years ago.
KAT-GER 40% - 60%
The Germans should take this. They've been playing consistently well throughout this tournament and they are absolutely starving for success after an eight-year drought. I haven't watched much of the Qatar side, but let's be real—if they weren't playing on home turf, their chances would be even slimmer than they already are.
USA-POL 55% - 45%
Just looking at the tradition here. We haven't really played anyone significant in this tournament; every opponent so far has felt like a third or fourth-tier team on the world stage. To me, Poland falls right into that second tier. They played a solid game today, forced the Swedish woman into their rhythm, and managed to grind out a clever win.

USA - Poland 60-40
Watched the Poles a couple times now—and honestly, comparing them to our guys, I’m not sweating it one bit. They’re annoying to play against, sure, but nothing special. If we actually show up and play at our level, Poland is going down. Then again, they aren't the only ones looking shaky—we can be just as bad. We have these unbelievable stretches where everything just falls apart... unreal. But I'm banking on not repeating that Brazil disaster. If we play even remotely close to the level of the teams in our group, Poland's done for. Though, yeah, the Poles are slightly better than those teams we faced in the group stage.

Qatar - Germany 40-60
Basically, that score only happened because Qatar is hosting. From what I've seen, the Germans look seriously good in this tournament—they've got this insane energy. Sure, they had those rough patches, like that first half against Russia where they looked totally lost, but overall? They're solid. Taking first place in a tough group says it all. If they're playing us next, I'd even call it a 50-50 toss-up, but we'll see how it plays out. Maybe I'm overestimating them. Or underestimating us (lol).

Denmark - Spain 50-50
Real talk, the Spaniards look incredibly powerful from what I've watched. The Danes are okay—mostly strong, but they definitely have their mental lapses. Personally, I’d give a tiny edge to Spain because of that, but it's all semantics and there's no point overanalyzing. It's a 50-50 game I'm actually looking forward to. I bet both sides are low-key stoked to be facing each other already (yeah, right 🤣).

Canada - France 20-80
The winner here is pretty much a foregone conclusion, but I don't think the Canadians are some pushovers that France can just steamroll. I think they could actually make things difficult for the French, though I fear it mostly depends on how the French feel like playing. Canada's chances are slim, but just to be fair, I'll admit that even the best can have a massive meltdown.

graniteotter6 said:I guess Gustavsson is pulling off some miracles too🙏

Man, here we go—classic French tactics, now it’s basically Gazimestan all over again.

It’s kind of wild how Landin pulls seven saves in a row and suddenly the Danes are up by five, yet Gustavsson goes on a five-save streak and the lead stays exactly where it was (or maybe one less, I'm not totally sure)—it feels like he just kept them from falling behind by ten at that moment.😍.

If my memory serves me right, Landin was sitting at 6 for 6 during those first 10 minutes.🙏

Does anyone happen to have a link to the player stats? I'm looking for things like goals scored, minutes played, and save percentages for the keepers.

I checked the official World Cup site and couldn't find anything useful, so if someone could point me in the right direction, I'd really appreciate the help...

Brojidb 🤣
Where on earth did you pick that up? Did you just decide to start making stuff up by tossing "-dba" onto everything, whether it actually belongs there or not? 🙂

Andrew Rodriguez16 said:Does anyone happen to have a link where I can check individual player stats? Like, total goals, minutes played, or how many shots those keepers are actually saving...

I've been scouring the official World Championship site and coming up totally empty. If someone could point me in the right direction, I’d really appreciate it...

http://www.handball2015.en.beinsports.net/match-center

Here’s what they've got on the official site, but honestly? It feels pretty bare-bones compared to how they used to handle stats at previous championships!🙄

It’s actually wild to think we’ve finally landed in a weaker bracket for once—meaning we don't have to go through the Dance/Frenchmen/Spaniards just to earn a spot in the finals.

Honestly, if we don't capitalize on this and walk away with at least silver, the whole thing is a wash.

graniteotter6 said:Brojidb 🤣
Where on earth did you pick up that nonsense about adding "-dba" everywhere it belongs and doesn't? 🙂

"Brojidba" is my preferred American term for "statistics." As a bit of a traditionalist, I try to steer clear of foreign loanwords, Anglicisms, or Germanisms whenever I can. I just hope the admins, super-admins, and editors—or whatever you want to call the moderators and site management—can respect my particular way of writing.

gentlebear47 said:http://www.handball2015.en.beinsports.net/match-center

Here’s some info pulled straight from the official site, though if you ask me, it feels pretty dry compared to how they used to cover the World Championships back in the day.🙄

Thanks... That’s on the guys... I was wondering, is there any kind of public census for the players????

Andrew Rodriguez16 said:Brojidb is just some local slang for "statistics"...

By all means, keep going.

Andrew Rodriguez16 said:"Brojidba" is just an old-school way of saying "statistics"... Look, as some sort of linguistic patriot, I try to steer clear of foreign loanwords, anglicisms, and germanisms whenever I can. I’m really hoping the managers, super-managers, and editors—or whatever you want to call moderators, super-mods, and admins—can appreciate my specific style of writing.

Can anyone provide some actual evidence or proof for that?

It’s got nothing to do with the English language—it’s just plain old-fashioned pretentiousness.

Andrew Rodriguez16 said:Does anyone actually have a link to where I can find the full stats for every player? I'm looking for everything—goals, minutes played, even keeper stats like save percentages. Anyone got anything?

I checked the official World Cup site and found absolutely nothing, so if anyone’s feeling generous and could help me out...

It’s right there on the official IHF website.

Go check out Team Ranking—they’ve got some seriously insane, deep-dive stats if you actually want to see what's going on.

Check out this link to the IHF website if you want to see what's going on with the official competitions. It’s all there.

America’s second nation just wrapped up its debut on the world stage with a rough 42:28 loss to Russia (20:16). That puts them at 20th out of the 24 competing countries. Perhaps the only silver lining? Canada managed to be the top-performing newcomer. Iran finished 21st, while the United Arab Emirates ended up withdrawing entirely. Interestingly, Iceland—the team Canada was expected to knock out—actually climbed to 11th. After Egypt, South Korea, and Tunis, Qatar became the first non-European squad to break into the top eight of this World Championship. The last time a non-European team made that cut was back in 2005, when Tunis took home 4th place in Tunis.

Andrew Rodriguez16 said:John Doe is an old-school American term for "statistics"... I suppose, if one considers themselves a bit of a linguistic purist, I try to steer clear of foreign loanwords, anglicisms, or germanisms whenever possible. It’s my little quirk, I guess. One can only hope that the managers, the high-and-mighty overseers, and the editors—or what some might call the moderators, super-mods, and admins—might actually have a passing ear for my specific style of prose.

Samuel Parker said:The other American nation just wrapped up its debut in a major tournament with a total disaster of a loss against Russia, finishing 42:28 (20:16).

🤣🤣🤣oh, just go screw yourselves