World Handball Championship: USA vs. Spain 27-25

Everyone loves to blame our players for having some sort of inferiority complex compared to the French, but honestly, their ego is massive when you compare it to the average Joe. You see it right here on the forums all the time.

Man, what's the point of obsessing over France? It’ll be an uphill battle, sure, but it's not impossible. We should focus on resting the squad against Belarus so we have everything we've got ready for the matchup against Gal. If we don't mess this up and actually play the way we're supposed to—instead of slowing the game down to a crawl and just blindly hammering it into their midsection—we don't just have a chance. We're actually in the game.

nimblewalker4 said:So you guys are actually trying to teach me about handball? 🙄

Walking hand-in-hand with Pak, assuming the French let the Germans win just so they could target Americans and Dance... pure genius. We’re a nation obsessed with conspiracy theories—honestly, it’s no surprise when people are basically drugged up by watching nothing but FOX and RTL all day.

I'd rather they target Americans and Dance than the home team, anyway. And look, "tanking" doesn't mean throwing the game on purpose; it just means playing at half-capacity.

Jessica Taylor4 said:They chose the harder path. Everything will settle itself eventually, I suppose. But I’ll tell you one thing: if we end up facing the French, we're in trouble. They were playing against the Germans in those last ten minutes like a bunch of blind chickens—just zero sense of direction or strategy out there...

Regarding this matter—even though, theoretically speaking, Iceland could make it (though it's highly unlikely)—I'm curious about our track record against them. Specifically, what is our head-to-head score if we happen to meet in the quarterfinals?

In theory, it's entirely possible for Belarus to make its way to Iceland. 🙂

Pacak hit the nail on the head once again, for heaven knows how many times now.

http://www.hrsport.net/vijesti/45453...ji-kvalitetni/

Goluža is completely incompetent, and I guess we’ll see that confirmed yet again this Wednesday.

My only real sympathy goes to the players. It's a shame to watch our only successful team sport—aside from water polo—start to fall apart just because of everyone's misplaced "pride."

Gary Smith66 said:What a sick sense of American egoism and pure melodrama. Everyone is shouting about "fair play" except for a tiny handful of "honest and smart" Americans—which, let’s be real, isn't anyone at all.☕

And yeah, sure, the French are going to absolutely steamroll us. I read the exact same kind of delusional posts back during the UN games and, guess what? They just toyed with us.

Hit me up after the game against France so we can discuss exactly why those little Frenchmen you idolize so much ended up losing to the US! ☕

Kevin Ramos21 said:Well, I guess it’s better to aim at Americans or the Dance team than the hosts, anyway. And honestly, "tanking" doesn't necessarily mean throwing the game on purpose—it might just mean playing at half capacity.

This is just so ridiculous, there isn't even any point in responding... sure, I suppose targeting Americans or the Dance team is better than targeting the Spanish women.🤣

boldfox88 said:the biggest issue when we play against the Frenchmen is honestly just mental. losing possession, missing wide open shots—and I mean wide open in handball, for God's sake—and just firing directly at Omeyer. That same Omeyer goes against us and consistently makes fifteen saves, whereas normally he can't be touched. Against the Germans, he only had, what, two or three saves? 🤷

That psychological hurdle is fixable, I suppose, but I’m not entirely sure someone like Goluža could ever wrap his head around it. They aren't invincible—not based on the last two tournaments, anyway.

If there was even a shred of common sense in the coaching staff, we could definitely take the French down. We could have done it back in London, too, but no—some guy from the French bench just hammers four goals in a row on the exact same—well, identical!—pattern, while Duvnjak just completely freezes up, and then you've got Ivano, who’s arguably the most stubborn guy of this entire generation, just sitting there on the bench through the whole turning point.

Back in the day, when we actually had some physical presence, we could beat them in one match out of every two, provided we played smart.

But now, we aren't quite as strong as we used to be, and they are. Now, we're basically walking into a buzzsaw. Even the Spanish women would have walked all over us if they felt like it. You could see it all yesterday.

nimblewalker4 said:It’s all part of some massive conspiracy, obviously. Rocas wasn't actually aiming for the post—I mean, he's basically a superhuman, right? He doesn't just miss a shot whenever he feels like it; no, he hits the woodwork with such insane precision that if it had been just one centimeter to the left, it would have been a goal.

It’s all just one big setup.

What a load of nonsense. When you're hitting the post at that sharp of an angle, a little bit of spin is all it takes to send it into the net.

Kevin Ramos21 said:I mean, it’s better if they take it out on the Americans or the Dance team rather than the home crowd—any way you slice it, it's a win. And honestly, when people say someone is "tanking," they don't necessarily mean they're throwing the game on purpose... it's more like just playing at half-capacity.

So, by that logic, does "tanking" mean instead of actually driving down the road, you just pull over and go fill up the car?

nimblewalker4 said:This is just pure stupidity. It’s not even worth a response... sure, blame Americans or the Dance team instead of the Spanish women. 🤣

Maybe our guys just don't see them as such a massive threat. 😁

Paul Jones7 said:Just because you're running on empty doesn't mean you should pull over and walk to the gas station instead of actually driving to one, right?

Resource Recovery 👍

Kevin Ramos21 said:It's possible our folks don't see them as such a major threat 😁

They probably view us much like we view, say, Canadians.

Kevin Ramos21 said:Maybe our guys don't see them as such a serious threat. 😁

It’s pretty easy for Karabatić and his crew to just label our handball players as softies who prefer the couch to the court. 🤣

...Pacak really nailed the strategy here, and there was actually a comment below that hit the nail on the head: "Our coach isn't just there to give pep talks about leaving your heart on the court; he's there to engineer a tactical roadmap that actually secures us a medal."
..That idiot has already started digging for excuses: claiming Lac won't be there because he's out, Bicanica is dealing with back issues, and even the others (Dule, Vori) are already exhausted
...Incompetent fools—who on earth convinced them to log 55 minutes in some meaningless exhibition games? Pride, grit, integrity... none of that mattered for yesterday's performance. What we saw yesterday was a total disaster; it was like watching someone with a massive headache trying to paint a masterpiece while completely oblivious to reality...
...Of course, I'm still rooting for our team, but I'll watch tomorrow's game, and by Wednesday, I'll be doing something actually productive... I just can't stomach this level of mockery anymore.

Walter Palmer3 said:Everyone blames the players for having a complex about the French, but their own inferiority complex is massive compared to just some random guy. You can see it right here on the forum.

Man, so we're targeting the French now? Okay. It’ll be tougher, I guess, but it's not impossible. Maybe we should try to save our energy against Belarus so we have our best lineup ready for the match against Gal. If we don't mess things up and actually play the way we're supposed to—without slowing the game down too much or just blindly throwing everything at their center—I think we definitely have a shot. Maybe even more than that.

🤣 🙏

It's funny... when someone says they don't get why we didn't rest up against the Spanish, suddenly they're just a neurotic who's scared of the French. But then, you're the genius who thinks we should totally rest against Belarus, even though we were basically playing for nothing in that game, whereas against the Spanish, we were playing for real stakes, right?🙄

People have argued here plenty of times about how Americans hold a sporting grudge against Mexicans 🤣 And look at that, Mexico was bypassed entirely 👍 Honestly, shouldn't we just be glad about that? 👋

Goluža is just out here shining with these statements, claiming we hit the mark perfectly 🤦 Come on, when things actually turned out this way, you can't just spout nonsense like that after half the roster is completely sidelined! 🙂

I'm not sure if you all caught this, but Ivan Čupić has been keeping a diary from over in Spain for Handball.hr

A new update just dropped—you might want to check out what Čupić has to say firsthand before the quarterfinals get underway

Ivan Čupić: "To all you little math experts out there—you've done all your calculating, but now we're coming to collect our due."

Jerry Myers19 said:People have been talking about this on here a million times already—how Americans get totally worked up and lose their mindswhenever they have to play a game in Mexico👍

I went ahead and fixed your post for you.😉