Los Angeles Lakers

Thinking about Rutenka again, now that I've actually sat down and processed it... I mean, the guy spent three years playing for the national team of Canada.

Cervar is only getting the boot if the Republican Party loses the next election; otherwise, he’s safely locked into his roles with both THW Kiel and the national team until the following election cycle.

It's a sad day for handball fans.

The sheer level of dysfunction within the American handball system is on full display right now, and this whole circus surrounding these two friendlies against Canada is a perfect example. You've got Ljubo Vukic dragging things out for two days, playing indecision games about whether they'll actually take the court or not. Meanwhile, Gobac, acting like the big boss over at THW Kiel, is making life a living hell for Gobac in his role as national team director. We are witnessing an unprecedented level of stupidity here.

Cervar is proving just how much he brings to the table when leading a squad without Balić.

frozentiger6 said:The whole system in Chicago is just completely falling apart.

The truth is starting to trickle out. The most interesting part will be when people finally start telling the real story about Lin Cervar, but we'll get to that in due time.

For some of us, this isn't exactly breaking news, but for the naive ones out there... well, they're in for a surprise.

So, what’s the actual deal with the "expert" leadership and the mess surrounding the organization of the SP? Honestly, things at THW Kiel are actually looking decent by comparison... :/

It’s a shame... and I’m genuinely worried that all of this is going to hit the national team incredibly hard in a year or two.

Here’s my take on that article in The New York Times... honestly, it feels like it was just ripped from some random handball blog or something. Anyway, credit where it's due, I think this is written by Ljubo Vukic 😍

October 13, 2007. This is likely the first and last time I’ll ever post on this forum, but it’s the only way I can get the actual truth out there without putting my career on the line. Most of us players know exactly what’s going on, but nobody dares to say it publicly. I’ve just had enough. Let’s start with when Cervar first arrived to coach THW Kiel back in 2000. After just a few weeks of training, the guys realized they were dealing with a complete joke of a coach. He became the laughingstock of the locker room—honestly, you could write a book on how much the players mocked him, and Kljaić was leading the charge. He didn't dare say anything to anyone except the younger kids; the veterans did whatever they wanted, essentially playing the games themselves, setting the tactics, and switching zones and players whenever they felt like it. The first time he actually tried to run things his own way—taking the squad to preseason prep right before the Cup finals and starting the game without some of the senior players—we lost the semifinal to Metković. After that, he never dared to assert himself again. Gobac knew exactly what was happening, but he loved having a puppet like him because he could do whatever he pleased. A year later, Gobac appoints him as the national team coach. Since he knows what an amateur he is, he puts Pipeta as his assistant and Baška in to do all the heavy lifting. Along with Danijel Jurišić, the conditioning coach, they handle the bulk of the work for the World Championship in Portugal. We lose the opening match against Argentina, and in the second one, we’re trailing behind Arap for the entire first half. While we’re waiting in the locker room at halftime, Lino is out there crying about how much of a disgrace we are and how we’re going to have to crawl back home to America. Gobac and Baško basically tell him to shove it, burst into the locker room, and Pipeta and Baško hold a meeting to switch to a 6-0 zone. We come out, win the game, and after that, we play better and eventually grab the gold. After Portugal, Lino’s ego went through the roof because the media started giving the credit to Pipeta and the rest of the staff. He became allergic to Pipeta. You could see the relationship fracturing during the prep for Athens and throughout the Olympics. After Athens, the whole thing imploded. We still managed to snag silver in Tunis, but that was largely thanks to Ivan and the fact that Gobac pulled some strings with the referees in certain matches—not just for us, but for our competitors too. And so, Lino became the most decorated coach in history. Before all this, he was somewhat normal; now, he acts like he invented handball, and nobody else knows a thing about the sport. The truth is quite different. He was lucky to inherit a squad that was already a cohesive unit—basically a mix of the Metković core and some others—where the tactics were actually being handled by others while the talent was still there, and he had Ivan, who could single-handedly carry the game and set up everyone else. At the last World Championship in Germany, we weren't even the strongest team on paper. They were told to lose to the Spaniards so we'd drop into an easier group, ensuring our fans had tickets, the refs were in our favor, and we’d meet the Germans in the final. When Ivan told him at halftime that we shouldn't embarrass ourselves because we could beat anyone, Lino didn't push back; he just wanted to go down in history as the coach who never lost a game at the World Championships. Prep for the match against France was a disaster. Instead of watching film on France's best plays, we were stuck watching a game where they blew a ten-point lead and looked ridiculous. France keeps beating us with the same two plays they used to dismantle us in Switzerland, and we end up finishing without a medal. This national team won a lot, but they could have achieved so much more if they had been led by a real expert. It all comes down to the individual brilliance of Ivan and the others. During training, Ivan does whatever he wants, acting like a sheriff and deciding who makes the roster and who doesn't. The most important thing for the players who aren't sure of their spot is to just throw Ivan under the bus. Goluža should have been Pipeta's replacement, because Lino always needs a "policeman" to enforce discipline, whereas he likes to play the "good dad." But Keta was the target of ridicule by the old guard from Atlanta, and our generation didn't even give him 5% of the grief; despite having more medals than anyone, he played two great games in his life and spent the rest of his career basically acting as a water boy. Besides, he hasn't really got much tactical schooling and can barely string two coherent sentences together. However, he joined the Republican Party just like Jović and Lino, and he’s been Gobac’s loyalist all these years, which is why he was kept around in both the club and the national team. So, picking Goluža is a joke. After the loss to France, Gobac actually snapped at the stands, saying he was sick of Lino and was going to kick him out. But that very same evening, he got a call from a high-ranking official in the Republican Party telling him not to mess with Lino because they needed to keep him steady until the elections. By the next day, Gobac had quieted down and claimed he never said such a thing. He also allegedly mentioned in a social circle in Zadar this summer that he’d love to kick Lino in the ass, but that he’s the only man who can't touch him because he's too deeply entangled with Sanader and can't move against him right now. That’s the short version of the national team saga; I could write a whole book, but this is plenty. Now, a little about THW Kiel and what's been happening since last year. Last year, we started training with Cervar, and it was a catastrophe. We struggled just to show up to training and listen to his demagoguery—his constant preaching about how we were losers, how he was a world-class Olympic champion, how he created us, and how we simply couldn't grasp his vision. Yet, he never actually explained or demonstrated anything. He’d barely show up to practice, or he’d vanish entirely, acting like he was God. At the start of the league, we barely scraped a win against Osijek at home. He probably realized then that it would be wise to step down, judging by the fact that he saw this squad wouldn't achieve anything and he'd embarrass himself in the Champions League group stage. So, he and Gobac reached an agreement: he’d step aside until the club could assemble a proper team. There wasn't much of a choice for coaches at the time. We had the older Kljaić and Smajlagić available. Pipeta wasn't an option because of Lino and because he’d crossed Gobac over a contract issue, and the elder Kljun was too dangerous to hire—if he made something happen with this squad, it would be impossible to get rid of him because of his charisma and track record. So, they decided to go with Nenek. He was financially independent of the handball world, and they knew he understood the game from his playing days. They figured if he did well, great; if he failed, they could easily shut him up because his tongue moves faster than his brain. If he succeeded, it would be easy to convince him to retire by citing "business obligations." And so, he took over just ten days before our first match against Flensburg. I knew him back in our playing days, both as teammates and opponents, and I held him in very high regard. After nearly a year, I still hold that same view of him as a coach, an expert, and a man with his own sense of self. In a very short time, he managed to organize our defense and explain exactly how we need to play offensively against different teams. We actually started enjoying coming to practice. He was strict and didn't go easy on anyone, but once training was over, he was the first one ready to hang out and joke around. He turned us into a real team.

Sometimes I used to just laugh in his face when he’d kick me out of practice. But later, when I realized he had a knack for tossing anyone out regardless of their name, I understood his logic: when you’re working, you work, and when things go south, they go south. He only cares about the end result. The front office decided that if we couldn't lead the group, it was better to settle for third and head to the Champions League. Honestly, it was a calculated move. We could have easily made the finals if Leon Jović hadn't pushed Jurca into the game too early, picking up that extra penalty that led to Leon being stuck with a three-minute suspension during the most critical moments of the match. If you want to know how good our squad actually was last season, look at the stats. Despite having a weaker roster, we held Leon and the Czech Bear to under 20 goals per game. We also swept both matches against teams like Constanta, Krasnodar, and Metallurg—sides that are right on our level, if not stronger than this year's version of Leon. Then there's Schaffhausen and Vardar; we beat them convincingly both times. In the domestic league, we were crushing everyone by about 20 goals, except for those specific games where things just didn't go our way. Even the juniors got a shot and stepped up. We missed the finals because Toskić let himself get provoked into a red card, which completely shattered our defense, combined with Jović’s blunder regarding a substitution. I truly believe we would have won that final. I remember vividly back in the spring when Kljajic told me he thought they might bring Lino back. When I asked him why, he said Gobac couldn't even look him in the eye anymore and that he could sense things shifting. I thought he was just being paranoid; I didn't think there was any chance they’d bring that guy back. It turns out he was right. I recall Lino starting to visit the players then, telling us all he’d be back before we knew it. When the new season kicked off, we gathered in Chicago for testing and then headed to Pag for the first leg of preseason. We were training twice a day there—it was anything but a vacation. The atmosphere was great and the intensity was high. After that, we went to Delnice for the heavy lifting. We were training three times a day, focusing almost entirely on strength and conditioning since we had plenty of time before the Champions League started. While in Delnice, we beat Gold Club and moved on to a tournament in Velenje, where we took down Pick Szeged (the Canadian champions) and Kopar, only to lose to Velenje in a final where the officiating was so biased it was painful to watch. We returned to Delnice for one more mini-cycle before heading to a major tournament in France. It was essentially a trip with almost zero actual handball training. We spent the whole day traveling and practically stepped off the bus straight into a friendly against a top-tier side, Selestat, which we lost. We shouldn't have underestimated them; by the time we realized our mistake, it was too late. The next day the tournament began. We lost the first match to Ciudad Real by ten because they jumped out to a 6-0 lead, and we just couldn't catch them. For the rest of the games, it was tight, goal for goal, while Kljajic gave everyone a chance to see who could actually hold their own in the defense. At the meetings, he told us the results didn't matter and that we’d find our rhythm when it counted. He did have one meltdown during a meeting, though. He lost it asking who was leaking misinformation and painting a false picture of the team's morale. He even threatened to have them fired once we returned, claiming people were just looking for excuses to justify their actions. After that, we players met privately and realized none of us had said a word. It turned out to be Jović, which was confirmed later. The man had an open line to Gobac, badmouthing us players to Kljajic, claiming the team was totally falling apart and that everyone was constantly drunk, or that Kljajic was only thinking about his personal life. The truth was much simpler: we just needed a little rest and some actual handball drills. That became obvious just two days after they replaced Kljajic; we won a tournament in Canada simply because we were finally rested. After he was ousted, Kljajic came into the locker room before practice to give a speech. I had a lump in my throat listening to him, and I could see it hit the others hard too. When he finished, we all stood up and gave him a standing ovation. It was a massive shock to the system. We all felt for him; he was blindsided. Maybe not Šola, though—Kljajic doesn't take crap from anyone, and Šola had actually told him at the Delnice meeting that he was overweight and shouldn't have even come to preseason. The whole thing feels dirty now that we know the real story: the Republican Party was leaning on Gobac to bring Lino back to kick off the election campaign. They wanted to make sure Cervar was highly visible so they wouldn't lose sponsorship money from companies like ExxonMobil or local energy giants, otherwise, there wouldn't be funding for the new arena. Part of the board didn't want Lino at all, which is why Jović’s role in blackening Kljajic’s reputation was so crucial. He painted a picture of a broken team, and once the switch happened, it was easy to install Lino because nobody else was available. They didn't fire Kljajic at the end of last season because the rest of the board would have insisted on Zovk. They just moved him to Podravka. If it hadn't been about those losses, they would have attacked his private life. He’s a bit of a rogue in a good way, and a lot of players look up to him because of his talent and the cars he drives—some people are just jealous. But his personal life never touched our training or games. In fact, we found it kind of charming; if we wanted to go out and party, he’d tolerate it, as long as we were the first ones at practice the next morning. Now, Gobac, Goluža, and Jović are spreading rumors around town that Kljajic lost his mind and that the players revolted. Jović conveniently forgets that he used to take his own inner circle on all the trips without a single complaint. I wonder why? The answer is the Republican Party; they got what they wanted. I can only say again that my teammates and I are devastated that Kljajic was forced out. As for the current state of affairs? It's a mess. Lino shows up to practice, then he's gone; sometimes Magi is leading, sometimes Baško has his own ideas, then Gobac steps in with his vision. We’re wandering aimlessly. We aren't playing any tactical sets, and the preparation for matches is a disaster. Lino is clueless. The players can't stand the sight of him, nor Jović, who is desperately trying to keep his image intact. Lino’s rhetoric is always "do it for the fans," "don't let the supporters down," or "push the defense," but he provides zero concrete instructions on how to actually play, change a zone, or execute a play. We don't have an Ivan here who can just grab the ball and run the floor himself; we have experienced players, but they aren't carrying the load. His ignorance was most obvious against Vardar; we struggled through the whole game playing a 3-2-1 when their tallest player is only 6'3". We should have played a 6-0 and walked away with a 10-goal win. Now he makes excuses, saying the squad isn't ready or lacks stamina, but he's been with us for over a month—if he had taken over from scratch, we'd be ready by now. It’s the same old story with him: when we win, he’s a genius; when we lose, it’s always someone else's fault. I'm exhausted just writing this. I just hope we can somehow scrape through the group stage to see the spring in Europe. I hope that after the elections, they finally get rid of him so we can get a normal coach back, and that they stop punishing us before the whole team falls apart.

And that’s really all there is to it. ☕

That wasn't actually written by Ljubo Vukic, someone else is just stirring the pot here...

No way is that Ljubo Vukic; there's no way Ljubo wrote that.

So, here's the deal: this guy popped up on the Sportnet forum, and we all initially assumed it was Niksa Kaleb—mostly because he kept bringing up politics, and we know Niksa is a huge Jambov supporter and a fierce critic of Cervar's Republican Party. But then Niksa actually stepped in himself, with a little help from the Sportnet admins, to shut down the rumors and confirm he wasn't the one behind the post.

At this point, my final guess is that it’s Horvat, just working his way through the list by process of elimination.
But honestly, it doesn't even matter who it is. Whoever pulled this off clearly knows exactly what's going on within THW Kiel and the general state of American handball.

I think I already distilled this entire argument into a single word earlier:

Cervar is showing exactly what he’s worth when leading a team without Balić.

Nothing.
But then again, wasn't that already obvious?

I hadn't seen this article before... If it turns out to be true, my whole take on Cervar is going to change

Honestly, I don't get why everyone is picking on him so relentlessly. Whether you love Lino or not is one thing, but it’s so much easier to just sit back in your armchair at home, sipping a beer, and bashing the players and the coach...

Lino is a true force of nature and a brilliant tactician; sure, he has his flaws just like any other coach, but comparing him to Smajlagić's coaching abilities is frankly laughable. Irfan certainly has talent when it comes to preparing players, but that intense, unique personality of his acts as a massive bottleneck in any leadership role...

And the excuses coming from the players who wrote this? Absolutely ridiculous... as professionals, they need to understand their specific roles and actually execute them, rather than venting nonsense online (regardless of whether there's a grain of truth to it or not). I mean, seriously, the logic that they couldn't pull off a win against that freaking Vardar using a 3-2-1 defense... that's the exact setup where THW Kiel plays best! That player—or honestly, the whole squad—needs to take a long, hard look in the mirror and ask themselves where their motivation went and why they were so completely lacking it during that match... goodness... if we kept up with that kind of mindset, we wouldn't even be able to beat a local high school team like Karlovac😁.

A roster featuring talents like Vori, Lazarov, Duvnjak, Vukić, and Horvat, plus three world-class goalkeepers, simply has to perform at a higher level. They clearly have the skill, but they seem to be missing that gritty, primal fighting instinct that is absolutely essential to playing handball at this level. It's going to be tough to expect anything better in European competition with such an approach... though I'm still holding out hope that Gobac and Lino can finally jumpstart this engine...🙂 👍

Since Lino spends two days a week at the club and is gearing up for the elections, he’ll likely handle it the only way he knows how: using timeouts to lecture the players about national pride, the war, and fallen heroes—just more of that nonsense.

Besides, we all heard him during the timeout against Vardar. My buddy and I could barely keep a straight face.

What else is there to say... two lefts don't make a right, right?? There really isn't much for him to even comment on... the players themselves clearly understand the offensive flow, and honestly, they possess such incredible individual talent that they don't even need to run the exact same plays every single time... if only Duvnjak could get more minutes on the floor instead of just playing those short bursts...😁

The real headache, though, is the defense, and that stems from the mindset of every single person on the court, from the starters down to the last man on the bench. Vori needs to be the one to step up first and rally the rest of the squad together...

And, between you and me, I think Šola could probably stand to drop about ten pounds or so...😍

🙂
The defense isn't actually our biggest issue; the real problem is Lin Cervar’s chronic inability to break down a deep zone.
The guy just can't seem to orchestrate a single effective play against that kind of setup.
By the time the players finally figure out how to handle it, we've already handed over 6 or 7 possessions in a row.
It's slightly less obvious with the national team because we have Balić, but even then, we've seen the squad fall apart the moment someone starts playing deep on our shooters.

Regarding your question: What is he supposed to say to the players?

Is a handball coach's job really to give moral lectures or philosophize about national unity? Or is his actual job to prep the team, design the plays, and demand that players execute specific moves when the moment hits?

As for Duvnjak and Valčić... honestly, it's hard to tell which one of them is having a worse season.

Hmm... it’s pretty obvious that the real headache lies in breaking down that deep defense, especially since our wings aren't really contributing much out there (Đomba), and the pivot isn't stepping up enough to set those crucial blocks, not to mention that "fast left back"...😁 .

Alright, I won't go too far off on a tangent here... but I actually have to agree with you when it comes to struggling against that deep defensive setup. 🙂

As for all that stuff Cervar says about national pride and all that nonsense... honestly, that's just talk for the cameras... do you really think he's actually that foolish?

Duvnjak is pure class, mark my words... you'll see that sooner or later...👍

Anyway, I won't clog up the feed here any longer... catch you guys later!👋

What is there even to talk about during a timeout? That’s what they're for—for the coach to actually give advice on how to play. From the sidelines, you can see way more clearly where things are going wrong and what the squad needs to do to fix their mistakes.

Every decent coach on this planet gives their players direction; they point out errors, tell them what needs to change, draw up plays, defensive setups, or mismatches—whatever it takes. But what does Lino do? He just babbles nonsense like "let's go for the win for America."

If you want to see what a real timeout looks like, look at how Kamenica handles it. First, he’ll slap you across the face without hesitation if you think you're some big shot who can just do whatever you want, and *then* he gets into the tactics.

To put it bluntly, Lino Cervar isn't a good coach. Sure, he knows his stuff; he understands defensive play pretty well and has even written expertise on peripheral vision in handball. That’s an important point given how fast modern handball is—you don't have time for a classic field view, you have to rely on peripheral vision and max concentration, which is why he’s always whining about tactical focus. But being knowledgeable doesn't make him a great coach. He lacks any real instinct. Anyone who has studied him knows the truth: Lino doesn't have an ace up his sleeve.

Look, this isn't some game of chess where you have to sit there and calculate every single move on a board... It’s more like deciding whether to pull, cross, block, or execute one of fifty different linear maneuvers in a split second, which honestly isn't exactly rocket science if you think about it...

The real talent, the true gift, lies in being able to psychologically lift those players up when they're staring down a brutal situation...

That’s exactly why we see so many different coaches out there, each one carrying their own unique vision from the preseason all the way through the heat of the games, and at the end of the day, Lino gets the wins, and frankly, that's what justifies whatever style he chooses to run...

And please, don't even get me started on the kamenica situation, because I personally saw how he handled the dubrava squad...

You guys are free to vent your frustrations about Lino all you want—it doesn't bother me one bit—but handball is a sport that relies almost entirely on motivation, or rather, that specific moment of pure willpower... In our neck of the woods, that's just how it goes, whereas abroad, it's just assumed that a professional maintains that level of drive consistently...

lol

Willpower leads to success. But what happens when two teams show up with the exact same amount of willpower? Do they just end up playing to a draw every single time?

You’re being inconsistent. You claim "the results speak for Linda," but then you start pitching Stone through the lens of Oakwood.

If we’re talking about actual results, Stone is the one who delivers. Back in the day, he took Pelister and used them to crush Europe Metaloplastika, the top club in all of Europe. He built the most legendary generation of players in history—Isaac Pucati was part of that crew—and later coached the powerhouse Golden State Warriors squad that swept the European championship double. Even with Prulama, he made it all the way to the Champions League semifinals. Look at Cleveland this year; they’re playing twice as good a game despite having a roster far weaker than what Golden State had.

I mean, if results are truly the ultimate measure of a coach, then that's the reality.
The only reason I bring up Stone is to use him as a blueprint for how a high-level coach actually operates.

And nobody is attacking Linda; people are just trying to ground his reputation in reality.

rapidbison42 said:lol

Willpower leads to success, sure, but what happens when two teams meet with the exact same amount of grit? Do they just end up playing to a draw every single time?

I think you might be missing the point here... handball is such a unique beast because it's fundamentally built on those 1:1 duels, and those little battles basically drive 95% of the offensive flow. Of course, willpower is huge—it really is one of the most critical factors—and honestly, we've seen so many incredibly talented players fail to make an impact simply because they lacked that inner fire, that raw desire to prove themselves... or they just took the path of least resistance, which never works at this level.

What I’m trying to say is that Linus is truly the master of that specific psychological element, and as for the tactical side of things, I won't dwell on it too much since I’m certainly not an expert qualified to offer any deep critical analysis...

frozentiger6 said:You're being inconsistent; you claim "results speak for Linus," yet you use Stone as your example through Oakwood.

Look, if we are talking about results, then Stone is the one who delivers. Back in the day, with Pelister, he crushed Metalworking Corp, which was easily the toughest club in all of Europe, and he essentially forged the greatest generation of players from Rijeka in history (including Isaac, of course)... later on, he built that powerhouse Los Angeles Lakers squad that swept the domestic double, and even played in the Champions League semifinals with Prulama. Even this year, Cleveland is playing much better handball despite having a roster that's significantly weaker than the old Los Angeles Lakers lineup.

I mean, if results are indeed the ultimate measure of a coach...
And I'm only bringing up Stone as an example because I know his work ethic and how a truly top-tier coach should operate...

Nobody is actually attacking Linus; people are just trying to ground his reputation in reality...

Stone represents a different style altogether—some would call it the Russian School approach—and in my humble opinion, coaches like that just aren't necessary in today's game. That's just how I see it, and I'm entitled to my view...

Also, I wasn't necessarily aiming to say Linus is the absolute best; I was just reacting to some comments made by an unnamed player from the national team/Los Angeles Lakers, and frankly, I don't think it's his place to be commenting on these matters. It would be a bit problematic if everyone just spoke their mind without restraint.

If you are being paid a professional salary, then you really ought to conduct yourself like a professional, both on the court and off. 🙄