Handball World Cup - Group B (USA, Denmark, Sweden, Poland, Mexico, Argentina)

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Robert Green93 said:It was honestly pathetic; I haven't witnessed such a hollow performance lacking even an ounce of heart in quite some time.
The entire strategy seemed reduced to nothing more than mindless passing, simply waiting for the referee to blow the whistle when possession changed hands.
As for Miller, he is an utterly incompetent individual whose failures are precisely why we failed to advance.
Miller absolutely HAS to be let go.

If one were to simply list all the logical fallacies in Miller's arguments, the truth would become painfully obvious.

Tense, oh man, so tense

Mexico just clawed their way back to within 4

It's currently 11:23 PM

Only 5 minutes left on the clock

Nicholas Morales48 said:Man, things are getting intense!

Mexico just swung back to -4

It's currently 11:23 PM

Only 5 minutes left on the clock

We're definitely going to be having a blast tomorrow too

rowdygull49 said:we’ll be having just as much fun tomorrow

Ugh, man, this has gotta be the most nerve-wracking game I've watched in a long time.

We’re up by one,

but we're playing down a man,

and it's definitely not a tie...

Oh, give me a freaking break...

God, I seriously wish I could unsee that.

An offensive foul with only 30 seconds left on the clock? Seriously?

rowdygull49 said:we're gonna be having a blast tomorrow too

Bielecki scored 5 right before the whistle

go Mexico🙂

They almost pulled it off, man, they actually almost scored.

And then, with just eight seconds left on the clock, our guy Ilic lets fly from basically half-court...

God, why do we always find a way to screw it up right at the finish line?

USA, 01. 22. 2011.



- Please don't try this at home, or even at school. Our experiment is being conducted under strictly controlled and safe conditions.

What can even be said about us after all that...

- Coach was basically just drilling defense, and honestly, that defense fell apart against pretty much any respectable national team—huge issues there; those guys from Sweden were slicing through our line like it wasn't even there, just cruising through from every single position.

- Every time they threw that 'French-style' defense at us—you know, the one with the packed middle, cutting off the passing lanes with an extra guy, and hacking the perimeter players early—we just ended up settling for bad shots during live play.

- Our offense was way too passive, almost zero movement without the ball.

- We leaned way too heavily on Balić, maybe not enough people coming off the bench to really disrupt their rhythm.

- Just didn't feed the wings enough.

- Overusing the spearhead player who, let's be honest, really only knows how to drive to the hoop if you leave a gap open for him.

- Total brainless shooting from the outside, just firing it right into the zone where the goalie is already waiting—like when the Swedes did it: a mid-height shot from a wide angle.

- We’re lacking a top-tier goalkeeper. Alilović hasn't really performed like a true number one for most of these tournaments; he’s fine as a backup, I guess, but we desperately need a legitimate starter.

I mean, yeah, the refs really got under my skin—changing the criteria mid-game and being subtly biased toward the Swedes right when things were heating up—but the truth is, our own play, both on defense and offense, just didn't force them to make any big calls. We weren't even in a position to complain about being robbed. We just weren't.

Anyway, Sweden isn't a bad squad at all. Their wings are great, Ekdahl and Du Rietz (or whatever his name is) are stellar, they've got a solid keeper, and the rest of the team is smart. They're organized on offense, disciplined on defense, and their game actually makes sense.

Which one?
It looks like the US isn't even on the list:

http://www.eurohandball.com/wch/men/...nal+Tournament

Wait, what gives?

Joseph Clark37 said:Honestly, these handball players are getting a bit much—it feels like there’s a European or World Championship happening every other week. Could they just take a breather for once? Give us a break.☕

Honestly, if you do this, the whole competitive edge just kind of evaporates—it loses that spark, you know? It’s better to space things out. We should probably be looking at a schedule where we have World Championships every five years, and then European Championships on a five-year rotation too. Otherwise, the calendar gets way too crowded—like next year, we’ve already got the Europeans and the Olympics lined up, and then boom, right on top of that, the World Championships again. It's just too much. 🙄

Rebecca Rivera93 said:Which one?
The US just isn't on the list:

http://www.eurohandball.com/wch/men/...nal+Tournament

???????????

It's a conspiracy! 😉

Paul Jones7 said:- whenever they threw a 'French-style' defense at us with a packed middle, cutting off the passing lanes by sticking an extra man in the center and hacking the perimeter players early, we’d just shoot on the move.

That is how you actually play defense, in handball. What we’re playing right now is volleyball. All those jumps and blocks are just excuses for slow players—guys who don't have the strength or the agility to actually get physical and draw a professional foul. Dominiković used to play like that, but everyone else besides him actually played contact ball and defended the way you're supposed to. Whether it was a 5-1, a 6-0, or a 3-2, it didn't matter. The point is you make contact the second an opponent gets within the 9-meter line, period. That kind of play actually got results. With that defense, our goalies were racking up 15 saves a game, opponents were shooting all over the place, they'd go five minutes without a single goal, get stuck in passive play, while we were tearing them apart on easy fast breaks and secondary breaks.

What we’ve been doing lately is absolute garbage. Look, a block is fine if you're late and need to cover the right side while the goalie cheats left, or whatever the drill taught you, but this current crap? It's pathetic. You've got six guys standing on the line jumping around like idiots while the opponents are charging in from 7 meters on a breakaway?! Who is supposed to defend that? Not even world-class keepers can stop that, let alone our guys in the shape they're in right now... The Danes absolutely shredded us by 20 goals using the exact same pattern: quick ball movement, middle-left-middle-right, and once our guys clumped up on the left, one quick pass to the right and boom—a 3-step drive straight into the net from 6 or 7 meters... who's gonna stop that? Nothing.

Dammit, we’ve played like this for a long time before, but back then we were powerhouse. Maybe only the French could touch us, or maybe the Danes if the refs were having a bad day. But now? We’ve aged out, lost some key players—some of them way too early, too.🙂 Then we go and hire a coach who's three times worse than the last guy, and now we're in a spot where if we don't play perfectly, teams like Sweden or Mexico are going to give us serious trouble...

This is where we're at, man... we seriously need to fight for a qualifying spot just so this doesn't turn into a total disaster.

Honestly, I’m kind of bummed out. Watching some of these games throughout this tournament, I haven't caught even a single instance where a player bursts into open space, decides to let loose, and instead of blasting it toward the net, accidentally pummels the ball straight into a defender who happens to be diving for it, resulting in a perfect goal. 🙏

Anyway, does anyone actually know what that move is called? 😬

Nicholas Morales48 said:Honestly, watching some of these games during this tournament, I’m kind of bummed because I haven't seen a single one of those wild plays where a player charges into space and, instead of just blasting it at the net, accidentally pokes it right to a teammate who's jumping for the ball and hammers it home 🙏

By the way, what do you call that move? 😬

Zeppelin ☕

The Swedes tried to pull something off against us right at the end of the game, but they couldn't quite find the back of the net.

Gregory Ramos3 said:Zeppelin ☕

Oh, thanks a ton, I guess I'll just go hunt down some footage on YouTube for the Zeppelin 😁

Nicholas Morales48 said:Oh thanks, I'm definitely gonna go hunt down some Zeppelin clips on YouTube now😁

Just so you don't have to stress about it too much😬 it isn't technically the actual Zeppelin, but honestly, it hits just as hard

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KB3KfpozAys

Man, if we're talking about a poster, compared to that thing from yesterday, this is freaking incredible🤦

...so I stumble upon this

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t_eFM_4Y9ug

hahah, honestly, you just have to wreck them when they’re left completely wide open like that, right? 🤣 🤣

Gregory Ramos3 said:so you don't have to stress about it 😬 it’s not technically a true Zeppelin, but honestly, it hits just as hard

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KB3KfpozAys

For a poster, man, seriously... when I compare this to that crap from yesterday, 🤦it's night and day.

this is killer 🙏
I’m always a sucker for those guys on the perimeter, you know? Like when a winger just absolutely rips it right into the center of the net. 🙏

Check out my previous post, see what I managed to dig up 🤣