Handball journeys

Saturday 12 March 2022 On a tube travel to Upney, a small greeny paradise soulless devoid of shops in East London. Handball frenzy has to start somewhere. Olympia ladies deployed an Ukraine friendship tee-shirt and their Ukrainian player Anastasia is wrapped with her Ukrainian flag Olympia started with a blitz through goals by energetic center backs and a couple of line play goals Statistics =  2-min suspensions Olympia 5 – West Eagles 4 Score = 7-1 11’, 8-4 15’, 8-5 17’, 9-6 23’30, 11-9 (half-time), 12-12 38’, 13-15 44’38, 15-15 47’45, 18-16 51’30, 19-18 53’, 21-19 56’, 21-20 58’, 22-21 59’10 and final score The impressive West Eagles psychological ability in coming back from a 7-0 early demolition is something to applaud. Games can be decided on small details and the missed penalty with just over a minute left prevented West Eagles from drawing/winning the match. During the last fifty seconds Olympia were playing a player short and resisted. With a couple of seconds l...

 NIMES NANCY 4 March 2022 19h GMT The draw making Nimes a bit feeble during the first 16 minutes 6-8 Great goal by Yahushira Why Teodor not in ? Do not understand the coaching Psychologically Nimes are affected by the match on Tuesday. Superb line play ball and drop ball 9-12 20’30 Luc Tobie for Gibernon 10-12 22’ Dommage pour BG. UNLUCKY REMI and BG. Minel gets USAM a bit closer 11-12 24’40 Despite change in defence, superb line play by Rocha 11-13 Agree with Nancy player and it should not be a 2-min How come Quentin’s goal given Empty goal quick reaction13-14 27’ Quick empty goal by Lucho 14-14 27’30 Missed throw by Remi. Instead, a lovely wing goal. Finally, BG a line play goal! 15-15 29’35 Salou on the post Great pass to Mo 16-15 31’20 Lead lasting 15 seconds Staggered defence stopped again. Completely different match from Tuesday 17-16 33’45 Superb Dupuy goal Superb Aisgersson goal But counter by Nancy. Nimes are really...

USAM - Kadetten 1 March 2022 My seat is empty Refs from Lithuania Missed Joan clapping in Ukraine’s recognition Great Kadetten goal 0-1 30s Double save by Kadetten keeper 0-2 2’ Forgot to message Joan A long trip back from Paris Wrong choice by Luc Tobie Kuttel punishes 0-3 5’ Maros is extremely motivated 1-4 5’30 Pilipovic is in the right tempo as he denies again Luc Tobie Remi gives to Mo for the counter 2-4 7’ Unnecessary 2-min for Mo and 2-5 9’23 Mika hesitated and Tom was probably border line Joan released well for his team mate 2-6 10’30 They are scared of Pilipovic and huge beautiful pass to the wing by Joan 2-7 11’30 Another missed pass. A matter of motivation. Superb number three by Quentin Minel A gap in the defence to which Mika remediates as he scores 4-8 15’25 Schopper is super motivated and scores with ease 4-9 16’ Missed line play by the Swiss team and Lucho scores 7-9 18’50 Joan did nothing and Mika was in the wrong Missed opp...

 Herein the current projections for the European Handball League a month ahead of the last 16 round But before that we have a mouth-watering PSG - USAM later today I must admit that was too unwise not to travel. USAM were down by 8 goals at the break after a very poor start. We then reduced the arrears for 5 mins. Then relinquished up to 11 mins left on the clock now trailing by ten. We then had a pride bounce back spike and at some point back to within four. With 17 seconds left on the clock Matt scored PSG's 36 and we lost by five. I did not travel on this occasion and I can only imagine how I would have felt and behaved. I was not similing during the match nor at the end but at least I did not have to hide my disappointment in front of both the Paris and Nimes players and coaching staff. Our season is well and truly over league wise. In Europe we are playing for pride as there is no automatic qualification for any of next year's ones. We have two meetings against St Raphael,...

  Kiel – Montpellier   23 Feb 2022 Sagosen on duty after 45 seconds Wiencek with an eye injury still finds the net but Bataille battles well 2-1 2’45 Sego saves from Wiencek and then from Pekeler A lot of empty seats. Covid as a reason. They exchanged pennants. A lot of noise in the Sparkassen Arena Landin keeps it tight 3-1 5’30 Bilyk close to passive play gets number five but Montpellier keeps at it 5-3 8’30 Wienhold finds space where nobody does 6-3 10’ Sagosen winces and gets it right 7-4 11’40 This time Sego read Weinhold attempt low on his near post Valou gets the old-fashioned way past Niklas Landin 7-5 13’  Julien Bos responds to Reinkind in very similar fashion Where’s the Montpellier defence as Pekeler is on his own 10-6 15’45 Hugo Descat opens wide then shots inside Reinkind top corner, a beauty. Wiencek line play was sublime 12-8 17’40 But then gets a bit accommodating with his no defence attitude 12-9 18’15 Kiel ou...

 AEK – USAM So many other big matches Tuesday/Wednesday/Thursday Revenge after home defeat Missed it so do not tell me the result. I watched it late and that was a nightmare. A lot of empty seats. Still no goals after 2 minutes Quick Jimenez fires in and Mo responded after 3 minutes 1-1 Jimenez again top corner in a passive defence 2-1 Remi saves well from a Greek counter It is a football atmosphere and not a handball one 3-1 already for AEK 6’ Mika was expecting the ball and it never came to him Very good wing goal by AEK by Evangelos 4-1 7’20 Time out of course Even 5-1 after empty goal Only yellow cards to avoid too many 2 minutes???? Another unorthodox goal to concede 6-2 10’ Julien Rebichon with his new hair cut scores an easy one Jimenez was inside when he scored that number seven Empty goal and Mylonas scores despite Mika attempt 8-3 11’50 A 7-meter and a 2-mninute and a goal conceded. Argh 9-4 13’10 Another empty goal error 10-4. Nightmare. I would have been so unhapp...

  Nantes – Cocks 15 February 2022 Baptiste on the wing to make it 2-1 3’20 4-2 7’ 5-4 10’ Should talk to Marlene. Rushing the counter to no effect. Even a win in Europe does not guarantee a Champions League spot unlike what football does I need to book that weekend but what tests to be taken for Germany? Polish refs right to blow. That was dangerous on Portela. Valero on the 7-meter 6-5 12’45 Michael Robin beaten by an old school goal initiated in unorthodox manner Good steal Ovnicek 8-6 14’40 The Lisbon trip that is never to materialise! Buda on the escape a week-end after a Bank Holiday. But is it not the presidential elections weekend? Living to the regrets. Excellent Monar goal but disputable disqualification. Strange one. Dragan gets it easy 11-7 20’ A huge miss by Theo on the counter. Alexandre with no mercy 12-8 22’ David Balaguer scores a clever one 13-8 23’ 13-10 25’ Alexandre finds some space in the middle to make it a 4-goal game ...