Handball, according to wikipedia entry is a team sport in which two teams of 7 players each pass a ball to throw it into the goal of the other team. I first had the opportunity to experience it at the bronze stage of the London 2012 Olympics, and must say that am glad I was one of the lucky to have secured a ticket for such event.
Women Korea v Spain were the teams playing for the third place at the game, and must say it was a serious contact sport and the game delivered an exciting one. The two sets of 30mins was played with no clear winner, the two sets of 5mins over-time was played and still no winner, but during the double-overtime, Spain finally came through to win the game at 29 - 31. The final game was between Nor v MNE(Montenegro) with the result of 26 - 23.
According to IHF(International Handball Federation) Korea and Spain are rated 8th and 16th respectively. Thanks to the dutch man seating next to me, found out that handball is a big sport in Germany and some other European countries, and judging by the ranking of the federations by IHF, must 100% agree with him.
Couple of things that I noticed/learnt from my first game of handball:
Women Korea v Spain were the teams playing for the third place at the game, and must say it was a serious contact sport and the game delivered an exciting one. The two sets of 30mins was played with no clear winner, the two sets of 5mins over-time was played and still no winner, but during the double-overtime, Spain finally came through to win the game at 29 - 31. The final game was between Nor v MNE(Montenegro) with the result of 26 - 23.
According to IHF(International Handball Federation) Korea and Spain are rated 8th and 16th respectively. Thanks to the dutch man seating next to me, found out that handball is a big sport in Germany and some other European countries, and judging by the ranking of the federations by IHF, must 100% agree with him.
Couple of things that I noticed/learnt from my first game of handball:
- Teams do have timeouts (similar to what I experienced at the basketball), think it was about 5mins duration.
- Team can make as many changes as possible
- If there is no winner after the 2 rounds of 30 minutes, then there is overtime and double overtime before the game goes in penalty stage.
- There is a bigger net to protect the crowds seating at the back of goals so as not to be hurt.
- Spot where a player falls had to be cleaned every time, this is to prevent slippage of the players.
- Spain brought in Mihaela Ciobanu Ciobanu (#39) specifically to save penalties, which on my count, she saved at least four.
- Korea's Han Na Gwon (#7) was my favourite player, the way she moves, and the fact that she is ready to hard on the Spanish defenders, amazed me.
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| Game in Play |
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| Crowd at the game |
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| KOR Team Strategy during timeout |
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| ESP Team Strategy during timeout |
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| Net to protect crowd from being by the ball |
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| Final Score. Spain (ESP) won the game |
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| Saying goodbye |
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| Spain team letting it sink in |
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| ESP thanking the fans |
