Sports 2008-

[CTG]

Painful coincidence in Hungarian national male handball team: both of our goalkeepers injured on the same day. Nándor Fazekas suffered a serious ankle injury at the training of Gummersbach, while Nedad Puljezevic (Pick Szeged) saved a shot in a bad way, a ribbon is broken in his upper arm. Bad luck...

[CTG]

Female handball, European Champions League, group phase:

Two rounds, very different feelings about them.

Györi Audi ETO KC - Ikast Brande EH 25-27 (15-11)

Typical Hungarian way of losing a match: ETO was already leading by 8 goals in the first half (15-7) but then... Annoying match! Görbicz scored only 5 goals - health problems (felt bad during the match - it turned out she has blood pressure problems). Some bad news after the match: Aurelia Bradeanu, one of the best players in the team is pregnant - bad timing from the aspect of the team.

Györi Audi ETO KC - Zvezda Zvenigorod 29-23 (17-10)

Surprisingly easy victory versus the Russian title holder - especially because Görbicz (6 goals/4 from penalty) is not in good physical shape at the moment (too many injuries this year, blood pressure, private life problems...).

Kometal Skopje will be an easier opponent. Or at least I hope... ETO isn't too good in the last few months: only second in Hungarian championship at the moment behind the peasant team of Debrecen (Debrecen - ETO 24-22, bah).

Males:

SG Flensburg Handewitt - MKB Veszprém KC 32-29 (15-15)

Germans played too fast...

[Akoss Poo a.k.a. Zorromeister]

Alba Volán is lying is 7th position in the Austian ice hockey league. Quite good. Two players have to face a serious ban after having a fight against Austrian national team players of RBS Salzburg. Austrian judges seem to be a bit too biased. Last game: Linz-Alba Volán 4-3 after extra time -> 1 pt for Volán.

Hungarian-Romanian (Tranysylvanian) league (MOL League) 6th place team Dunaújváros is competing in Continental Cup 3rd round against very strong teams (powered by foreign Canadian, Swedish players): Dunaújváros-Bolzano Foxes/ITA 2-5, Dunaújváros-Coventry Blaze/GBR 4-6. Battle for 3rd place tomorrow: Maribor/SLO-Dunaújváros Steel Bulls.

Olympic Qualifyers, second round: HUN-SRB 9-1, HUN-CRO 6-1, HUN-LTU 5-2. Last round in February, winners will advance to Vancouver 2010: LAT, ITA, UKR, HUN. Tough...

[CTG]

Beijing 2008, semi-official news! The silver and bronze medalists of male hammer throwing, Belarus Vadim Devyatovskiy and Ivan Tsikhan tested positive for traces of testosterone - it's very likely that they lose their medals and then 4th place Krisztián Pars (HUN) will step up to 2nd. A little good thing after this shameful Hungarian performace at the Olympic Games: our medal collection will grow to 3-6-2.

[CTG]

Beijing 2008, semi-official news! The silver and bronze medalists of male hammer throwing, Belarus Vadim Devyatovskiy and Ivan Tsikhan tested positive for traces of testosterone - it's very likely that they lose their medals and then 4th place Krisztián Pars (HUN) will step up to 2nd. A little good thing after this shameful Hungarian performace at the Olympic Games: our medal collection will grow to 3-6-2.

It became official.

Heavyweight boxing:

The good old hero, Evander Holyfield tried his best and faced Nikolay "The Beast from the East" Valuev for the WBA title. Holyfield showed up an excellent performance, teaching the giant Russian how to play this sport - refrees were thinking in a very different way, cheating with points for Valuev. Scores: 114-114, 115-114, 116-112 for the Russian. The audience was upset with the result (in Germany!!! Valuev is at Sauerland!), so am I. Professional boxing is just theater with fixed results and with "untouchable" champions. DISGUSTING!!!

I want to see Vitali Klitschko vs Nikolay Valuev. The beast will be knocked out.

[Akoss Poo a.k.a. Zorromeister]

Some news:

Alba Volán is lying in last position in Austrian Ice Hockey League (EBEL), but they are only 1 pt away from 8th - playoff - place. Austrian hockey federation punished very seriously Volán after the two Canadian players of the Hungarian team fighted against Austrian national team players of Red Bull Salzburg, who provoced them. Austrians were very biased, gave a ban to the 2 key players, and plus the fact that they cannot be replaced by other players. Volán were playing with only 3 lines in their last games (injuries, U20 WCH matched also gave no help to Alba), but the bad period seem to be over. They gained a new North American player from AHL, and will fight against 9th place Graz tomorrow.

Hungarian U20 ice hockey team was relegated from division I (placement 21st in the world for this generation) after facing the opponents of the stronger group. This was a weak generation, but the next one will hit: Hungary have NHL hope players at 1992-93 born guys.

Hungary, France and Denmark had very miserable female handball ECH tournaments... France did not qualify to main round, Denmark finished 11th, Hungary 8th. These teams met in the group stage: HUN-FRA 29-26, DEN-FRA 24-23, HUN-DEN 26-26. Hungary had some bad luck (harder group at main round - the other group contained MKD, CRO, SWE, BLR... no comment...), but the main problem was that they really went out of world class players except for Görbicz, Vérten and Pálinger... Some middle class players who fill the Hungarian squad's most places cannot win the WCH. With good team management and moral we can earn a bit better places, but no tournament wins like in the early past...

BÖFF

[Krys TOFF]

France did not qualify to main round, Denmark finished 11th, Hungary 8th. These teams met in the group stage: HUN-FRA 29-26, DEN-FRA 24-23, HUN-DEN 26-26.

Logically, France didn't qualified, but it was always with sharp results. Not so bad for a brand new French female handball team (60% of new players).

[BonzaiJoe]

WHO CARES ABOUT FEMALE HANDBALL??

[CTG]

Greatest success of Hungarian professional boxing ever: we have two active world champions at the moment. Zsolt Erdei (30-0, 17 KOs) defended his WBO light heavyweight title versus Yuri Barashian (25-5, 17 KOs). The same night, Károly Balzsay (20-0, 14 KOs) dethroned the formerly unbeaten WBO super middleweight champion, Dennis Inkin (34-1, 24 KOs) in a very tight and good match by points. Well-done, guys! What a shame there's no chance for them to challenge the top fighters (Calzaghe, Roy Jones, Tarver, Dawson, Kessler, etc.) - they are both too dangerous compared to their low PPV value for American televisions.

[Chulk]

WHO CARES ABOUT FEMALE HANDBALL??

Who cares about any female sport?? (Except for pole vault, Isinbayeva rocks!)

[CTG]

Except for pole vault, Isinbayeva rocks!

She's very hot!!!

[Chulk]

Except for pole vault, Isinbayeva rocks!

She's very hot!!!

Of course I didn't mean that... 

[CTG]

Only a few days left to male handball world championship... Hungary seems to be a dark horse again: we can beat anybody but also we can lose versus any teams.

Preliminary round

Group A: Argentina, Australia, France, Hungary, Romania, Slovakia
Group B: Croatia, Cuba, Kuwait, South Corea, Spain, Sweden
Group C: Algeria, Macedonia, Germany, Poland, Russia, Tunisia
Group D: Brasil, Denmark, Egypt, Norway, Saudi Arabia, Serbia

I miss Iceland very much...

[BonzaiJoe]

Hahaha, the olympic silver medals aren't in there And it's full of crap teams...

[Krys TOFF]

Here are my guesses :
Gr A : France > Hungary > Romania (just because Sania is injured, or else they can be 2nd ) > Slovakia > Argentina > Australia

Gr B : Croatia > Spain > Sweden (not yet back to its past glory) > South Corea > Cuba > Kuwait

Gr C : Germany (even if they got a severe defeat versus Spain recently ) > Poland > Russia > Tunisia > Algeria > Macedonia

Gr D : Serbia > Denmark > Norway > Egypt > Brasil > Saudi Arabia

Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Australia present, but no Iceland, no Czech Republic, ...