Sports

[Krys TOFF]

France, on the other hand, had a very dubious performance, and actually only played two good matches, as far as I can see (vs Croatia and vs Germany). They finished 4th in the group and sucked in the bronze match. I don't think they deserve the medals. I can agree about Croatia though, as they only flunked against France, and were supreme in the rest of the tournament.

France played the best when needed. Why winning all the games and loose in quarter-finals ?
Anyway, Franch players were obviously still disappointed by referees' judgement on last goal by Guigou that they completely missed the match versus Denmark. Especially the defence.
On the other hand, Denmark players were able to bypass their elimination in semi-finals and find back motivation than French players. So, the result of the match for 3rd place is logical.

[Akoss Poo a.k.a. Zorromeister]

So:

1 Germany(&referees)
2 Poland
3 Denmark
4 France
5 Croatia
...
9 Hungary

Quite good WCH for Stuntsers - or for stuntsers who are interested in handball and attends forum.

[Mislav]

Congratulations Germany! JTK - stop partying and drinking and show us the ctr2006e results

...And Ivano Balic is the best player. He already was awarded as the best player in 2 last European Championships, Olympic games and now 2 Worldchampionships!!

[BonzaiJoe]

So:

1 Germany(&referees)
2 Poland
3 Denmark
4 France
5 Croatia
...
9 Hungary

Quite good WCH for Stuntsers - or for stuntsers who are interested in handball and attends forum.

You forgot

13-24 Argentina
13-24 Brazil

I wish it was like this in Stunts 

And Krys: I agree France played well, I only don't see any kind of reason to assume they were generally better than Germany, as Akoss said.

[CTG]

You forgot

13-24 Argentina
13-24 Brazil

No, no, no. Argentina is 16th, Brasil is 19th. Check http://www.ihf.info !

[JTK]

- nowords -

[JTK]

 oh-it-was-ever-so-great-and-still-is! The German TV is full of handball parties all around! Unluckliy I got really ill on Sturday but I was able to watch the game yesterday shaken by fever but enjoying it anyway. Today I'm a little bit better so I quicly updated kalpen.de. And in my mind I drank really much of my belover Dithmarscher Urtyp! 

[JTK]

Today the German newspaper are writing about the French team - the trainer, saying that Germany just won because of the "German Mafia" and an attack of the French delegation agfainst a referee (because they thought, he was one of the Swedish referees in the GER-FRA game)...

• http://www.spiegel.de/sport/sonst/0,1518,464389,00.html
• http://www.spiegel.de/sport/sonst/0,1518,463904,00.html

(I couldn't find English articles of that, sorry!)

[Krys TOFF]

Today the German newspaper are writing about the French team - the trainer, saying that Germany just won because of the "German Mafia" and an attack of the French delegation agfainst a referee (because they thought, he was one of the Swedish referees in the GER-FRA game)...

• http://www.spiegel.de/sport/sonst/0,1518,464389,00.html
• http://www.spiegel.de/sport/sonst/0,1518,463904,00.html

(I couldn't find English articles of that, sorry!)

I also heard about that. "German mafia" is way too insultive in my opinion.
Referees did numerous mistakes, that's true, but I think both team would have deserved the draw. I really would have liked to see penalty sessions with the best 2 goalkeepers of the world, both playing at Kiel.

IMO, best team of the WC was Croatia. Regular, efficient, and no motivation loss after their defeat versus France. Not like unmotivated France versus Denmark at the 3rd place match.

[CTG]

I don't know why does France make a problem from this? It's so natural that home team has advantage. Just remember football World Cup 1998 or 2002  ...

[Krys TOFF]

I don't know why does France make a problem from this? It's so natural that home team has advantage. Just remember football World Cup 1998 or 2002  ...

Advantage for South Korea at WC 2002, yes : in quarter-finals. Else, not.

Advantage for France at Football WC 1998 ? Which match ? I don't remember any advantage except the public and motivation of course, but no referees' advantage.
France won this WC in 1998 because our defence, our midfield and our goalkeeper were at their best. And also with some luck : remember the match versus Italy and the penalty session. Goalkeeper Fabien Barthez made France qualified, else we would have been eliminated by Italy.
Our attack during WC 1998 sucked : numerous easy goals missed, mainly by Stephane Guivar'ch who was probably the worst forward of this WC and also because Christophe Dugarry was injured after the 1st match. Thierry Henry almost didn't play during this WC.
It was really a defence/midfield victory :
- who scored versus Denmark ? Youry Djorkaeff and Emmanuel Petit, 2 midfields.
- who scored the golden goal versus Paraguay ? Laurent Blanc, a defender.
- who scored to qualify us versus Croatia in semi-finals ? Lillian Thuram (twice), another defender.
- nobody scored versus Italy, the second best defence of this WC.
- who scored in final versus Brasil ? Zinedie Zidane and Emmanuel Petit, 2 midfields.
Our forwards managed to score only versus Saudi Arabia (Bixente Lizarazu, a defender, also scored during this match) and South Africa. Pathetic.
Overall, 14 goals (penalty session versus Italy doesn't count as real goals) : 5 from forwards (only versus the weakest teams), 5 from midfields, 4 from defenders (and 1 goal against his own team by a South African player that I don't count). 9 of 14 goals not scored by the forwards... Same thing in WC 2006 : 9 goals for France, only 3 from forwards and 6 from midfields but none from defenders.

On the other hand, referees' advantage for France happened in 2006 versus Portugal when they granted the penalty for France in semi-finals.

About handball WC, Spain also made complaints about referees for their match versus Germany in quarter-finals.

[Akoss Poo a.k.a. Zorromeister]

Football WC 98: I also can't remember any referee help to France. They were just lucky. Against Paraguay, against Italy, and against Croatia. In the semi finals, Brazil and France won, the 2 luckier teams... Both the Netherlands and Croatia played better there. 2 good shoots from Thuram - where else did he stroke like that?

WC 2002: Obvious cheating against Italy and Spain for Team South Korea. No more explanation is needed, it's very sad that it could happen.

WC 2006: France got an undeserved penalty in the final, but I doubt that it was cheating, I guess it was only a mistake by the referee. Fortunately, it wasn't enough to beat Italy who became World Champions. But there was a big cheating - and yes, it was the host place, Germany. The WCH should have been organized in South Africa. But on the voting it was 13-12 to Germany. Later it turned out that one of the voters sold his vote to Germany. Without this, South Africa would have been the winner. Germany could keep the previously won right to organize the WC (it's ridiculous... but it's all about business)... but FIFA promised that WC 2010 will surely be somewhere in Africa.

[CTG]

Dirty-smelly Pittsburgh Penguins!

[BonzaiJoe]

American Football...

[misses sleeping smiley]

[CTG]

American Football...

[misses sleeping smiley]

LOL you really hate the big American leagues. Pittsburgh Penguins is an NHL team. Ice hockey.