Goalkeeping 2

How To Position Yourself In The Goal

Assume the basic stance whenever an opponent has possession of the ball within shooting distance of the goal. The stance is similar to a court player's defensive stance. Stand tall with your feet shoulderwidth apart and knees flexed. Your weight should be slightly forward on the balls of your feet and evenly distributed. Keep your arms up and elbows bent with your hands either shoulder or waist high. You will adjust your hands according to the type of shot and your personal preference.

Your movement should provide maximum protection of the goal at all times. Pay particular attention to guarding the short corners of the goal. These are the top and bottom corners closest to the attacker with the ball. Because the attacker is closer to them, the short corners are easier to shoot at than other parts of the goal. For this reason it is important to stay between the attacker with the ball and the short corners. This will force him to take a more difficult shot, which decreases the chance of scoring.

Be aware of the entire offensive situation, but keep your eyes on the attacking player and the ball. Move laterally along an imaginary arc between the two goal posts. Do not move directly along the goal line. A good rule of thumb is to start in the center of the goal, one step out of the goal line. From this position, however, there is no way you can see the goalposts. You must learn to sense where you are in relation to the goal opening. Having your hands up between your shoulders and waist will help you locate the goalposts and determine your position. As the ball is passed from player to player, uses short, quick shuffle steps to mirror the movement of the ball. Be ready to change direction at any time. Paying attention to the defense, the developing offensive situation, and the ball helps you anticipate when and where a shot will be taken.

P.S. Easy to say, slightly more difficult to do. Will try to put pictures with the posts the next time.
P.P.S. Next post, "Blocking Shots".

Vanilla Stars vs Kinta

What a match it proved to be!!

Ferdi has the report :

"Dear Vanilla Stars,

today's match showed us what is Handball all about: "Passion, excitement, great moves
,tactics, important goals and fighting spirit". The match wasn't for the weak or the
faint-hearted. With the equalizer scored in the last three seconds we were able to
draw against Kinta and still leaves us the door open for the semi-finals.

From  the beginning  we knew that this match wouldn't be an easy one and would
require all our skills. Kinta displayed a tactical clever attack and also a solid
defense. With grouping their attacking players at the wings they opened up our
defense in the center and their right and left center back were able to find their
way through to score their share of goals. Therefore not surprisingly they took an
early lead. Only after we took an early time out we got our guts together and we
started to drive the ball and played out our chances. Also our defense became more
solid. Soon we took the lead, which we could extend to 11:8, but a lack of
concentration in the last couple of minutes reduced our advantage to 11:10 at
half-time.

Second half started similar to the first. Kinta took the lead and from there onwards
the lead changed between us and Kinta. No team was able to set off more than two
goals. In the final minute we had a draw 22:22 and Kinta was attacking. Again their
center right troubled our defense and banged a cracker into our net. With only half
a minute to go we had only one chance to equalize. The ball was hurried to the
middle and soon passed to the left wing. From there the ball came to Han who
bravely charged into the Kinta defense. They were only able to stop him via a heavy
foul, which resulted into a penalty for us. The clock showed only 5 seconds when
Romain took the ball and sink it unstoppable into Kinta's goal to secure a draw for
us.

Team & Score board:

Ferdinand D.     6

Ferdinand O.     2

Nicolas          1(?) (I thought he scored 2)

Remi             2

Thomas           1

Han              1

Romain           5

Simon            1

Louis            4

Vincent

Guillaume    (Goalkeeper) 

Next match is on 13.05. against Magnasoul.

Next training is on coming Wednesday, 25.04., from 7pm to 8pm at Wisma OCM.

Go Vanilla Stars Go,

Ferdinand "

Blogger’s note :

1. Was a really enjoyable match. Referees were consistent. Both teams were made of experienced players. Hard attacking, tougher defending. Thanks lots to team Kinta. We might just meet again. Also thanks lots to the referees.
2. Speaking of the referee-ing, just a small, small comment. I can’t understand the rational for some of the referees’ decisions. E.g. When Vanilla Stars are on the attack, Kinta come out to defend. They manage to stop the Vanilla Star player from advancing. Why is it then a ‘free-in’( or should I say ‘free-out’ ) to Kinta? Shouldn’t it be ‘free-in’ to Vanilla Star so that they start the ball again from 9-meter? There was no ‘travel’, no ‘illegal dribbling’ etc, in short no fouls! So why should Kinta get the ball? Another minor detail is that it would be good if the referees made their hand signals clearer (and correct). It became quite confusing especially when teams wanted to start a fastbreak or re-start the game immediately. I’m not complaining though!!! The referees were consistent!! The same happened for Kinta too.
3. To Vanilla Stars, just an observation. I think Ferdinand D. was right when he kept asking us to drive the ball more. Our drives died after a few passes, sometimes after only 2 passes!! Every time we kept it simple and drove the ball, it nearly always resulted in a goal. I take my share of the responsibility. Sorry bout that guys. Another thing is that it was my responsibility to stop Kinta’s Right Center Back. Spoke to Ferdi after the match. Realized that I could have stopped him most times. Should have been experienced enough to realize it during the match. Apologies. Won’t happen again.
4. About team Kinta. Guys, Kinta had only one bench player while we had a full team. We have to also bear in mind that many of the old hands from team Kinta were absent from the game. I didn’t see many of my old friends. I am not sure if the players we saw are the only players that will be playing for the rest of the League. I highly doubt that. It would be good to keep it in mind.

P.S. Internet connection a bit slow today. Will load pictures next time.

Goalkeeping 1

Goalkeeping. A specialized skill not everyone can hone. Most, if not all goalkeepers in Malaysia do not have proper coaches to guide them. Most goalies come from a variety of backgrounds e.g. futsal or basketball. Famous soccer goalkeepers who trained their reflexes by being shot-stoppers in handball teams include Peter Schmeichel ( famous for his star-shaped jump to cover as much of the goal as possible, allowing him to excel in one-on-one situations) and Petr Cech.

Goalkeepers in team handball have to cope with shots coming at them at speeds of up to and over 80mph. It requires all their courage, skill, and exceptional reflexes to stop the ball from entering the net. Goalies are always at a disadvantage.

Why is goalkeeping important?

A poor goalie can make a good team mediocre, and a good goalie can make a mediocre team competitive. Not only are you the last line of defense but also the first attacker in offense because of the responsibility of initiating the fastbreak. Your effectiveness greatly affects the psychological state of your teammates, and your overall performance is considerable influence to team success. Regardless of your success or failure, you must be a leader and display the qualities of confidence, composure, and courage.

Next post : How To Position Yourself In The Goal.

Back To Basics

I thought I'd post a few things to do with playing handball.

Many of us lack the fundamentals of playing in a specific position. What are the wingers supposed to do in a game? What is the optimum position for a goalkeeper when attempting to block a shot from the wing?

I have to emphasize that everything posted is for personal use only. A few of the posts will be based on experience, information on other posts have been gathered from different sources. Hope they are useful, especially to my fellow Malaysians.

P.S. I'll try to include a few tactical plays in the near future.

P.P.S. Again I have to say, I only blog when I feel like it.

P.P.P.S. Also, I DO NOT claim to be an expert in team handball!!

Vanilla Stars VS Cempaka

Again we have to thank Ferdinand for the match report.

"Dear Vanilla Stars,

great match today.

Finally we played the game we wanted to play all the time. Calm, concentrated, converted our chances and with brilliant goalkeeping by Guillaume we played a very good defense. Therefore we were able to cruise to a clear 29:11 victory over Cempaka.

This time we were awake from the beginning and immediately took the lead, which we never gave up until the end. Driving the ball opened up a lot of chances for us and their offensive 5:1 defense played to our strength. We had a balanced squad and from every position we scored. This time it helped us that we had substitutes and everybody could get a rest and their share of play.

The game went into half-time with a 14:8 lead for us and with the start of the second half we continued from where we stopped before the break. With the time passing our defense became more and more invincible and we blocked most of the distance shots from Cempaka. What passed us was collected by Guillaume. Romain and Ferdinand were also able to steal one or the other ball and therefore Cempaka scored only three more goals in the second half.

Sorry no score board this time.

Unfortunately the incident, which happened after the match leaves a bit of a bitter taste to our victory. It is still unclear to me what provoke the referee like that and what led him make such bold statements. I am surprised that we are considered as Expats know-it-all. Looks like showing your emotions during the match the same way as you do in a European league is interpreted differently here in Malaysia. Anyway we need to see what happens in the next matches.

Next training is scheduled for coming Wednesday, 18.04.07 from 7pm to 8pm at Wisma OCM (double confirmed this time).Plan to have another training coming Saturday. Let you know about time and location.

See you,

Ferdinand"

Blogger's Note :

1. Thanks for the match guys. I think my having not touched a ball for the last 2 months showed during the match today. Slow reaction plus indecisiveness. Hope it'll be different when we play Kinta next week. So sorry for missing the last 2 matches. Heard you guys had barely enough to make a full team and ran your asses off for 50 minutes.

2. A referee losing his temper just because a player shows emotions is a sign of a lack of confidence in the referee's own refereeing ability. Thomas has refereed in France. I have refereed in the Irish National League, been a table-official for the 2005 European Challenge Trophy and also the 2003 Special Olympics ( I hate to mention these, and I have always avoided talking about it, I do not mean to belittle anyone but due to circumstances today I am forced to say that I do not know anyone else in Malaysia who has been exposed to this level of play ) . We all know that no referee is perfect, but to lose one's temper over such a trivial matter? I would suggest that if a player complains too much on the court, just give him '2 minutes'. Send him to cool off. If there is anything to discuss, do it after the match.

3. Bold claims by the referee.

• We are in Malaysia, we play by Malaysian rules
• I'll make sure you don't get to play again next year
• Go play in your own country

Sigh...here we go again. Always the "Malaysian Rules". What are the Rules of Handball that Malaysia follow? Are they different from those set by the International Handball Federation? Do you mean that all these years our referees only know the so-called "Malaysian Rules"? Do the referees know the difference between good/legal defence and dangerous play? Any of our referees actually played handball before? Have any of them refereed outside Malaysia? Do any of them DARE to referee outside Malaysia? Will any of our local teams succeed outside Malaysia? I think not. I have played in Italy, albiet at the lower levels. I can safely say that most under-16 clubs in Italy will trash our men's national team. Sad but true.

" I'll make sure you don't get to play next year. " " Go play in your own country." The Vanilla Stars are a team that have been there and done that. Most of us have already played overseas. We are playing together in Malaysia because we like the game, and we are happy that the organizers have allowed us to participate in the league. We don't have anything to prove. We play to get a good game, and if we can win while we're at it, why not?

4. In the last few games, the only grouses we have are that the referees do not protect the players. Players are being pulled back by their shooting arm, or even dragged from behind while in the air, and nothing is being done to the culprit. This is dangerous play and can seriously harm a player.

5. Well guys, guess in a way we can only respect the referee ( respecting his decisions is another matter ) and try not to complain too much. We can't change the way we play definitely because we're not doing anything wrong. If they wanna ban us, well nothing much we can do about it too. Just see how things go.

SECOND LOSS!!!!!!

Vanilla Stars vs Gombak

Again the match report by Ferdi :

"Dear Vanilla Stars,

looks like we still have a fare bit to go before we can show a solid performance over the whole length of a match. 15 minutes in the second half wasn't enough to secure a victory and therefore the Gombak team run away with a 25:23 victory.

The start was already woody as Romain, Ferdinand and Thomas tested the post and cross-bar with some wood-cracking shots, but unfortunately Gombak utilized on our lack of converting our chances and lead immediately 3:0. From there the whole first half we were always trailing one or two goals. Our defence was the weak point in this phase and we conceded easy goals from the wings. Also our 6:0 starting formation wasn't the chinese wall as we planned and some distance shot found there way into our goal. After changing to a 5:1 formation we could at least limit the goals from Gombak's distance shots.

Luckily our attack improved and it was also relatively easy for us to score our goals. Easy driving of the ball, starting from the wings, provided good distance shooting possibilities for the center or center left/right. Thomas was able to capitalize on these opportunities and kept us going at this stage. Though it wasn't enough to take the lead and therefore we went into the break with a 12:15 for Gombak.

It seemed the break brought some fresh concentration to us and suddenly our defense was solid and the conversion of our chances increased. Soon we leveled the score and took over the lead. Again driving the ball from the wings provided us the chances. In addition Romain had some good actions on teh right wing and scored his share of goals in this phase. After 15 minutes in the second half we were leading by 21:17. But suddenly our concentration was gone and we became too easy going. Chances were missed and the defence lacked the bite of the first 15 minutes. Additionally the referees had some decisions, which weren't in our favor and suddenly Gombak leveled again. The last five minutes became hectic and we tried to defend our lead with force instead playing out our chances. Gombak used this for a few fast breaks which finally saved them the victory.

At this stage I like to say thank you to Antoine who supported us in this match as goalkeeper. he adapted fast to the game and did a good job as rookie to handball.

Players in this match and goals :

Ferdinand D. (2)

Ferdinand O. (3)

Nicholas (2)

Thomas (9)

Romain (7)

Simon

Antoine (GK)

Nicolei

Vincent

Other news:

• Training is canceled for coming Wednesday, 21.03.07!!! OCM needs the arena for a different function
• Next training is scheduled for Wednesday, 28.03.07 from 7pm to 8pm at OCM. I'll look for an additional training slot on 31.03. at SportPlaza, PJ. I'll confirm time by end of this week
• Next matches are on 15.04.07 against Cempaka and 22.04.07 against Kinta

Please try to free some time for the trainings.

Go Vanilla Stars, Go

Ferdi "

Blogger's note :

We can't afford any more losses.

L-R:Marini, Tina, Asmiza, Sani, pyh

(A&E ward in Penang GH)