And STARS Collide.....

Semi Final 1 : Vanilla Stars vs KL Stars

Blogger's note :

First match of the day against the KL Stars. A team we've played against before....and lost. Heard we're gonna be without Thomas and Nicolas and Guilliame and Gonzague again.

Match is only 10 minutes per half. 20 minutes for a semi-final match?????!!!! What the heck? Thats less a half in a proper tournament! Louis, you're gonna have to re-produce the last 10 minutes of our previous match from the very beginning this time. That will open chances for the rest of the team as well. We can't afford to let our guard down. Crisp and sharp passes. It is an all-or-nothing match.

I think quite a bit of emphasis has been placed on the standard of refereeing in general. Might turn out to be a good match after all.

P.S. Romain!!!! Abstinence for one night!!! No partying on Saturday night!!!!!! No beer too!!! If I'm not mistaken, our match is at 8 a.m. on Sunday morning! haha
P.P.S. Not sure if this post will do us good. Just a reminder to keep us psyched up I suppose.

Pre- SEA Games Update

I received a report from Mr. Ng Num Thiam who is the current Malaysian National Coach and also secretary of the MAHA ( Malaysian Amateur Handball Association ).

"Subjek: Result of Pre-SEA Games handball competition with Thailand from 15-16 June 2007

Good news from the Malaysia handball men's team in Thailand! The Pre-SEA Games handball competition with Thailand team in Bangkok yesterday gave us a high sprit of "Malaysia Boleh" when the men's team thrashed the Thai national team with a score of 41-22.
A total of 17 players and 2 officers headed by national handball coach, Mr.Ng Num Thiam, and team manager, Mr. Wong Yung Seng, said the team had been formed since last year's national handball league and national handball championship.From the 17 players took part in the Pre-SEA games competition, 80% are new faces, only 3 players from the last Vietnam SEA Games remain in the squad.
According to Mr.Ng, the players are under the 2nd phase of training now interverly on Wednesday, Friday and Sunday at OCM/NSI.
The top scorers in yesterday matches were Ler Thiam Huat, Liang Gin Hua, Toh Yip Fatt and Muhd Khairul Hafidzin Wahab where each of them scored 8 goals each.The 2 goalkeepers also performed well were Raymond Tan Chiau Hee and Teh Hup Heng.
The second matches was played this morning with the score of 34-17, also won by Malaysian team.Our players were given the opportunity to try at various position with strategies that will be used during the coming SEA games in December.
We had observed the strong and weak points of the oppornent and will correct our weak points as well.Hopefully this early matches can inspire and give us a high moral support to our teams that had targeted to go into the final in the SEA games 2007 in Bangkok.
The next pre-SEA Games matches will be with the Singapore teams on 8 July 2007.Good luck Malaysia.
NG NUM THIAM
National handball coach. "

Blogger's note :

I wasn't there to watch the match. So I can't comment. But if this is a gauge of what is to come, I would say the the Malaysian team has improved much.

Will put up more when I am updated.

Vanilla Stars vs KL Stars

Match-up of stars? Apparently not!

Again the match report by Ferdi :

"Hi Vanilla Stars,

One good half wasn't enough against KL Star to
win the match. KL Star beat us by 24:19. Especially in
the first half we had difficulties to
break their 3:2:1 defence and score our share of goals.
With Thomas sick we were missing our usual left-handed
fire power from the center right position. Louis tried
to fill his space, but we felt it that this wasn't his
natural position. In addition the chances we had we missed to goal
or were saved by the KL Star goal keeper. Eventhough
our defense was good with Ingvar as  our hijacked
goalkeeper we soon were trailing behind KL Star. The
first five minutes the scores was still balanced with 4:4,
but than the goal drought started and we were trailing
a 14:5 behind KL Star at half time. In addition Nicolas
got injured and wasn't able to play anymore. The signs
didn't look so good for the second half.

However our attack improved and we were able to reduce
the score difference goal by goal. Ferdinand started
of with a few nice goals from 9 m and Louis, now
playing at his usual center left position, found his way
through the KL Star defence and scored 4 goals in a row.
Still the high goal difference from the first half  was
too high to turn this match around and KL Star
deserved the victory.

Scoreboard: Ferdinand D. 6, Louis 4, Romain 8, Nicolas 1,
Ferdinand O.,Remi, Gonzague, Simon, Ingvar, Han

Looking at the results from the other matches we are still
on track for the semi-finals. Gombak lost against Kinta
which makes us equal on points but we have the better
goal difference.

Standing after 8 matches:

1. KL Star         8-0-0        16 pts

2. Kinta             7-1-1        15 pts

3. Harun Boys   4-2-2         10 pts

4. Vanilla Stars  4-1-3           9 pts

5. Gombak        4-1-3          9 pts

6. Cempaka      4-0-4           8 pts

7. UPSI            3-1-4           7 pts

8. Magnasoul    2-1-5            5 pts

Pemuda and UTHOM have withdrawn already.

This week no training. To many feel the strain of the
long and hard season;-) Keep you updated when the next
training is planned.

Next matches:

Sunday, 24.06.07 at 2pm against UPSI (last league game)
Sunday, 01.07.07 two matches (semi-final and final).
Exact time not clear yet

Please mark them in your calender. Looks like we are
going to miss Nicolas, Gonzague and Guillaume for these
two matches already.

Talk to you later,

Ferdinand"

Blogger's note :

Not sure what to say guys. Total breakdown in the first half. A highlight of the game has to be Loius's performance. Huge difference compared to the previous game. Keep it up!

Random

Random.

Been busy lately. Lack of updates etc. 2 more matches to go. Will wait to see if we make the semi-finals of the Malaysian National Handball League. Paediatrics is fun.

Pics from National Irish League 2006/2007 :

St Pats vs Dagda
(notice the defense. tough defense from the FRONT!! face-to-face confrontation. not cheap shots from the side or from the back. no arm pulling. )


Jakub ( St Pats ) takes shot.
Notice the defense ( no hacking from behind!!! esp. when the opponent is in the air! )



2007 Irish National Handball League Champions!
Beat Dagda 27-26 in a pulsating final

UCD Handball Team 2006/2007

Tor taking a shot on a fast break during one of league matches. Defending him is Marco Volt (ex-Estonian national player). Notice the size of a proper handball court (UCD Sports Center). Makes a difference in offense and defense.

Saint Patrick's Handball Club 2006/2007 Irish National Handball League Champions