Chalk and cheese

Four days, five flights, two cities, one hundred and twenty minutes of handball can all be pared down to three words. 

Chalk and cheese.  

There is no better phrase to contrast both matches over the weekend. And although both games had a similar score line (Vardar 20:22 Kielce; PSG 24:24 Veszprem) the first was a snooze fest, the second a "seat of the pants, roller coaster ride".

The first game in Vardar promised so much. The dismantling of Plock, by Vardar, in the last round, gave rise to hope among the faithful. It was short lived. Vardar seem to have "jumped the shark" as they say. A brief explanation might be in order. It is a term that was coined by a TV critic way way back. In the series "Happy Days, the "Fonz", while water skiing, jumped a shark and this particular critic used the phrase to signify that the show never got any better after that. 

If Vardar had "jumped the shark" against Plock, then they were brought crashing down to earth by Kielce. Having watched the game, my feeling is (although the score line would suggest the contrary) that the defences were not on top. In my opinion nothing could be further from the truth. The attacks were toothless.

The backline of Vardar so elegant in the previous games, played too narrowly and forgot that they had wingers. The sense I got was that they were playing four against six in every attack. Sterbik, on 50% by the 45th minute, was the reason they were still in the game, but when he faltered, due to the classiness of Strlek, it all fell apart for Vardar. Sego, in goal for Kielce, matched the stats of Sterbik, even though he seemed to have a quieter game. 

It's fair to say that Strlek lit the blue paper for Kielce and his super individual goal rallied his team from their lethargy and they never looked back. 

Fast forward twenty four hours to Paris and "Ooh la la" we had a game worthy of match of the week. PSG have found some "Va va Voom" and don't Veszprem know it. Veszprem always looked a class above their French opponents throughout the game. Better goalkeeper, better defence, better team attack and the most incisive counter attacking I've seen in many a day. 

Charles de Gaulle once asked "How can you govern a country that has 246 varieties of cheese". Philippe Gardent must ask himself the same question about this team.

So how come they drew? Because this Paris team, this year, right now, does not know when it's beaten. They have class, individual talent and a nose for when it's time to exploit frailties. In short they have discovered that they have heart and pride. Will it be enough to see them through next week? Maybe, because Veszprem went from having the tie in their pocket, to a knockout hammer blow on the final whistle. The tie stands at 0:0 and PSG won't be thinking of anything except winning a game. There have no advantage to hold onto and no total to chase. 

Would we have it any other way? I'm not going to bore you with stats and totals, just get a free hour and watch the game. Enjoy it, milk the atmosphere, and be thrilled by the fare that was on offer.  

It was a weekend that renewed my fervour for handball. It has a way of doing that. The chalk of Saturday was replaced by the cheese of Sunday. 

And like any good cheese, it's riddled with holes. A bit like both defences on Sunday and probably this blog as well.