A private fan site.

The Danish national team in women's handball

Calendar:

It is no longer coach Jan Pytlick's aim to win a medal when Denmark hosts the European Championship 2010. The ever optimistic man has finally realised, that the previous team cannot live up to the expectations. Especially because the few remaining veterans all have resigned, either due to injuries or because they consider their profit making clubs more important than playing for their country. Henriette Mikkelsen and Katrine Fruelund had both promised to stay until 2010 but have both resigned. Since then, Mette Sjøberg has also declared, that she finds the national team a waste of time. Fruelund is excused becaused of injuries, but the rest are not. Instead the goal now is: A medal at the Olympics 2012. Another example is Rikke Skov, who may be our most important player now. She has too many injuries to continue, but tried to participate on and off last year, with a bad result. Pytlicks patience with her is about ending now. Also Touray has so many injuries, that she is almost non existant. Pytlick has to think of how he can get a more permanent team to work with, people who really care for the national team and will give all it takes to build up the team, regardless of money. Pytlick admits, that it is his hardest time ever as coach.

Sorry about this terrible decline in standards on this site - I have really not bothered making the required updates and developments for the last couple of years. Perhaps it has got something to do with the downslide in the standards of the national team itself, which does not give rise to much enthusiasm with even the most dedicated fans. There really is not much worth writing about!

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A small overview of the European Championship 2008. Seven debutants are on the team list, so there will be much good and bad to witness. A promising future or the end of the line for Danish handball? Old friends are still to be found on the team, though. Like Fruelund, Mortensen, Mikkelsen and Skov.

However, the latest Møbelringen Cup has put some sparks back into the eyes of handball fans, as the new young Y-team players tested actually give great hopes for the future team. France, Russia, Germany and Hungary beaten (in spite of their new teams as well) and only crashing against the big wall by the name of Norway. Note the name of Lærke (Larch in English) Møller, as she will be singing high above the clouds soon. It was good practise meeting some of the countries which we will face initially during the ECh.

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Former national coach Brian Lyngholm was made to resign after complaints by the players (he quit before he received his formal resignation). The members of the team do not say much to the press about their meeting, but it is said that they have "lost confidence" in their new coach after the defeat in the EC - maybe because his management style was too strict and in opposition to the players' idea of democratic management.

The previous successfull trainer Jan Pytlick first promised to take over during the qualification matches but now he has decided to take up his old job as national coach on a permanent basis. This is the best solution possible and the players are happy to have him back. Lyngholm was given the job in February 2006 and was at that time a popular choice amongst the players. He had his chance with 18 national matches before his resignation. He is on leave from his job as an accountant. Earlier, he was a.o. trainer for Viborg 92-94, assisting national team trainer 1995, training Virum 95-97 and 99-2001 plus assisting trainer for Slagelse 2003-5.

See the team photo on DHF's site and the individual portraits.

The European Championship in 2010 will be hosted by Denmark and Norway in unison. The matches will be equally divided between the two countries, whereas the finals will be played in Denmark.

Bits'n pieces

Court diagram - clumsy drawing, but hopefully of some use in understanding this strange game.

It is said that handball was invented by some Danish pupils, but it was their gym teacher, Holger Nielsen,who in 1906 puplished the rules for this "school game". In the 30's the game was more widely known and in 1933, the first international rules arrived, which more or less are the same as today. After the second World War, more and more teams were organized in the Danish Handball Federation. In 1985 it peaked with a total of 163.000 active players in Denmark.

Katrine Fruelund has stopped on the nation team after 181 matche and 11 years. The 3-year old player has won gold at the Olympics twice and has made Denmark European Champions in 2002. Her injuries has made her break her promise to the national coach to continue helping to build up the new young team until 2010. She plays for Randers on a daily basis, and her stop on the national team may give her another year there.

What about..?

Remember, that there are much more info on my Danish site about literature, video and CD-Rom products - but alas...all in Danish. Just in case you are really curious.

News about Camilla Andersen is not a priority anymore, as she is no longer part of the national team and has quit the sport alltogether. She is perhaps, next to Anja Andersen, the most well-known Danish player. In August 2005 she played her farewell match for Slagelse with old friends from league teams and the national team. In the future, she will spend all of her time working in her sports travel agency.

Ulrik Wilbek is by the way now trainer for the men's national team after proving his worth as the one who brought the Danish women to the top of international handball. He had recently been asked to assist Viborg's coaching education, but after the dismissal of his wife Susanne, he no longer wishes to work for his old club.

Rikke Hørlykke stopped her career with Slagelse in June, due to pregnancy (it is a boy, so no new talents on the women's team with those genes). Rikke stopped on the national team after the World Championship in Russia and has won everything of importance after a long career. Apart from being a good player and important playmaker, Rikke was always in the front line in the media, where she rarely refused to participate in all sorts of programmes and talkshows. A happy and tough girl, always looking good and always with a fast remark. Now she can be seen as one of the hosts in a weekly handball programme on tv - her partner is no other than Camilla Andersen.

Anja Andersen

Anja Andersen is still the most unique player and handball idealist, that Denmark has ever had. For eight years she had been coaching Slagelse. Now she has turned to a new project, FCK Handball, which she will give the same treatment as Slagelse, building it up from scratch. In return, she will have much more time to take care of the training, leaving all the other tasks to the big machinery of the FCK business.

When Anja started coaching Slagese, she promised to reach various goals, eg. to win the Danish championship, The EHF Cup and Champions League. This she has achieved several times.

Only her most ambitious plans of an alternative league system have not been carried out - yet. She would also like to try to coach a men's team. Read the news about Anja Andersens plans, battles and defeat.s

Championships

Theme pages:

The European Championship 2006 took place in Sweden. The winner was Norway, which was deserved. Second place was Russia and third France. Read more on www.euro06.com and in my news section.

World Championship 2005 We only got a fourth place! After this World Championship, is was the end of the road for Mette Vestergaard, Ditte Andersen and Rikke Hørlykke.

Olympic 2004 theme and the overview page

World Championship 2003

European Championship 2002

World Championship 2001

The embarrassing European Championship 2000. Comparisons with previous championships can be done on my results pages.

Olympics 2000. Read also about the entertaining experiences of an Australian guy, who went to a couple of handball matches and got converted!

See the photos from the pre-Olympics in Sydney 1999, taken by Sam Joergensen, Australia. Then try the jigsaw puzzle made out of one of them!

I was there, when Anja's Dream Team came to Roskilde on 17th. May 2000. See the photos.