If ever a nation could will a team to success then a medal would be in the bag for the GB women's handball team. So much has been written, televised, tweeted and blogged about the way the team has come together, sacrificed careers, relationships and friendships just to live out the Olympic dream. The majority of the team members have left the shores of the UK and now play their sport in Denmark, Norway and Germany - often at great expense to themselves.
And after a win over African champions, Angola, in the opening rounds of the six team test event that has been taking place all this week at the Copper Box – as the Olympic handball arena is known – anything seemed possible.
For a moment, the dream of a quarter final place at next year's Games seemed a possibility, and the team, and its fervent band of supporters, walked with a new sense of purpose around the sparkling new venue that will host those aspirations in seven months time.
Dashed hopes
But a loss to Austria on Friday meant the team was playing for a fifth or sixth place rather than a semi-final spot and it was a much more subdued group of players that took to the field against Slovakia on Saturday.
Slovakia, on the other hand, approached the match with a discipline and assertiveness that seemed to rock the GB team from the opening minute. Within the first 45 seconds, Slovakia had exposed the home nation's short comings in defence and were 1-0 up and for most of the first half the GB team were nursing at least a three goal deficit. The score at half-time was 16-9.
Excellent goal-keeping by the Slovakian goal-keeper Trochotour played a big part in the visitors' dominance, but so too did some sloppy catching by the GB players and some often very negligent loss of possession when in attacking positions.
Handball is a game that had a big following in many pockets of the world, notably Northern Europe and Africa. It has only recently gathered steam in the UK and it was only by virtue of London being host nation that the GB men's and women's teams are able to compete next year.
Bringing in the professionals
However, since gaining a place at the Olympics, the team has progressed well, and have become a nation that the other handball teams are now taking seriously as opposition. The team has employed a Norwegian coach and a Finnish assistant and their influence is being seen in both the preparation and the performance.
The key skills in handball are catching, passing and then jumping to unleash a shot while in mid-air. The game relies on fouls - players will run at the defence hoping to either drive past a player or draw a foul, resulting in a free shot. As a sport, it resembles a mixture of netball and rugby, and as a high-scoring game it is a good spectator sport.
In this game, there was a second half improvement by the GB side, but the final score of 22-17 to Slovakia and confirmation that the GB side were sixth out of six, demonstrated that there is much work to be done. A more disciplined defence, stronger ball-handling skills and more intrinsic patterns of play are desperately needed if this team is to achieve it's Olympic dreams and four years of sacrifice, team building and training is to be rewarded.
Sarah Juggins - A magazine editor, blogger and freelance journalist, Sarah Juggins writes with authority and accuracy on a range of subjects.
