2018 European Championship - France

[Germanicus]

The plan was that the following four teams would play the semifinals: Norway, Germany, Denmark, and France.

NOR, DEN and GER did not reach the semifinals. So EHF failed

[HB9]

Crina Pintea shared an article, written in English, on her Facebook page with the comment "Everything is true!!".

[wossen]

This is the article of the clearly anonymous-account, named Emilia Barbu. Pintea wrote at Thursday night (one day... after the injury of Cristina Neagu) : Everything is true (https://www.facebook.com/Crina.Pintea.6)

The day the earth stood still

I am not the type of person to believe in a certain conspiracy. Although I had always thought Romania should have won gold by now, I felt like we had a psychological problem, a fear of winning, a sort of incapacity to put the icing on the cake. Even I saw the referees were whistling against us from time to time, I just took it as part of the game, thinking if we were good enough, we could beat them no matter what. Even after I saw what happened in London 2012 at the Olympic Games in the game between Montenegro and Norway, when Montenegro was obviously robbed by the referees from winning their well-deserved gold medal, I said to myself and hoped that was an accident. Do you know why I have hoped for that? Because we come from ex-communist country, we look after you, we want to be like you, we want to be like the great countries of Europe that respect value, the law, the rights of people and freedom. The hopes and values I've had seem to vanish one by one. How naive and blind of me to have built such a sand castle of your so-called "values". I was probably living on a cloud! It's just about interests and money, isn't it?! I see it clearly now.

You were planning the semi-finals to be played by Norway, Germany, Denmark and France. You wanted the final to be between Norway, since it is the all-time spoiled country in handball and France, since EH Cup takes place on their homeland.Unfortunately for you, whether you like it or not, Russia is such a powerful country, they have such a strong back, you simply can't rob it. So Denmark was left out. After you saw how Romania found their rhythm and played some galactic handball in the first week, you decided to change the rhythm.Whoever played any kind of sport knows that changing rhythm is the most exhausting thing to do. So you gave them a huge break to diminish their mental thrive for winning, getting them out of shape and rhythm. And it worked. You probably asked a very good psychologist for "the solution" - just make them mentally and physically tired. So you decided to change again, but not only the rhythm, but the referees too. Romania had to adjust to that too. No 7 meters for Romania, no 2 min-suspensions for the Spanish players, you made Eliza Buceschi, one of the most technical and intelligent players appear like a totally dumb and bad player, repeating the so-called "assault fault" for at least 7 times, which was absolutely outrageous, the faults against Cristina Neagu and Pintea remained invisible.

You made Crina Pintea,a mountain of force and will, the player of the match, burst into tears at the end of the match, because she knew she wasn't only playing with her demons, the Spanish players, but with some other powers that have nothing to do with sport. Even with all that Romania managed to win somehow, against all odds and schemes.

Afterwards, you changed the rhythm again, making Romania not even have a day break . Of course, you put a lot of pressure on its engine: Cristina Neagu. Hungary, besides their will to win, had another job, to continue with the plan: fault, fault, fault and make them tired. Then, minute 52, that minute our hearts and world stood still. When Cristina cried out of pain...what a terrible moment for her and us, what a joy and relief for the other countries, since we all know that France didn't want to play with Romania. I can't blame the other countries, because they all want to win and they know Romania team has just lost its best player. You didn't expect Cristina might get injured, you were planning for her to be exhausted, but that was like a God sent for EHF. EHF were just rubbing their hands, jumping for joy, thanking for "the divine plan". "I-a fulgerat deodată-n gând/ Să râdă, căci vedea plângând/ O lume-ntreagă-n rugăciuni. /În fața unei gropi s-aduni /Atâta lume de nebuni/Să mori râzând...".

You were just laughing out, trampling on our tears, hearts and hopes. That is unforgettable and unforgiven. But it wasn't enough, was it? You had to mark that somehow by not including Cristina Neagu, Buceschi, Dumanska and Dedu in the nominees for the stars team. Destroying our statue isn't a good plan at all. That was a great mistake. We celebrated 100 years this month and you might think we are nothing, too young, too small, but we are here for thousands of years and if you think we are going to give up now, you are nothing further from the truth.

You can't put us down, since we have strong roots. You don't understand one thing. Cristina isn't just the best player in the world, a good example for the young generation, a package of will, strenght, intelligence, energy and faith, she is the definition of sport, spirit and soul. Her awesomeness doesn't come just from the shots, assists, training. If you think Cristina is just a shoulder or a knee, you couldn't be more wrong. She suffered for 3 years, she can do it again, because she is absolutely fantastic and we will support and protect her. if you think fans adore her, just because she has great goals, you don't understand anything about handball! There is one thing you can't do against her. You can't amputate her soul. Don't have a party yet, because Cristina will do the "unthinkable". "Thunderbolt" isn't dead, nor is Romania. She will beat you from the bench, giving all her energy, soul to her mates, to meet all their dreams. If she does that, there is nothing else you can do, but to give her "the medal of honour" that she really deserves.

Well, some aspects are remarkable and able to be discussed (e.g. the non-nomination of Neagu for the pre-selection of the all-star-team is a scandal!...thr referees againt spain, hm.....and I think, it's a authentic document for romanian thinking and mentality (beyond the press and the international craving for admiration of the romanian institutions)

[HB9]

I would have read it (must be a masochist), but the abstinence of paragraphs is making this impossible to read for me.

[wossen]

No work - no discussion

Okay, I insert paragraphes as service

[frenchy]

Romanian paranoïa !


A fRENCH POPULAR SENTENCE SAY:

You see the mote in your brother's eye, but you do not see the beam in your own eye'.

[swarthofole]

sorry, I must be dumb, but where do GER fit in this picture?
and how in the hell could EHF possibly know ROU will win the Group Stage and have only a couple of hours between their last games?
I bet there is no Romanian fan out there who'd have thought about winning against NOR on 1st of December...
yeah, the refs were bad against ESP, but I witnessed so many mistakes this ECh, a conspiracy theory is just a bad joke. the refs are simply bad. and it seemed a bit they hunted Crina on that particular game (but I also think the other teams learned how to defend her and her game suffered a bit in the last 5 games).
I agree though some refs are prone to errors when it comes to some teams and some of the teams (almost) never get screwed.

[wossen]

@frenchy: Well, such undifferenced statements without any try of understanding a perspektive and the romanian handball and society cause a 'romanian paranoia'

@swartofhole: It was expected, that the first of the groups C and D are the natural rivals of the french team.. Unfortunately not Norway was first - so the Netherland and Romania were the victims of the schedule.

[swarthofole]

@swartofhole: It was expected, that the first of the groups C and D are the natural rivals of the french team.. Unfortunately not Norway was first - so the Netherland and Romania were the victims of the schedule.

of course they could've thought about this, but this doesn't mean they were against ROU, but against the team who will be the strongest...
and where are the Germans here? why Germany is the chosen one?

[wossen]

It is a emotional statement...but interesting..- look, what is correct in the posting! See the good and interesting aspects..

No one in western or north Europe is interested to harm especially romanian handball, because nobody is interested in romanian handball - there is arrogance against south-east-europa, that are balkan and east european people, who must be instruct in western and northern lifestyle and should take the culture ...(e.g. through the EU)

But the 'great french story' - yes, that is in great interest for the EHF and the organizers

[swarthofole]

if you ask me NED would be a better candidate for that. they have a much better team than GER right now.
but this is exactly the crap our politicians are ranting, so if you put that monologue in this light...

it's easier to say the westerners plotted against your super-team, instead of admitting you were playing shitty for 5 games out of 8 and Neagu is like 80% of your team.

[red and white]

.....and I think, it's a authentic document for romanian thinking and mentality

Based on the representation by (some) Romanian users on this forum, this is exactly what it is! For me it appears as narcissism (everyone is against us) combined with an inferiority complex. Truth be told, it´s getting very tiring to listen to. Just because this is how you feel, doesn´t make it true. Pintea is embarrasing herself, but that´s her prerogative.

[wossen]

No, the basis is more than (some) romanian users on this forum. But I don' t want to give a introduction in the very complex romanian politics and history (which I only know a little)...this is not the place therefore...(for a first impression the translation of the deeply dark lyrics of the national anthem is interesting)

Sure, 'romania' has an "inferioity complex", they know their reputation in the uninformed world - but not all romanians are the same, it seems, it is in the moment a deeply split society...They know/think: 'the world' is prejudiced 'against' romania - and many romanians be prejudiced back against the world (and e.g. romas/tigani...)

But if we want to understand european handball, we must take into the considerations the different cultures (all cultures are equal in their differences, no one is superior)

I think. this is the key to understand the posting which was parted by Pintea (and to understand hungarian/romanian/german or danish handball - CSM, Györ or Thüringer HC)

Sorry for the off-topic, what is on-topic (from my side, I don't make the discussion deeper here)

[beny]

Wow! To have such a debate about Romanian.politics/ people/ psychology based on a single emotional oppinion! I do not remember such deep analyses /comments about the Norway after comments of Mr 007 about Romania -Netherland match ...

[Hajas]

Crina Pintea shared an article, written in English, on her Facebook page with the comment "Everything is true!!". It explains how the EHF did everything to prevent Romania from winning the EC. (They probably had a very good psychologist helping them, too.) The plan was that the following four teams would play the semifinals: Norway, Germany, Denmark, and France. Neagu's injury wasn't planned, Hungary's job was just to make the Romanians tired. And so on - an interesting article.

Dear Romania. You dont win a s**t by beating Norway. A tournament last over 2 weeks. Next time bring more than 4 players and a stable NT coach

[dravo]

Im romanian aswell but if u know a lot about handbal u should recognise we still have a lot to work to join The top. I think this place is owned by Neagu.. And the shine of some players in some matches. We were not consistent +we play very, very slow+we make a lot of turnovers. After Neagu injury we could see what others players can do(some of them cant even give a normal assist).
I think its too much... we didnt expect to make even the semifinals so what are talking about.
Im a fan of our NT for more than 15 years so this all time i've got so many dissapointments that i started too see the reality
I heard some players that didnt even play more than 20 min the whole tournaments that they are tired.
We find all the time some reasons to forget the failure!

[Domokos Pál]

Wow, a lot of reactions to a funny article. I promise I'll write one the next time, I like the genre. (Maybe with reptilians to give it more depth and explanatory power.)

And good luck to Crina with the five all-time spoiled Norwegians in Győr!

[Silviu]

So Neagu did not even deserve a nomination to the 'best left back' category, yet she "excelled at the EHF EURO" after all. EHF...

[Gojira]

Some unfinished business

http://eurohandball.com/article/31959