Handball goalkeeper as first participant in the offensive process

Introduction: Handball has been suffering constant evolution due to transformations in its physical and tactical dimensions and within the internal or logic game structure interpretations, as is the case with its regulation. In fact, the goalkeeper is no longer focused solely on avoiding goals, does becoming the first participant in his team's attacking process, making the game more dynamic and potentiating new attacking systems, to achieve the team's competitive success. Objective: Assess the goalkeeper’s importance in modern Handball’s offensive construction, analyze the attack-defense replacement moments for the goalkeeper’s re-entry, identify the athletes who are more often replaced for the goalkeeper´s entry in the competition context. Methods: Observational methodology (Anguera et al., 2000; Anguera, 2003) and Sequential Game analysis (Sarmento et al., 2013) were used to observe the athletes’ behaviors and actions. To collect opinions, attitudes and the participants representations, the interview technique (Santos & Lima, 2019) was used and subsequently, content analysis was carried out (Bardin, 2009). The study group comprises of three coaches working in two Portuguese Handball main divisions and with the highest international technical qualification of the European Handball Federation (EHF). Two teams from the National Handball Championship 1 (PO01) and a third formation of the 2nd National Division Championship were also analyzed. Results: The replacement moment for the goalkeeper’s re-entry takes place due to the side of the bench where the game is happening, the area in which the action is completed, the involved athletes in finalizing situation or in the finalization itself. Conclusion: The attack-defense substitution for the goalkeeper’s re-entry is not carried out by a pre-defined athlete by the coach, but according to the opponent’s defensive behavior and the decision-making of the teammates. Therefore, the coaches of this study tend to create exercis