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Algeria in pieces
DHB team walks and does magic against the underdog
01/17/2023, 7:24 p.m
The main round ticket and the group victory already in the bag serves Algeria in the preliminary round final as a match opponent: The German handball players win clearly and use the opportunity to save energy and make further fine-tuning for the fight for the World Cup quarter-finals.
A resounding victory and a lot of tailwind: Germany’s handball players have completed the World Cup preliminary round with a flawless record and warmed up for the main round. The team of national coach Alfred Gislason easily defeated outsiders Algeria 37:21 (16:9) and gained additional self-confidence for the fight for the quarter-finals with the third win in the third tournament game.
Circle runner Jannik Kohlbacher was the best German thrower in front of around 1000 spectators in the Spodek Arena with ten goals in Katowice. But the most important news on Tuesday evening was: No player was injured in the sportingly insignificant game. In addition, the players from the second row collected valuable playing time.
Captain Johannes Golla and his team-mates are now fully focused on the main round, in which Germany starts as group winners with a perfect score of 4-0 points. First opponent is Argentina on Thursday. Other opponents in the race for the targeted knockout stage are the Netherlands and Norway. The group of six is completed by the teams from Serbia and Qatar, which the German team had already defeated in the first preliminary round. Only the top two teams advance to the quarterfinals.
“It’s going according to plan”
After the successful preliminary round, “a lot” is possible with the team, said Lukas Mertens on Tuesday on ZDF. The games so far and especially the 34:33 in the endurance test against Serbia have “given us all a strong, big push”.
Keeping the tension high, strengthening the second row, picking up momentum: Gislason’s plan for the end of the preliminary round against the Africans, who are at best second-rate internationally, worked out perfectly. The German starting seven, which the national coach had changed to four positions (Juri Knorr, Mertens, Julian Köster, Kai Häfner out, Luca Witzke, Rune Dahmke, Simon Ernst and Christoph Steinert in), needed a small start-up phase. But with the first DHB lead after exactly seven minutes (4:3), everything went like clockwork.
The defense at the back improved by the minute, and Andreas Wolff scraped a whopping 40 percent of all balls out of the corners in the first half. Up front, players like Djibril M’Bengue and Luca Witzke made their mark on the top scorers list. “It’s a very confident and calm performance,” said DHB sports director Axel Kromer at the break: “On the one hand, we can bring more players into the tournament and, on the other hand, we can protect players. It’s going according to plan.”
In the second section, too, the DHB selection left nothing to burn – and continued to increase the result. Joel Birlehm was allowed to excel in goal. And in attack, left winger Dahmke and backcourt player Paul Drux also scored their first tournament goals.