Qatar is a power in handball, at least in Asia. The Vice World Champion from 2015 is unbeatable there. But the team keeps setting highlights on the world stage. And usually at the expense of the German team. Now we meet again.
Dagur Sigurdsson gave German handball its last big highlights: A group of outsiders, which was decimated more and more during the tournament, made the Icelander surprisingly European champion in January 2016, a few months later Germany won the bronze medal at the Olympic Games in Rio. It was a brilliant phase for the DHB team. But the Sigurdsson era ended with a shock. It ended frustratingly and surprisingly early in the round of 16 of the 2017 World Cup. “It’s by far the biggest disappointment. Of course we all would have expected more,” Sigurdsson said at the time.
His team lost 20:21, and the tenure of the national coach, who then moved to Japan, ended with the final whistle. “We controlled the game until the middle of the second half, so it’s really, really a shock for us to lose the game.” His team was behind exactly once: at 20:21, the final result.
Now they meet again: At the start of the 2023 World Cup (6 p.m./ZDF and in the live ticker on ntv.de), which should start for the DHB team in Poland and ideally end in Sweden at the medal games. But nobody has forgotten the last bankruptcies.
“That’s something to remember”
“I’ve already experienced a few competitive games against Qatar. We couldn’t win at the 2015 and 2017 World Cup. You should remember that,” warned DHB sports director Axel Kromer, once assistant coach under Sigurdsson, about the rival. “These are definitely not walk-in customers.” Already in 2015 they lost to Qatar at a World Cup. 24:26, in the quarter-finals, against the hosts, who had upgraded their team in a way that was absurd but according to the rules in handball: just four players in the squad for the WM-20. from 2013, who lost for the first time in his own country only in the final two years later – against record world champions France.
The way there was paved by the Montenegrins Zarko Markovic and Goran Stojanovic, world-class goalkeeper Danijel Saric, a Bosnian, the French Bertrand Roiné, the Spaniard Borja Vidal Fernández and the Cuban Rafael Capote. Because in handball, unlike in football, where you can only play senior international matches for a single country, you only need a three-year international break to change nations, Qatar was able to put together a powerful all-star team. Supposedly there was 100,000 euros for each World Cup game won – per player. In handball, where mid-six-figure annual salaries are reserved for the absolute top stars, that’s a huge amount of money.
Coach Valero Rivera, whom Qatar stole from world champions Spain after the 2013 World Cup, is said to have received millions for his commitment up to the 2015 World Cup final. The Spaniard, who had a loud group of fans flown in from his homeland for his team at the home World Cup and drummed for his team, will still be working for Qatar in 2023.
And if you believe Silvio Heinevetter, it wasn’t just the sporting staff that the Qataris paid for. “We couldn’t win today,” said the then professional at Füchse Berlin after Sky’s bankruptcy. The goalkeeper alluded to the performance of the Macedonian referees Gjorgji Nachevski and Slave Nikolov. “We’re still guests here, so you have to be careful what you say. But anyone who has seen the game and has any idea knows what I’m thinking.” The Austrian coach Patrekur Johanesson didn’t want to “comment on the referees” after his team’s defeat in the round of 16 (27:29) against Qatar, but did so with his forecast for the further course of the tournament: “I think Qatar will be world champion .” It didn’t quite get that far back then.
“Win is a must”
So now it’s Germany against Qatar again. With Rafael Capote, the squad of the Asian champions is still a remnant from the team from 2015 and 2017. In 2015, the Cuban in Qatar’s jersey almost shot Germany out of the tournament alone with eight goals, in 2017 the powerful giant even scored nine times – and thus scored almost half his team’s goal. “Qatar have a technically talented and experienced team that is also physically very strong. They have a lot of throwing power from the back,” said national coach Alfred Gislason now.
Capote is there, the 35-year-old continues to shoulder the brunt of the Qatar attack. Mainly because Frankis Carol Marzo, the top scorer of the last World Cup, is missing. In 2021, Qatar, which has been unchallenged in Asia for many years, ended in the quarter-finals, the German team had finished twelfth in Egypt, the worst World Cup placement in its history.
Qatar is not as strong as it has been in previous years. A win is a must – and would definitely help us with a view to the other tasks,” said Bob Hanning, one of the makers of the last German handball fairy tale under Sigurdsson, the “kicker”.
“… but that will work itself out”
But Gislason warned: “The fact is, we have to play a really good game for 60 minutes to beat them.” A German team has never managed that at a World Cup against Qatar. So now a new start. In the last tests against Iceland (30:31 and 33:31), the DHB team had given back clear leads within a short time. The insight from the two games: The second suit is not quite right: “We are not so well established in width. But that will settle down because we will have to rotate,” said the national coach. In particular, playmaker Juri Knorr, who is capable of great things, has to stabilize at a high level in his first major tournament in a prominent role if Germany wants to achieve something countable.
“We need an aggressive and agile defence. If we can do that, we can put pressure on the opponent’s attack and we will almost certainly get a good goalkeeping performance,” Gislason. He didn’t want to go into any more detail about how the Qataris could be cracked this time, at least “not in a press conference. The Qataris are technically quite talented, and of course they can record it here.”
Assistant coach Erik Wudtke went into detail in his public analysis before the tournament started: “They are a mixed team, with two different backcourt rows and therefore have different strategies. One strategy is a throw-oriented, physically very present backcourt row with Rafael Capote in the left backcourt and Jovan Gachevic on the right, they are real shooters. The alternative are three technically skilled attackers from the back who come a lot from one-on-one situations.”
“We don’t have to hide from anyone”
In defense against keeper Anadin Suljakovic (HSG Wetzlar, born in Bosnia-Herzegovina), Qatar “want to constantly cause unrest and provoke fouls in front of them in order to win the ball and score counter-attacks.” On the other hand, the 6-0 defense offered by the team should suit the German team, which traditionally has problems with more offensive defensive formations. But as the national coach says: If you don’t want to have another bad day against Qatar, you can only do that through constant performance.
Two players who have both experienced Qatar trauma will also be in the German squad in 2023: right winger Patrick Groetzki and backcourt player Paul Drux. Groetzki had missed the great opportunity to equalize seconds before the final whistle in 2017, Drux was in a major tournament for the first time in 2015 as a 19-year-old. Now, eight years later, the Berliner is one of the experienced players in the squad – and optimistic: “We have a hungry and strong squad,” said Drux, making a small declaration of war on the competition: “We approach the tournament with humility, we have to but don’t hide from anyone.”
But the start of the preliminary round, in which Germany still meets Serbia (15.1.) and Algeria (17.1.), is complicated: they were recently Asian champions five times in a row and superstar Capote is also optimistic for the World Cup: “The colours Wearing Qatars is a matter of pride,” he told The Peninsula in mid-December, adding: “We believe we have everything it takes to get ahead in our group.” What you should also remember from a German point of view: In 2016, framed by the two bitterest defeats in recent German World Cup history, a DHB selection beat the reigning vice world champion Qatar in the Olympic quarterfinals – 34:22.