Corona isolated before return
DHB team is in an almost hopeless fight
1/22/2022 8:36 am
After the second defeat in the main round, the end of the European Championship for the German handball players is approaching. It’s fighting against Norway, but the opponent is again a size too big. The names of those who run show that. Nevertheless, goalkeeper Bitter sets a clear goal.
THW Kiel was on one side and Bergische HC on the other. Therefore, the role of favorites was clearly distributed. The outsider fought back with a lot of fight and passion, but it became clear early on that he would have no chance. At the European Handball Championships in Slovakia and Hungary, national associations meet, not club teams – but the home clubs of the participating players often reveal a lot about their quality.
In the defeat of the German handball team against Norway, Kiel’s Sander Sagosen and Harald Reinkind played in the backcourt on the one hand, while David Schmidt and Lukas Stutzke from the BHC struggled on the other. The record champions’ top players were better, Norway won the main round 28:23 and clearly showed the wildly jumbled selection of the German Handball Association (DHB) that the road to becoming a top team will be difficult.
“We have to acknowledge that we now have players in the squad who don’t claim to be among the best in the world,” said Axel Kromer, making it clear how difficult it was to classify the defeats against the Scandinavians and the day before against European champions Spain (23:29) fall. The DHB sports director referred to the flood of subsequent nominations after the violent outbreak of corona within the German team. Against the heavyweights of European handball, there were only seven players in the squad who had originally been nominated for the European Championship. Nine replacements struggled together with the seven remaining, but did not reach the necessary level to be able to win against the top teams.
“Tuition is inevitable”
The 60 minutes against the Norwegians became an unequal fight as the playing time increased. In handball there are backcourt players, wingers, goalkeepers and circle runners – the players in the backcourt are fundamental to victory and defeat, because they shape the game in attack. In this part of the team, the Germans primarily lacked breadth, but also quality. Against the massive cover of the Scandinavians, the Germans could hardly get through when national coach Alfred Gislason was forced to change. Ultimately, the Germans looked like middleweight boxers who have to fight heavyweights – despite fighting and willingness to oppose the stronger, the clout on the other side was much higher.
The German team would have been outsiders before the duels against Norway and Spain even if the Covid 19 pathogen hadn’t mixed up the simulation games of national coach Alfred Gislason so wildly. Nevertheless, the chances and possibilities would have been greater with players like Andreas Wolff, Till Klimpke, Kai Häfner, Julius Kühn and Luca Witzke. The course of the game and the result were predictable for the Icelander on the sidelines. “The team is anything but well-rehearsed. You have to learn the hard way at this level, that’s inevitable,” said Gislason without resentment, but as a matter of course.
After the squad had been reformed, the European Championship was supposed to become a learning tournament anyway (Gislason: “Of course everyone dreams of something. But we always said beforehand that we would go from game to game. That’s how it goes on.”), with an additional one weakened squad, the gap to the best teams on the continent has widened even further.
Are players coming back from isolation?
The possibility of reaching the semi-finals at the European Championships, which was never discussed by the team or team leaders, is negligible and more of a theoretical calculation model than a real option. The tournament is not over yet.
“For us there are four finals in the main round, we spent it that way from the start,” said goalkeeper Johannes Bitter ahead of the remaining duels against World Cup runners-up Sweden (Sunday) and Russia (Tuesday). Twice 60 minutes in which there will be no lack of fight, will and passion from the German team, and in which inexperienced players such as high-flyer Julian Köster from second division club VfL Gummersbach can gain experience at the top international level.
It cannot be ruled out that the squad for the final games in the main round will change. “I have hope that some will test negative tomorrow. That would be like Christmas for me,” said Gislason and his laughter was clearly visible even under the mandatory FFP2 mask. The Icelander hasn’t lost his fun in Bratislava and a total of seven players who originally tested positive for Corona theoretically have the option of being released from isolation before the game against Sweden. Christmas has never been in January, but maybe Gislason will still get a few wishes granted.