DHB excited in World Cup preliminary round
The pride is now “extreme”, the opportunity is huge
By Felix Meininghaus, Katowice
01/17/2023, 8:45 p.m
The DHB selection completed a preliminary round at the Handball World Cup in Poland and Sweden without any faults or blame. After the 37:21 thrashing of Algeria, Argentina, the Netherlands and Norway are now waiting in the intermediate round.
Coaches probably have to be like this: no matter how well things are going for their own team, no matter how reliably they deliver, they always feel compelled to raise their index finger in warning. According to the old Herberger motto: The next opponent is always the hardest. Alfred Gislason, coach of the German national handball team, is no exception. After the groundbreaking win against Serbia, which made the qualification for the second round perfect with the ideal haul of four plus points, the Icelander sat in the belly of the mighty Spodek Arena in Katowice and spoke up for the upcoming adversary Algeria.
It’s extremely helpful to have two senses of achievement at the start of a long tournament, but now it’s important to “remain serious and go through with the third game”. A drop in voltage is unforgivable “if you have solved the first and second task as well as we have”.
The unmistakable announcement to the team was received, but it would hardly have been necessary anyway. The German team solved the mandatory task with the character of a friendly game against a largely overwhelmed opponent with 37:21 (16:9) and thus kept a clean sheet – for the first time since 2017.
The national coach is “extremely proud”
The interim conclusion of DHB sports director Axel Kromer, who has experienced a “very confident and calm team” in Poland so far, is correspondingly positive: “We were also able to take the opportunity against the Algerians to bring several players into the World Cup.” Gislason did not want to contradict that, who was “extremely satisfied” that “the team acted so concentrated”.
In the run-up, the Icelander was “a bit afraid that the steam was out”. After 60 largely one-sided minutes, the reassuring realization remained that “the team is close together even if we substituted”. Now he is “extremely proud of the boys that they pulled through”. The successful coach chose his headline for the preliminary round as follows: “First milestone reached.”
Before kick-off, assistant coach Erik Wudtke announced that they wanted to “extend our series – if you can even talk about it after two wins”. As the game went on, it quickly became clear that Germany’s record would easily expand to three wins that evening.
Gislason used the favorable starting position to rest some of his regular players and to help players get match practice who had had little or no playing time in the previous tournament. So began against the Algerians Rune Dahmke (THW Kiel) and Simon Ernst and Luca Witzke (both SC DHFK Leipzig), in the course of the game Djibil M’bengue (Bergischer HC) and Paul Drux (Füchse Berlin) were also allowed to provide evidence, rightly so to have been nominated for a world championship.
The newly formed German team needed almost five minutes to sort themselves out and build up tension. Outsiders Algeria took advantage of this and took a 3-1 lead. In the early stages, Juri Knorr even missed his first seven-meter throw at this World Cup. After that, the playmaker from the Rhein-Neckar Löwen improved and with him the entire team.
The combination game went ahead, goalkeeper Andreas Wolff drove the opposing shooters to despair in the back, later Joel Birlehm lined up save after save. At 4: 3, the DHB selection took the lead for the first time, which they continuously expanded as a result. No matter who was on the field, Gislason’s team worked until the final siren for what was by far the clearest of his three preliminary round victories.
“All the boys arrived in the tournament”
Accordingly, the German players appeared in the mixed zone shortly after the end of the game. Kai Häfner, who had followed the entire 60 minutes from outside that evening, ran past the journalists laughing and left the stage to the colleagues who had played. For example Simon Ernst, who had done his own advertising and said he was “very happy that we were so dominant in a dangerous group”. In addition, it is “very important that all the boys arrive at the tournament”. Rune Damke added, “You can’t start a tournament better than that, but we have to leave the church in the village, there’s still a lot to come.”
Now that the preliminary round has been completed with maximum success, the intermediate round is the next step on the way to the desired quarter-finals. The next tasks in a two-day rhythm are called Argentina, the Netherlands and the Norwegians, for right winger Patrick Groetzki “the strongest opponent on our way”. For the professional from the Rhein-Neckar Löwen this means no reason to get nervous, “after all we fought for a good starting position”.
His athletic superior Alfred Gislason will certainly find the right words to sharpen his senses before this challenge. The chance of reaching the minimum goal of quarter-finals is enormous thanks to the flawless preliminary round: A win could be enough to advance. Already on Thursday (3.30 p.m./ARD and in the live ticker on ntv.de) meets the DHB team on Argentina.