DHB team finds the superpower: Emotional speech leads to German resurrection

The German national handball team delivers a game to fall in love with: the DHB team celebrates an important victory with speed, conviction and great emotions. It’s an exhilarating reaction to a low blow.

Almost 34 minutes had been played in the massive Lanxess Arena in Cologne when Alfred Gislason freaked out: the Icelander clenched his fist, grimaced and stormed onto the field. The national handball coach had to channel his emotions and did so in this gesture. It was a kind of jubilation, just positive emotions. But there was probably more to it than just the pure joy of his German national team’s lightning start to the second half of the all-important European Championship game against Hungary.

Maybe it was pride, maybe it was satisfaction, maybe relief, which mixed with the satisfaction with how the game was going: The DHB team had forced the Hungarian coach to take a quick time out because they were chasing the ball wildly in defense and a spectacular, High-intensity attacking play led to three goals within a few minutes. It didn’t help the Hungarians, who had actually been in the lead for a long time. The German team rushed towards victory with tremendous intensity.

“We’re completely destroying them now. They can’t manage the pace at all,” Gislason urged his players on, even with the feeling of a clear lead in a late timeout. In the end it was 35:28, the DHB team had risen again from Hungary’s rubble. The hall was roaring, the 19,750 fans in the stands celebrated the German players, who 48 hours earlier had played themselves into a downward spiral instead of into intoxication.

“The roof of the hall blew off several times”

After the exhilarating preliminary round games, where even the narrow defeat against record world champions France caused more optimism than frustration, nothing had come easy recently: they played “shit,” complained Kai Häfner. “Cruel” (national coach Alfred Gislason)! “Piecework” (Timo Kastening)! “Huge disappointment” (Captain Johannes Golla)! Just two days before the handball festival, the German team was in verbal self-destruction mode. The fact that within a few minutes a five-goal deficit was fought with great morale into an important point was completely forgotten.

Now everything was completely different: The German team, which had disappointed itself against Austria at 22:22, struck back! “We were able to get the fans carried away. The roof of the hall blew off several times,” cheered the outstanding backcourt player Julian Köster. “I hope we can do that again.” Kai Häfner was “extremely proud of the team that we came back like this.”

More than eight million people saw on their screens a team that no longer had anything in common with the self-despairing team from the Austria game. They had a lot to talk about in the hours after the second game in the main round. “We’ve communicated a lot in the last two days. We’ve spoken extremely openly to each other,” reported playmaker Juri Knorr. Dahmke added: “We analyzed everything very meticulously. And then we developed a very clear plan and slimmed down the playbook: For every situation that the Hungarians were able to prepare, we thought about two or three things that we would carry out 100 percent .”

And goalkeeper Andreas Wolff, the outstanding German player in the tournament so far, was pleased that his front men “implemented what they discussed extremely well” after a joint meeting. In addition to the greatly improved attack performance, the DHB team also provided a “fantastic defense” (Wolff), which offered the Hungarian giants inspiring duels – and acted with more flexibility than ever before in this tournament.

“Courage was the key to success”

They have banished the uncertainty that recently manifested itself in an incredible 22 missed throws and eleven ball losses against Austria. “Against Austria, at some point we stopped going into the gaps. We hesitated to even throw,” Dahmke remembered with a shudder. Now “courage was one hundred percent the key to success today!”

It’s “almost funny that you can play two completely different games within 48 hours,” said left winger Rune Dahmke. And his teammate Kai Häfner was surprised: “Sometimes it can’t be explained. They weren’t any better or worse handball players today than they were two days ago.” And yet an explanation was provided afterwards. She was busy with an afternoon tactics meeting.

The national coach, who recently openly criticized his players for making wrong decisions, gave an emotional speech before the game, revealed Christoph Steinert. Sebastian Heymann, one of the players presented by name, who had made three missed throws in three attempts a few hours ago, was also one of those personally addressed.

“I should go for the goal with conviction and throw in everything I have,” the backcourt player revealed in a conversation with the national coach. “I’m allowed to make mistakes with him, he has complete trust in me – and that I can become extremely important today.” Heymann was one of the symbolic figures of the German victory; in the first half, the Göppingen player scored four times in four attempts and provided three assists. “Alfred is an experienced man who has a lot of analysis and knowledge. When someone like that gets emotional, we all feel it. It inspired us,” explained leader Golla.

“The self-confidence was the biggest difference from the Austria game,” said Steinert, who took personal responsibility and scored the final score. For Rune Dahmke, one of the most experienced players in the squad and, as an emotional leader, enormously important for the mood on and around the plate, the attitude he regained was crucial: “The worst thing you can have is fear. Then you realize that the head starts to work,” said the 2016 European champion.

Wolff laughs at himself

Now they approached every situation with significantly more speed, and for the first time in this tournament, every player from the backcourt threatened to score: Kai Häfner, Sebastian Heymann, Juri Knorr – all scored four goals each. And Julian Köster towered above them all: the Gummersbacher scored eight goals. “He is well on his way to becoming a world-class player,” enthused goalkeeper Andreas Wolff about his teammate. “He’s irreplaceable at the front and he’s irreplaceable at the back.”

While it was Wolff who kept the German team in the tournament and always provided the spark that kept the German hopes glowing, this time the others jumped into the breach. “The boys showed a completely different face in attack today,” said the previously always outstanding goalkeeper. And added with a laugh: “Unfortunately, I also showed a completely different face in the first half. I was on all the balls and put all the balls in myself.” The world-class supporter also laughed about his first save in the 39th minute. “I was really surprised that it actually happened now.”

Afterwards, his teammates were even happy about the lack of goalkeeping performance for a long time: “I’m incredibly happy that Andi had his game today, when he wasn’t so lucky. It had to come at some point,” said Dahmke. “And today we were able to carry him. And in the end he also saved a few important balls.”

“It only works together”

It was the perfect evening for the German team: In the pregame, record world champions France had defeated the sensational team from Austria and thus put the European Championship hosts’ own sporting fate back into their own hands – and the Germans took courageous action. Together they celebrated every goal, every breakthrough, every duel won. And together they ignited the spark on the field this time, which spread into an emotional conflagration in the stands: “If only one or two do that, then the spark won’t jump,” said Dahmke, who always made teammates and spectators bigger Emotions animated long after the game. “We all have to keep going as a team. Then the fans are there too.”

Captain Golla, who had seen all targets in danger just 48 hours ago, is now talking about targets again – this time positively; “If we want to achieve something, we can only do it together. Without the fans we wouldn’t reach this limit. You can see how many emotions come out of us. This isn’t possible without the support of the spectators.” Now they play on Wednesday (8.30 p.m./ARD and in the live ticker on ntv.de) for a place in the semi-finals – the goal behind which everyone had rallied.

Even against Croatia, which is playing a disappointing tournament, the German team’s internal and external attitude must be right. “The Croats are always hot when they play for their country. You can’t lose the battle for better body language, for the right emotions in this game,” said body language expert Dahmke. “We have to invest everything we can to win handball games. We have to show full commitment, passion and character. Over 60 minutes. Then we have a good chance.”