The German national handball team is behind it: A turbulent, sometimes bad European championship for the DHB team ends with a win. In the end, the placement doesn’t matter, one way or the other, a good feeling remains. And hope for a good future.
In the end everything went exactly according to plan – and it was wonderful: As announced by playmaker Philipp Weber during the time-out, right winger Lukas Zerbe served the flying left winger Patrick Zieker to the Kempa trick and the Stuttgarter completed the 30:29 ( 16:12) of the German national handball team against Russia. With the last attack, the German national handball team, which was so badly hit by Corona, won a dramatic, spectacular and deserved victory in the last game of a crazy European Championship.
Because the last Russian attack ended in the German wall, there was still a triumph at the very end of two often bitter weeks. Whether that’s enough for seventh or eighth place will only be decided today by the outcome of the parallel group. But it doesn’t really matter either, because Zerbe and Zieker had produced “our personal European Championship title”, as goalkeeper Johannes Bitter described the emotional state after a final ups and downs. The bunch of German players who remained after the uninterrupted corona decimation cheered afterwards as if they had reached the semi-finals. National coach Alfred Gislason hugged each of his players at the end of a 60-minute self-sacrificing fight in which nothing was really at stake. Except for the good feeling. You got it.
13 professionals were still available to Gislason, many of the 15 injured during the tournament had already been brought home by the association. At the end of the tournament, which “the players will still be telling their children and grandchildren about for many years to come”, as DHB board member Axel Kromer described it, there will be a result that one could have expected beforehand. No longer. And yet the 14 days of Bratislava are much more valuable than the record of four wins, three defeats and a placement in the European mediocrity.
“A very, very good tournament for us, for me”
As a reminder: After numerous high-profile cancellations in advance, the German team had already arrived with a squad that had no expectations whatsoever. “A great team spirit has developed. That will continue to bind us together in the future,” said captain Johannes Golla, who is outstanding on and off the field. As far as the corona circumstances are concerned, this EM will certainly not be topped. “But I hope that we will still experience very special tournaments, preferably with sporting success.” The national coach also interprets the extreme situation, which lasted almost two weeks, as a positive experience: “No one gave up, no one complained. Everyone showed a lot of character. It was a nice experience to experience the difficult days with the team,” said the 62 year old. “In the long run it was a very, very good tournament, for us, for me.”
Many players were allowed to audition at the highest international level under extreme mental strain, many had to slip into a new role faster than planned. Backcourt player Julian Köster, who started the tournament as number three in the left backcourt, played his way into the limelight. The second division player from VfL Gummersbach rose to national hope with six goals against Poland, and the 21-year-old gained valuable experience against bigger players. Johannes Golla finally established himself as the leader of this team, the circular player is already irreplaceable in attack and defense. Former DHB Vice Bob Hanning was also pleased in his column for “Kicker” that players like Lukas Mertens, Luca Witzke and Lukas Zerbe had shown “that they can be expected in the future.”
The great “Now more than ever” moment, which marks the beginning of so many sports fairy tales, was quickly shattered for the German team under the hail of bad news from the test laboratories in Bratislava that was constantly raining down on the team. Gislason traveled to Slovakia 14 days ago with 18 players, and 15 corona infections ultimately led to 28 different professionals playing for Germany. Only four players were left against Russia, who started the tournament almost two weeks ago.
Only Hendrik Wagner, who was nominated for the second game and then tested positive before the first contact with the team, joined the team for three actions after his infection. The second division professional threw a goal against Sweden, then he had to leave exhausted and short of breath. Of the other 14 players lost along the way, none returned to the team. “You could see that some players were at the end of the game who already had seven games in their bones, sometimes with little breaks,” said Gislason on ZDF. “We probably couldn’t have played another game with this team.” The morning after the last game, the association reported a 16th positive test: Lukas Stutzke could not fly with the team, but was driven back to Germany in his own shuttle.
Paul Drux as a symbol
The absurdity, the tremendous challenge of the situation can be seen in Paul Drux’s European Championship. Actually, the backcourt player didn’t want to play in Slovakia at all and instead gave his body, which had been battered by many tournaments and club commitments, a break. But then Berlin became part of the first wave of post-nominations in the preliminary round. After the final preliminary round game against Poland, for which only one goalkeeper was available with Johannes Bitter, who was also nominated, Drux came out as a substitute goalkeeper. He should have stepped in if Bitter got injured. He didn’t have to, because Bitter held out well and above all, and another playable goalkeeper was found for the main round with Daniel Rebmann. In the meantime, two candidates, Joel Birlehm and Silvio Heinevetter, had canceled for personal or health reasons.
The 2016 Olympic medal winner only came to an emergency in the last two games of the main round: Because circle runner Patrick Wiencek was the 15th player in the ranks of corona-infected players, the massive Drux had to help out several times Melee at the circle. He endured it without complaint, just like the entire entourage took the unbelievable situation sporty. “Proud of every single one,” wrote right winger Tobias Reichmann on Instagram. “No one would bring such a performance under these circumstances.”
“Without whining and complaining”
In 2024 the next European Championship will take place in Germany. And the national coach has seen that he has a large pool of players that he can form into a national team at a high international level. The border experiences of Bratislava are now part of the DNA of the German squad, no matter what it will look like in the future.
For the association, which in the meantime had at least spoken to the EHF and the Bundesliga about an early withdrawal of the team, but then quickly rejected it, the European Championship is a success despite all caution. “There was quite a lot of feedback from Germany saying that our team fought remarkably – without whining or complaining. And that the players and the coaching team are role models for children and young people,” said CEO Mark Schober. “On average, 4.6 million people watched our team’s European Championship games on television. The market share was between 17 and 21 percent – with very good values also among the younger players. We wanted to show handball and we were able to show handball.”
A premature withdrawal could have cost the association and league, which reluctantly but willingly kept adding players to Gislason’s squad, could have cost them dearly. Economically and externally. “The price would have been that you would have had to reckon with the consequences, both economic and legal, that you might not have been able to take part in the next tournaments – of course this is speculative – that you might no longer host the EM 2024 would have been”, explained league boss Uwe Schwenker why the league supported staying in the tournament. The clear signal from the team, which was getting smaller and smaller, was also a decisive factor: “It played an important role that the players said they wanted to continue playing here, they absolutely wanted to stay in the competition.”
Sports director Axel Kromer is therefore clear: “We have incredible characters in the team who will shape handball in the years to come. We will see new role models from this team. We need that to bind our members and fans.” All the bad news, the three losses in the main round in a row, it was all drowned out in relief and pride at the end. They made it, even if they didn’t win anything. The histories of the infected players are mild. If they recover quickly and unrestrictedly, the DHB team is a winner of this European Championship, where others play the title amongst themselves.
“I’m glad it’s over and nobody got hurt,” said Gislason. The best news from a German point of view: It’s over and somehow there’s a good feeling at the end. A small title.