Restart after messed up EM
Gislason has to get creative with the DHB team
03/14/2022, 4:24 p.m
In April, the playoffs in the World Cup qualification are due for the German handball players. Even during the first preparatory course, national coach Alfred Gislason has to improvise – as with the difficult EM, one cancellation follows the next.
Alfred Gislason was brimming with energy. His handball players hadn’t even moved into their rooms at the SportCentrum Kamen-Kaiserau when the national coach set the goals for the upcoming international week. For Gislason and his selection in upheaval, every single training session counts at the moment.
“We have to be more stable when it matters,” the Icelander demanded before meeting his team again. The course with the two test games against Hungary next weekend in Gummersbach and Kassel is a kind of restart for Gislason and Co after the severe corona turbulence with 18 cases at the European Championship.
But the plans of the national coach were torpedoed by four cancellations right at the start of the course. Sebastian Heymann (Göppingen), Djibril M’Bengue (Porto), Philipp Weber (Magdeburg) and Kai Häfner (Melsungen) had to pass at short notice – but not because of Corona. Gislason ordered Juri Knorr (Rhein-Neckar Löwen) and David Schmidt (Bergischer HC), who were initially not considered for performance reasons, to replace them.
Not a single person from Kiel was there
The first DHB measure after the European Championship in January began with 17 players, but further nominations are not excluded, also with a view to the Hungary games. Tim Zechel (Erlangen) and Veit Mävers (Hanover) are completely new to the German team. On the other hand, oldie Patrick Wiencek is not there. The DHB perennial favorite surprisingly resigned from the national team last week after more than twelve years.
“I hoped that he would stay there for a few more years,” said Gislason, who had planned to have the Kiel pivot as a permanent fixture during the upheaval that began last year. Wiencek is “not so old at 33 that he has to retire. But you have to accept that.”
After the withdrawal of Hendrik Pekeler, who has been on a break for an uncertain period since the Olympic Games in Tokyo, the national coach now has to do without any players from THW Kiel – and within a few months realign his entire middle block in defense. Players like Simon Ernst or EM discovery Julian Köster now have to step into the breach.
“Obviously I wish I had more choice but it is what it is,” said Gislason. Especially against the background of the World Cup playoffs against the Faroe Islands in April, every minute will be used to warm up. Even if “we obviously want to win both games against Hungary”, the “learning effect is more important than the results”.