The race to catch up in a quick check
DHB team makes the next miracle possible
By Till Erdenberger, Cologne
January 20, 2024, 10:51 p.m
The German national handball team is making a big comeback, but is so shockingly weak that the draw against Wunderteam Austria feels like a defeat. The outsider cheers.
What happened in the Cologne Arena?
At this European Championship there are no longer any normal games for the German team, every encounter is a ride on a knife’s edge: every mistake can mean the end of all dreams of a medal. The second main round game was also a very special one: against surprise team Austria, who – as the local press called it – had made it into the second phase of the tournament with the “Miracle of Mannheim”.
Because they had also beaten Hungary, the winter sports nation was suddenly playing for a place in the semi-finals. For Robert Weber, the Austrian record international player, it was “the highlight of his career” even before the throw-off. The Austrians had previously defied Croatians and even sent fellow favorites Spain home. They had already written one of the great stories of this tournament. Please don’t add another one.
The German team had the pressure: the great handball nation, the host. Those who have yet to write their success story. You could tell that from the DHB team. From the first to the last minute. Inexplicable mistakes were followed by careless missed throws, and at halftime they could once again thank Andreas Wolff: the goalkeeper saved 45 percent of all Austrian throws. Because the German offensive scored Austria’s goalkeeper Constantin Möstl famously, Austria led. The goalkeeper of the leaders of the Austrian league, Alpla HC Hard, who rarely plays in front of four-figure crowds at home, used the big stage again for a big game. He got into the heads of the German players very early on. And those of the fans. He took up residence there and didn’t allow himself to be dislodged by a nasty collision with the goal post just before half-time.
It was another cramp, a crime thriller, a drama. This team can’t do without it. It was possible to experience what it does to a team when it has something to lose: it experiences negative stress. The wave that they so want to surf through the tournament turns into a downward spiral. At least: In the end there is a draw, even though the outsider was so close to the big sensation. They led by five goals a good ten minutes before the end. The German team showed morale, the defense fought for ball after ball against the increasingly tired Austrians, who were also struggling with bad luck. The balls suddenly landed on the rafters, not in the net. The Germans threw away their best chances several times before Christoph Steinert managed to equalize.
How were the key players?
The game’s first surprise came with the throw-off: Instead of Juri Knorr, who had an unfortunate day in the first main round game against Iceland, Philipp Weber directed the first German attacks. The man from Magdeburg, who had not played a role in the tournament so far, delivered a bitter performance: he threw at goal three times and produced three missed throws. There were also two play errors, and after a few minutes national coach Alfred Gíslason sent his veteran player onto the field again. It wasn’t that he had withdrawn his trust: Knorr was suffering from a cold, Gíslason later explained. Knorr couldn’t play big, he fought his way in. Took a few wild throws, but also repeatedly scored with individual actions. The German game is always a reflection of its director’s performance: nothing comes naturally. In the end it was more willpower than class.
Andreas Wolff is doing Andreas Wolff things in this tournament: he holds ball after ball, stoically or spectacularly. On and on, on and on. The days when Wolff sank into the downward spiral when things didn’t go well are long gone. Luckily for the German team.
The moment of the game:
The greatest moment from a German perspective took place before kick-off: accompanied by most of his still-living teammates from the 1978 World Cup final, handball legend Jo Deckarm rolled onto the field. The former world-class backcourt player, who made Germany world champions in Copenhagen in 1978 and later suffered a serious and fatal accident in a tragic accident at a European Cup game in Hungary, received a standing ovation from the racers. It was a goosebumps moment when Deckarm, who turned 70 yesterday and was in a coma for 131 days in 1979 and then fought his way back into a second life with severe scars, waved emotionally to the crowd. A moment that was bigger than what came after. Regardless of the result.
Was that a miracle?
The reactions after the game tell the whole story behind this result: the German team, which had overcome a five-goal deficit in just a few minutes, left the field with their heads hanging. And the brave Austria, which already had a hand in victory, celebrated. They performed another miracle that was a little smaller than they deserved. It was a miracle, made crucial by a frighteningly erratic, frighteningly inefficient German offensive. They took the Austrians seriously, of course. But no one wanted to believe in a miracle after the Iceland thriller, in which she had fought for victory on the home straight. But now they didn’t bother us. Still, it remains a miracle.
Due to the draw, the German team no longer has the big goal of the semi-finals in their hands and has to hope that Austria slips up. They still have to play against France and Iceland. If the DHB team wins its remaining duels with Hungary and Croatia, the chance of reaching the semi-finals is still intact – if Austria fails to make the big splash at least once. But who wants to rely on that?
The voices for the game
Captain Johannes Golla: “I think you could see on everyone’s faces that this was incredibly painful for us. That was incredibly bad of us and could possibly ruin our goals. We’re playing the worst game in terms of attacking effectiveness. So we won’t achieve anything in the tournament , but we have the fans behind us.”
Coach Alfred Gíslason: “We lost this point in attack, the defense was good and Andi was very good.”