With a clear victory in the main round
DHB selection makes blatant World Cup outsiders suffer
December 2, 2023, 8:31 p.m
This game ends very clearly: The women’s DHB team puts handball dwarf Iran in its place at the World Cup and books the main round ticket early. Despite the sweeping victory, national coach Gaugisch is not completely satisfied. Things are now pointing the way against Poland.
Second game, second victory: Germany’s handball players secured their ticket to the main round of the World Cup early with a goal festival. The team of national coach Markus Gaugisch outclassed Iran with 45:22 (25:12) and thus secured participation in the second phase of the tournament before the final day of the preliminary round.
“We won clearly, no one was injured, everyone was stressed – everything was okay,” said Gaugisch coolly. Captain Alina Grijseels spoke of an “absolutely mandatory victory. It was well deserved.”
Johanna Stockschläder scored eight goals in front of 1,800 spectators in the Jyske Bank Boxen in Herning, Denmark, making it the most goals for the selection of the German Handball Federation (DHB), which could have won even more against the outsiders given their imperfect defense. At times even the German World Cup record victory from 2007, a 45:12 against Paraguay, seemed to be within reach.
“We are not completely satisfied with the defense in the first half because we let them play too much,” complained Grijseels, considering they conceded more than 20 goals. Gaugisch would also have liked “a few solutions” from his team “to be a little more confident”.
Warm up for the groundbreaking duel
Germany now goes into the preliminary round final against Poland on Monday with the optimal score of 4-0 points (8.30 p.m./Sportdeutschland.TV). Despite the early qualification, the game is of great importance for the rest of the tournament because the points from the preliminary round against the teams that also qualified are taken into the main round. “From now on our full focus is on Poland,” said Grijseels.
For the DHB team, the game against the underdog turned out to be a better warm-up for the groundbreaking duel. Gaugisch used the game to give as many players in his squad as possible time on the field. Backcourt player Annika Lott, who suffered a blow to the shoulder at 31:30 at the start of the World Cup against Japan, was rested and replaced by Mareike Thomaier.
Iran is still a handball dwarf
The Iranians tried to challenge the DHB women at the beginning with a seven-on-six defense. This project had little success: initially there were some gaps in the German circle. But ball losses and technical errors helped the German team score numerous easy hits into the empty goal.
The class difference in the first international duel between the two nations became apparent early on. At 9:5 (14th), the German team took the lead with four goals for the first time and expanded this to ten goals within a few minutes – 20:10 (23rd). Iran, who had already conceded 15:35 against the Poles at the start of the tournament, were now making more and more mistakes and Gaugisch was happily making substitutions. After the break, the handball dwarf finally ran out of strength.
It is still unclear who Germany will fight against in the main round for a place in the targeted quarter-finals. Most likely a duel with the highly rated co-hosts Denmark awaits. The three other possible opponents are Romania, Serbia and Chile.