World Cup collapse against France: Germany’s world class check ends bitterly

World Cup collapse against France
Germany’s world class check ends bitterly

By Tobias Nordmann & Till Erdenberger

The German national handball team missed the step back into the world class. You fail against Olympic champion France because the error devil finds his way back into the German game with power. It’s annoying.

What actually happened in the arena in Gdansk?

Finally a knockout game in a major tournament for the German national handball team: the last time the DHB team qualified for the final phase of the tournament was in 2019 at a world or European championship. At that time you had no chance against Norway in the semi-finals of the home World Cup. Now it was a rocky road back to the top of the world against the super team from France. Record world champion, Olympic champion, the “hardest possible task” (DHB coach Alfred Gislason) in “probably the biggest game of my life” (playmaker Juri Knorr).

Germany had started a run in the first five tournament games, the narrow 26:28 against Norway in the main round final had annoyed them, but goalkeeper Andreas Wolff was also happy about the “damper at the right time”. The quarter-finals brought a bitter reality check. With 28:35 the quarterfinals were lost. Because after a very strong first half against France, exactly what happened against such a team happened: too many mistakes. The defeat was far too high, everyone agreed. Now it should be reinterpreted with a view to the home World Cup. The big game started exhilarating, for 40 minutes they finally delivered world class again. Experience was gained in the last 20 minutes. Bitter for the moment, valuable for the future.

player of the game

No question, Remi Desbonnet decided this game. Remi Desbonnet, this is the French goalkeeper. More precisely: He is actually number two, but he left this status furiously behind on this Wednesday evening. In the middle of the second half he grew into an insurmountable wall. The game was balanced up to 20:20 in the 40th minute, before the goalkeeper rose to become a Géant, a giant. In rows, he defused the throws of the Germans, who, however, had to throw more and more from the back, which they didn’t like at all. Once Desbonnet even caught a ball. The maximum penalty. He had his best moment when he spectacularly took away a tempo counter-attack by Patrick Groetzki in a one-on-one and thus prevented a significant deficit (with then three goals, see below for more on this).

scene of the game

“We make what feels like eleven goals from the first eleven attacks,” said DHB sports director Axel Kromer at halftime. “After that we had four attacks too many turnovers, also a bit too much risk.” But that is also needed against a team with the quality of France. Julian Köster threw away a few balls, and three players, Kai Häfner, Christoph Steinert and finally Djibril M’Bengue, were allowed to try their hand at right backcourt. A clear sign and not a good one. And Juri Knorr, who played another strong game for a long time, made a few of those “expensive mistakes” that national coach Alfred Gislason had repeatedly addressed in the game of the German team and their director before the start of the tournament. With more efficiency, that was the hope, it would somehow work against France, they had hoped. Nothing came of it. Because after the first eleven attacks, the efficiency declined slowly at first, then faster and faster. Also because the strength of the German players visibly dwindled after a long tournament.

Patrick Groetzki made it particularly expensive. The right winger, who can still rise to become the German World Cup record holder at this tournament, ran a counter-attack at the beginning of the second half with a two-goal advantage behind him – and failed at Desbonnet. A little later, France took the lead for the first time ever in this game. And the ripped-off squad didn’t give them up anymore. Whether Groetzki’s miss was really a turning point is almost irrelevant. Too dominant and ripped off, the title-hungry French played systematically apart a visibly tiring German team. Efficient, merciless. France’s superstar Nikola Karabatic, “the legend of our sport”, as the German captain Johannes Golla rightly called the 38-year-old, praised the still inexperienced DHB team after the final whistle. What Germany is still missing to win such games again, the multiple world handball player could not say.

How was it in the hall?

Marked by disappointment: Christoph Steinert.

(Photo: dpa)

The world governing body successfully managed to ruin a highly attractive quarter final for many, many fans. Hardly 1000 German fans had come to the most important game in recent DHB history, the match in which the step back into the world class was to be taken against an opponent who seemed to be overpowering. At least a few more than from France. The completely uncertain prospect of the further course of the tournament – semi-finals in Gdansk or in Stockholm, 1400 kilometers away by land – probably made many people who wanted to travel stay at home.

The German team also lacked the fans factor that they had hoped for in this important game. “We have to approach the game with passion. We will put our hearts into our hands and make up for what we may lack in experience against the French with a fight,” goalkeeper Andreas Wollf had promised. When it came down to it, only a gentle “Fight, Germany, fight” came from the stands. A home game for nobody and not a handball festival. An evening that deserves more.

The voices of the game

Alfred Gislason (national coach): “In the second half, to be honest, we ran out of breath in attack. I don’t think we gave up at all, on the contrary: we kept going, but we just shot badly.”

Johannes Golla (Captain): “First of all, the result is too high. It was a big fight from us. We don’t use the free chances like you have to do if you want to reach a semi-final.”

source site-33