Things couldn’t have gone better for national coach Markus Gaugisch. Although the German women’s national team clearly won the opening game of the Handball World Cup in Germany against Iceland with 32:25 (18:14), there is still a lot of room for improvement.
At the start of the home tournament in Stuttgart, Alina Grijsels was the top scorer with seven goals and was also voted the best player of the game. In the second half, goalkeeper Katharina Filter also came up trumps in a phase in which the DHB women made a lot of mistakes. So it was possible that, despite many German invitations, Iceland never seemed to be able to compensate for the hosts’ constant lead.
Last year, the German team had good experiences with the Icelandic team when they lost 30:19 in the preliminary round of the European Championships, but Markus Gaugisch warned against the opponent, who was able to stand out through his “Combat readiness” excellent, said the national coach. And his impression was confirmed in a very rapid initial phase. After six minutes, eleven goals had already been scored and Iceland was leading 6:5, with both teams having a perfect shooting percentage.
Germany and Iceland throw straight into World Cup form
Viola Leuchter carried the DHB team through this phase, she equalized with her third goal, her fourth goal made it 8:6 – the 21-year-old was very robust and also got the first two-minute penalty. Shortly after the majority ended, Germany even increased their lead to 10:6 and had a great start to the home tournament. Gaugisch is hoping for this “the few percentage points that can help in crunch time”his team was already making advance payments.
After that the game got tougher, the teams defended better and made more mistakes on offense. The goalkeepers also came into play, with Grijsels missing two outstanding opportunities (including the first penalty) to make the result even clearer. The three-goal difference remained constant because not only Hafdis Renotudottir got going, but Filter also saved her first balls in the German goal.
DHB women miss out on pulling away even further
Iceland helped the Gaugisch team with further two-minute penalties. When they were outnumbered, the opponent took out the goalkeeper, and Germany took advantage of this twice for “empty net goals”. However, due to step errors, this didn’t pay off on the scoreboard; after 22 minutes the score was 13:10. Before the half-time break, Grijsels in particular picked up the pace again, scoring four goals like Leuchter; the score went into the second half at 18:14.
The DHB women got off to a good start, after 36 minutes they had a six-goal lead (21:15) for the first time, but with Iceland in the majority, they reduced the gap again to 22:18. Germany missed too many chances in this phase and invited their opponents to turn around – but they didn’t take advantage. Many German mistakes were followed by Icelandic mistakes, and the score in the last 15 minutes was 24:21.
Vogel’s Kempa goal gives DHB women a boost
Afterwards, Nina Engel and Emily Vogel gave a hello-wake signal: When Germany threatened to run out of time, Vogel took off into the throwing circle and received the perfect Kempa pass from Engel, converting it to 25:21 (47th). Afterwards, Iceland found itself outnumbered again and the hosts finally laid the foundation for their opening success at the World Cup.
This will take place in the group phase for the German team in Stuttgart, the aim is to finish with three wins (Serbia and Uruguay are the other opponents) and to travel to Dortmund with a perfect result, where the round of 16 and quarter-finals will take place. In the best case scenario, the DHB women will then go on to Rotterdam, where the semi-finals and the final will take place in the Netherlands.
The next games will show how far the German team will actually make it. Solving the first task safely is a first statement. Gaugisch will not be satisfied with the abundance of mistakes, but will also be happy that his team still has a lot of room for improvement despite the clear result of 32:25 in the end. The players will certainly want to show that on Friday against Uruguay (6 p.m.).