The German handball women started the World Cup in Denmark, Sweden and Norway on Thursday (November 30th, 2023) with a hard-fought victory against Japan. But it wasn’t a confident performance – the winning goal came at the last second.
With the 31:30 (18:17) win for coach Markus Gaugisch’s team, Japan simply couldn’t be shaken off for a long time. The start was extremely tough, the nervousness in the German game was noticeable when Haruno Sasaki gave the Asians a 6-3 lead in the 6th minute. The DHB team came close via Maren Weigel and Amelie Berger, but they only took their first lead in the 18th minute when Xenia Smits made it 8:7.
Mini tour during the break
However, the game remained extremely close and competitive, with neither team able to pull away. Weigel and Antje Döll took a two-goal lead for the first time in the 23rd and 24th minutes, but many offensive fouls and ball losses brought Japan back into the action: they went into the break with a score of 18:17, and Haruno scored in the 32nd minute Sasaki even equalized again to make it 18:18.
Game scene from the World Cup group game Germany against Japan
Then came the decisive intermediate sprint. Annika Lott with a brace and Antje Döll brought the score to 21:18, the defense was now much more secure, Sarah Wachter got more and more access to the goal. The Japanese’ resistance wasn’t broken, but they couldn’t get close: When Emily Bölk hammered the ball into the net in the 48th minute to take their first five-goal lead, the preliminary decision seemed to have been made.
Time out with clear announcements
Shortly before the end, the sluggishness returned again, Gaugisch took a time out in the 53rd minute and once again directed his team to full concentration and precision in the finish on the Japanese goal, which was always deserted. However, the hint of coolness in the offensive quickly fizzled out, several chances were missed, and Katharina Filter in the German goal at the back initially prevented anything worse from happening in the final phase.
But Japan got closer and closer, in the 59th minute Antsuki Aizawa even scored the 29:30 goal from the seven-meter point and in the final minute the 30:30 equalizer – before Xenia Smits scored the winning goal in the last second.
Gaugisch draws a positive conclusion
Despite the surprisingly close game, Gaugisch drew a positive conclusion. “It’s not that we played a bad game. We were good. We did a lot of good things,” The 49-year-old praised his players and paid respect to the opponents: “Japan is difficult to defend. Very varied. You can see that their systems are very disciplined for 16 weeks of the year.”
The DHB team continues on Saturday (December 2nd, 2023) at 6 p.m. against Iran, followed two days later by the match against Poland (8:30 p.m., both games in the live ticker at sportschau.de).