analysis
Goalkeepers are individualists in many sports, but with German handball players there is a real team at work: Despite all the differences, Andreas Wolff and David Späth complement each other outstandingly.
It has to be exactly the same when the DHB team plays against Poland on Wednesday evening (January 15, 2025).from 8:15 p.m. live on Erste, in the stream and in the live ticker at sportschau.de) wants to start the World Cup tournament strongly, says Christoph Steinert. The backcourt player’s reasoning: “For me, the goalkeeper position is the most important position in our sport. That’s why Andy is our superstar.”
Sometimes difficult phases
But even the superstar has phases in which he loses access. In which, despite all the throwing studies before a game, he suddenly no longer has a feeling for where the balls are hitting. Then he often gives the signal to the bank himself: relief! Before it’s too late, Späth will come.
And is sometimes able to change the game straight away. Sports show expert Dominik Klein calls this “light”. The 2007 world champion can join the DHB team at any time “explode”radiate his electrifying energy to his colleagues.
Ex-keeper and expert colleague Johannes Bitter also sees it this way: “Andy is also emotional, for me he has been one of the three best goalkeepers in the world for many years.”says the world champion in the sports show podcast “Handball auf die 1”: With Späth, the emotional outbursts are on a different level: “David is even more extroverted. He’s holding a ball and feels like he’s under the ceiling of the hall. Of course that gets everyone involved.”
Development towards more positivity
The development in this area, especially at Wolff, is impressive. He now radiates much more positivity, whereas years ago he appeared to be in a bad mood when things weren’t going well. Dominik Klein is very impressed by this: “Andy has become much more self-critical and has also sought external help. He is simply an absolutely experienced person and an incredible source of support anyway.”
The mixture now affects the vice-captain: The “leading Wolff” can still get out of the saddle after strong parades. But sometimes he stays as cool as a block of ice to signal to the opponent: It wasn’t anything special to defuse a shot like that from you.
Messages through body language
Body language is a very important topic in this sport, especially in this position. Wolff and Späth both send messages with their entire goalkeeping game, to the opponents and to their teammates. They move you along or cool you down, shake you up or calm you down. Depending on what you think is currently in demand. Späth learns a lot from Wolff, which he just emphasized again: “The exchange is great, I get a lot of valuable tips. That’s why every training session is extremely fun.”
But Wolff also knows what he has in Späth. The 33-year-old from Kiel says about the 22-year-old Rhein-Neckar Löwen: “David is, as I have said several times, very mature on the field for his age. He is a great guy and I can only repeat that he is really a fantastic goalkeeper and forming a team with him is really fun. “
Special youth jargon between Späth and Fischer
Wolff himself has to smile a little at the end of these statements, because the good communication between the two is not that self-evident: “It’s sometimes interesting to hear how the language has developed among the youngsters“, says the oldie and chats about it: “David Fischi in particular has a very special jargon that always causes amusement in the team“. “Fischi” is Justus Fischer from Hannover.Burgdorf, a year younger than Späth and from the guard of the young wild ones. But Wolff immediately adds: “Overall, I still understand what David is saying.”
The language governing the distribution of roles between the two was also clearly communicated before the emergency on Wednesday evening. National coach Alfred Gislason puts it like this: “We are happy that we have two people like that in goal. Andreas Wolff is our 1A, David Späth is the 1B.”
Such sentences have often been used in football, with the crucial difference that there the “1B” is a charming way of describing banishment from the bench and is intended to keep the duel loser happy. In handball, you actually need a goalkeeper tandem to play a big tournament.