analysis
Germany’s handball players took their third win in their third game, marched through Group A and, like Denmark, took four points into the main round. And yet, even after the 29:22 win against the Czech Republic, three big question marks remain.
Juri Knorr wanted to do one of them like football legend Günter Netzer once did: I’ll throw now! As is well known, Netzer sat on the bench in the 1973 cup final against Cologne after a tiff with Hennes Weisweiler, then substituted himself before extra time and only briefly told the coach: “I’ll play now then.” He then shot his Gladbachers to the title. Knorr now made “Netzer reloaded”: When first Lukas Zerbe and then Marko Grgic miserably missed their seven-meter penalties, Alfred Gislason wanted to send Timo Kastening, who had been sitting outside until then, to the line.
Kastening was already standing by on the sidelines, but playmaker Knorr had another shooter on his list: himself. He grabbed the ball, made a quick gesture towards the sideline and scored. Kastening smiled a little painedly outside, but of course also expressed his joy at the goal – and sat back down without having accomplished anything.
Knorr also misses a seven-meter penalty
But in the end, even Knorr’s boss matter did not bury the series of mishaps that had already begun against Switzerland with missed throws by Zerbe and Kastening. Because immediately after the break, Knorr also messed up. There was another one, which was converted by Renārs Uščins, who had already taken responsibility in the Olympic quarter-final against France and converted three penalty throws after his colleagues’ constant failure. The 24-goal man in this tournament is suitable for solving the seven-meter problem (two out of seven so far in the World Cup, worst record of all teams), says Knorr, who doesn’t want to alienate anyone: “Sure, we have Renārs. But I also trust Marko and Lukas, they’ve got it.” The problem is: Zerbe doesn’t even throw seven meters in the club, in Kiel the Hungarian Bence Imre goes to the line.
So who is going to fix it now? When the sports show asked Alfred Gislason this, the coach countered with sarcasm: “Anyone, we only have these players who are here. Our goalkeepers are out of the question.”
Where were the allusions to the circle?
They already cover up enough other deficits. Andreas Wolff saved the 31:29 win against Switzerland with 20 saves. After coming on as a substitute, David Späth became the match winner against the Czechs with 14 out of 30 balls defended (46.7 percent) alongside Uščins (eight goals) and at times Knorr (five).
But where were – question mark number two – the passes to the circle and the goals from this position? Sports show expert Dominik Klein noted during the game that he liked this element on offense “totally missing”. From the backcourt came first from Knorr, then more and more from Uščin’s continuous fire. The outside players Lukas Mertens and Zerbe were at least put into the spotlight in the second half. But the circle never got hot.
As always: first half to forget
Third question mark: What alibi does Team Germany have for the time of the crime between minute one and minute 30? How can you offer a first half to forget for the fifth time in a row (two tests against Brazil, three games now at the World Cup), at least as far as the attack is concerned?
The majority of the time the DHB team was chasing a deficit against the Czechs, appeared completely disorganized in the attack and barely saved an 11:11 into the locker room.
“Technical errors, missed free throws”
The players are puzzling themselves. “It was very tough again in the first half”admits Johannes Golla. “The reason? We simply make too many technical errors and miss free throws.” The captain warns: “That shouldn’t happen against Denmark, we have to be there from the start.”
The big World Cup favorite is already waiting in the first main round game on Tuesday (8.30 p.m., live on Erste, in the stream and in the live ticker at sportschau.de). Marko Grgic even sees something positive in this initial situation, perhaps even the answer to the third question mark: “I think we can play much more freely right from the start. In our first halves so far, I have the feeling that we are putting the hammer of our Olympic silver on our shoulders. Because everyone expects something like that again and we therefore tense up.”
Uščins also argues in this direction: “We shouldn’t think too much about pressure from outside, we should just keep calm and remember that we’re still a really young team. We’ve handled things really well so far and the game against the Czech Republic at least “It was made clear earlier than against Switzerland, so there was a learning effect.”
A much better litter selection this time
That sounded like an exclamation point. And Uščins has already overcome another question mark, namely the one that concerned his sometimes too enthusiastic style of play: “It’s true that I completed the attacks far too quickly against Switzerland two or three times. I watched it all again on the video, analyzed it, spoke briefly to the coach and drew my conclusions from it.”
This time he played much more calmly, made brilliant throw selections and ended up with a world-class success rate of 80 percent. He could now also take over the matter of the seven-meter penalty – only his colleagues from the district would have to sort it out.