analysis
It wasn’t all bad in the 10-goal debacle against Denmark, but the German handball players’ search for a complete team performance at this World Cup continues. Now time is running out: the final against Italy is coming.
Another 60 minutes of handball and then it can all be over. Although the DHB team won the three preliminary round games, the 30:40 defeat against the old and almost certainly new world champion results in a dramatically worse situation: on Thursday at 6 p.m. (Live ticker at sportschau.de) a defeat against the Italians, who have so far performed so heartwarmingly, would mean the immediate end of all medal dreams: the quarter-finals would be out of reach and the continuation of the tournament in Norway would take place without Team Germany.
Constantly new construction sites
The name Italy in this sport should not initially trigger feelings of fear in an Olympic silver medalist from last summer. But that can be a fatal misjudgment. On the one hand, the Azzurri have been playing a fantastic tournament so far and have beaten an entire country behind them in no time. And on the other hand, Alfred Gislason’s team in Herning looks like a construction crew that, as soon as it has filled in one hole, opens up two others.
There were encouraging approaches in all four games in the Jyske Bank Boxen in Herning – but never at the same time: sometimes Andreas Wolff held outstandingly, sometimes David Späth. Sometimes Renārs Uščins played big, sometimes Julian Köster, occasionally Juri Knorr. Sometimes the defense was as good as it was against the Czech Republic, where only 22 goals were conceded. This mark was missed against Denmark at halftime (18:24).
Gislason no longer trusts Golla
And the national coach is still looking. Against Denmark, Alfred Gislason started again with his Hannover-Burgdorf block, relied on Justus Fischer and Lukas Stutzke, and put captain Johannes Golla on the bench again. This plan failed completely, Fischer and Stutzke were presented by the Danes, but when Golla came off the bench cold, things didn’t go well for him either.
Köster was only a factor offensively (six goals in seven attempts), but defensively, like his teammates, he constantly ran into space and allowed himself to be pushed around. Embarrassing: No opponent had ever given the Danes a success rate of 74 percent of all throws at this World Cup, not even Algeria. From a German perspective, the rate of attempts within the nine-meter zone was even crueler: 87 percent “clear shots” struck Späth and Wolff, both of whom were completely let down by the defense.
Finally found a seven-meter shooter
After all: Gislason finally found a seven-meter shooter on the fourth attempt. Timo Kastening converted a strong five of his six throws from the line. On the other hand, the passes to the circle remained a disaster: Uščins in particular lacked any timing in the interaction with his colleagues this time, and in the end he actually lost more balls (six) than goals (five).
Knorr’s performances also remain mysteriously unfinished. Again he actually started the game well with two nice goals. But after the break, when Germany was about to build up momentum from a four-goal deficit and get closer, he failed when he was free-standing and shortly afterwards threw the ball completely wildly into the Danish defensive block (37th/38th). Afterwards he sat almost exclusively on the substitutes’ bench, although according to Gislason the playmaker was said to be “in poor health”.
“Can’t do defense and attack at the same time”
Golla, who also allowed himself blatantly missed throws from the best position, then admitted: “Attack and defense, we somehow can’t do both well at the same time. Losing by ten goals feels extremely bad.” But how long does the bad feeling last? Can the German team get over the massive defeat so quickly that there is nothing left of it against Italy?
Youngster Marko Grgic believes: yes. “We simply rolled out the red carpet in defense for the Danes too often. But that has nothing to do with Italy at all. We can tick that off, for sure.” Golla sounds a bit more cautious: “I don’t know Italy, I’ve never played against them. We have to analyze them very well. But it’s clear that we have to be much more compact in defense on Thursday.”
Gislason also sees positive things
The sports show also asked Gislason whether the level of defeat could have an impact on self-confidence against Italy. The national coach first reminds us of the positive aspects of the game: “It sounds stupid when you’re ten goals apart, but we did a lot of things well in attack. You have to score 30 goals against Denmark first, and their keepers also did an outstanding job.”
The “many mistakes” and the “Far too open defense” However, Gislason also addresses this. And then says with a view to Italy: “It’s just going to be a completely different game. They have very offensive defense, we definitely won’t underestimate them. But the three tasks at this World Cup in which we were the favorites – we solved those too.”