The DHB team was victorious twice in two World Cup test matches against Brazil. However, the national coach is not satisfied, on the contrary: he is worried.
After the extremely successful year 2024, with the semi-finals at the home European Championships and the silver medal at the Olympic Games, the German team would like to continue their run at the World Championships starting on January 14th in Denmark, Norway and Croatia.
The first Brazil friendly last Thursday in Flensburg was similar, where the German team acted sloppily, especially in the first half. In contrast to the first game, the actual starting lineup was on the table from the first minute on Saturday in Hamburg.
“I think everyone thought it would be much better today,” said national coach Gislason after the narrow victory. The German team’s main problem: exploiting opportunities. They missed countless free throws. “Today our big problem in the first half was how we handled the chances we actually created,” said Gislason’s analysis. “Normally you don’t win a game like that with odds like that.”
Things got better in the second half: the defense in front of a strong goalkeeper David Späth, who replaced the rather hapless Andreas Wolff in the 44th minute, hardly allowed anything to happen. The DHB selection finally made up a three-goal deficit twice and turned the game around. Nevertheless, Gislason emphasized: “After we trained here for a week and it went very well, I would have thought that we would play differently.” In both test matches they were not sufficiently stable. “That’s why I’m worried because I would have expected it to be a little different,” said the national coach.
The team only has one strength training session left on Sunday. On Monday she will then travel on to Silkeborg in Denmark, where she will move into her quarters. She would like to perform better at the World Cup opener against Poland on Wednesday.