After a successful opening weekend, the German fistball players are on course for the quarter-finals at the home World Cup in Mannheim.
The winners of the last three World Cup tournaments won their first group games on Saturday against Namibia and 24 hours later against Switzerland comfortably 3-0.
At the end of the preliminary round, the team of national coach Olaf Neuenfeld, who are aiming for their 13th World Cup triumph in the Rhein-Neckar Stadium, will meet Italy on Monday (10:00 a.m.). The two best teams from each of the four preliminary round groups reach the round of the top eight.
Germany is not only the clear favorite for the title at the World Cup tournament because of the home advantage: in the 15 previous World Cups since 1968, the German team has won gold twelve times.
In the absence of a national professional association, Neuenfeld’s team still runs for the German Gymnastics Federation (DTB). Fistball is played seriously primarily in German-speaking countries or by descendants of German emigrants in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Namibia and Australia.