Before Germany’s start at the home European Championships, the main talk is about the fan world record – but the game against Switzerland is also a key game for the DHB in terms of sport.
Of course, you don’t set a fan world record every day, that’s the nature of things. And that the DHB and the organizers of the 2024 European Handball Championship are particularly proud of this logistical feat, in which 50,000 fans will watch a handball game in a football stadium on Wednesday evening (January 10, 2024, from 8:45 p.m. live in the radio report), is understandable.
How important is the home advantage really?
The fact that this game between Germany’s handball players and Switzerland is already a small first final for the German team is almost lost in all the joy about the upcoming record. Because: In the second group game against North Macedonia, the DHB is the clear favorite in their own country, but against France in the last group game, Alfred Gislason’s team is a relatively clear outsider and must definitely hope for the home advantage in front of almost 15,000 spectators in Berlin to create a medium-sized surprise.
This home advantage should normally give the DHB enough impetus against Switzerland to avoid stumbling in the first game. The Swiss are by no means walk-in customers and have a competitive squad, but the role of favorites and overall higher individual class lies with the Germans. And then you still have the majority of the 50,000 fans behind you. An enormous advantage – at least one would think.
“Pressure” from the fans is different than in narrow halls
But the DHB is also absolutely aware that, in addition to the fact that fan interest is not always that high, there are various reasons why handball games are not regularly played in large football stadiums. “It’s totally right and important for the opening of the European Championship. But it’s not a permanent solution”for example, former DHB Vice President Bob Hanning told the “Redaktionsnetzwerk Deutschland” and added: “The pressure on the handball field will never be as great as in the Cologne Arena.”
And the latter is perhaps an important point. A hall like in Cologne or Berlin, where the “pressure” from the fans is transferred directly to the field due to the proximity and “tightness”, is a type of atmosphere that can provide an enormous home advantage in indoor sports.
Simply due to the natural laws of acoustics, there cannot be the same transmission of noise in football stadiums as in a much narrower hall, plus the unfamiliar spaciousness for the players when looking through the stadium and many other factors in the game and around it. that are simply different from the usual processes.
No game for Creatures of habit
“As creatures of habit, which we usually are in team sports, you have to say goodbye to your habits a bit”top Swiss player Andy Schmid describes the conditions surrounding this opening game at the Sportschau microphone.
With this move into unfamiliar territory, a factor comes into play whose effects can hardly be predicted in advance – even if the teams can acclimatize a bit during the two training sessions beforehand.
Schmid has it Experience advantage
Schmid is one of the most experienced players in the tournament and, at 40 years old, has experienced pretty much everything there is to experience as a handball player. The playmaker himself took part in the Rhein-Neckar Löwen’s world record game in Frankfurt in 2014 in front of 44,000 spectators, so he has as much experience as a handball player can possibly have in this field.
“It takes getting used to and is more expansive”, Schmid now describes the first training impressions from the hall in Düsseldorf. However, it seems unlikely that he in particular will allow himself to be disconcerted by this.
With the German team, where most of the key players like Juri Knorr and Julian Köster are rather young or at least not quite as experienced internationally, it is at least easier to imagine a world in which the circumstances and the additional pressure of a home team EM then has at least a little impact on the performance on the record.
Klein predicts a close game
And so national coach Alfred Gislason predicts a difficult start: “They are a very good opponent, the toughest possible opponent in the draw.”
ARD expert Dominik Klein also expects a tough first course for the German selection: “The Swiss come around the corner with an unpleasant 5-1 defense and the German team definitely has to limit Andy Schmid’s circles. I think it will be a close game.“In any case, it is one that the German team has to win – and not only to increase the euphoria in their own country, but also to avoid letting it die out completely from the start.