This scene was emblematic of the German disaster at the European Handball Championship against Serbia: An ill-timed timeout by national coach Alfred Gislason cost a goal on Saturday evening – and had dire consequences: Instead of equalizing to 26:26, Serbia pulled away and was able to celebrate the 30:27 victory a short time later, which could mean the elimination of the preliminary round for the DHB team.
After all: Gislason honestly admitted his serious breakdown and said in the Sportschau interview: “This is clearly on me, I made the wrong decision.” That’s what happened: In the 58th minute, after one of the few successful attacks of the second half, Germany scored a goal through Juri Knorr, who had reached the circle. It was the goal to equalize 26:26, anything would have been possible again. But the moment the ball flew over the goal line, the posts suddenly lit up red: the sign that a time-out had been taken.
Gislason “stoles” an important goal from his own team
In fact, it was Gislason who had pressed the buzzer: The referees used video evidence to check whether the ball had already crossed the line before the signal, but that wasn’t the case by a centimeter – the goal didn’t count!
And Gislason completed the confusion, taking the man off the field during the time-out who had just been hit and was full of self-confidence: Knorr! He later said very clearly in the Sportschau interview that he had little understanding for his lack of playing time in the second half. The entire hall in Herning felt the same way.
Why Gislason wasn’t looking
Gislason later tried to explain his mistake further: “I thought it would be smarter to interrupt the attack and rearrange it,” said Gislason, who was meanwhile looking at the video cube. “I paid attention to the time we were still outnumbered and wanted that clock to run down as much as possible. I didn’t see that Juri was already throwing and scoring – my mistake, of course.”
It could be a costly mistake: after that there was no rhythm and Serbia took the win. And Germany now needs – if Serbia beats Austria first – a three-goal win against the strong Spaniards (4-0 points) in order not to be thrown out of the European Championship next Monday.
