The DHB team celebrated a victory against Poland at the start of the World Cup. One bench player in particular was able to convince. Two players disappointed. The individual criticism.
Nils Kögler reports from Denmark
A hard piece of work, but in the end a success: The German national handball team won their opening game at the World Championship on Wednesday evening in Herning, Denmark, with 35:28.
Despite their best possible starting formation with playmaker Juri Knorr and whiz kid Uščins in the backcourt and captain Johannes Golla in the circle, the DHB selection around their experienced top performers initially seemed unsettled and, as in the test against Brazil, showed major weaknesses in attack. There was a lack of precision in the forward tempo game, and there was also a problem in exploiting opportunities. The Olympic silver medalist was unable to use the advantage over several phases to pull away. At the same time, the German defense left too much space for the Poles, who were repeatedly successful across the circle.
After the 1-0 win, the German selection was narrowly behind throughout. It wasn’t until the half-time whistle that Golla brought his team back into the lead. It was only long after the break that the German team finally managed to shake off the Poles and still achieve their opening win.
“I thought we went a little overboard in the first ten minutes. We were lucky that we were leading at halftime,” said Gislason on ARD and was only partially satisfied with the performance. That’s how goalkeeper Andreas Wolff saw it: “We can be more than happy with plus seven. Opening games are of course difficult, but we have to deal with how. Ultimately, it’s a nice result.”
The main reason for the success was a player who actually only came off the bench. However, two DHB players disappointed across the board. You can read about who this is in the individual review above or here.