The German national handball team celebrated a narrow victory against Iceland in front of a frenetically cheering audience. Success brings great opportunity.
When Julian Köster finally made everything clear with his goal to make it 26:24 five seconds before the end, he shouted his joy with all his might. But despite his face distorted into a grimace due to the intensity of the scream, Köster remained quiet, a joyful pantomime in the middle of Cologne’s Lanxess Arena. The noise made by the 19,750 spectators in the stands of the sold-out hall was too deafening for Köster to be able to penetrate it with his roar.
This was preceded by a European Championship main round game against Iceland, which became a real endurance test for the German national handball team. In a game that was hard and evenly played over the entire distance, the DHB team managed to gain the upper hand and thus maintain their chance of reaching the semi-finals. The audience transformed the Cologne Arena into a cauldron and allowed the team to surpass itself on the pitch. Together they may have created a key moment on the way to great goals.
The French bankruptcy raised questions
The Iceland game clearly stands out in the German team’s tournament history so far. The team of national coach Alfred Gíslason started the home European Championship with two clear victories against Switzerland and North Macedonia. However, these were victories that only gave rise to limited self-confidence. Even before the tournament started, it was clear that the first real test awaited in the last group game against the record world champions from France.
Video | Wolff saves thriller against Iceland – the highlights in the video
There the DHB selection showed a fighting performance, but had to pay tribute to the high individual class of the French, especially in the final minutes, and ultimately admitted defeat 30:33. The logical consequence was questions about the performance of the German team. Can that actually be enough to attack the title?
The home crowd has not yet been able to inspire the national coach
The support of the home crowd in the first games did not quite meet expectations – at least according to national coach Alfred Gíslason. The Icelander described the group game against North Macedonia in Berlin as having a “friendly atmosphere”. Even the record crowd of over 53,000 spectators at the opening game in the Düsseldorf football stadium did not particularly impress him. Gíslason said afterwards that it was no louder than in Cologne.
It was there – in the “handball Mecca”, as left winger Rune Dahmke called the Lanxess Arena – that his team now had to play their first game of fate. After the defeat against France, the German team is not allowed to lose in the main round if the dream of the title should live on. A lot of pressure for a team that is largely still very young.
Hui at the back, yuck at the front
When the Icelanders took a 2-0 lead right at the start and prevented the DHB team from scoring effectively for two and a half minutes, it became clear that it would be another tough fight. “I haven’t been able to experience a competitive game like this for many months. I noticed that we had to work incredibly hard for every single goal,” said DHB sports director Axel Kromer after the game, summing up the events that had just happened on the pitch.
The German team’s performance could best be described as “hui at the back, ugh at the front”: just 58 percent of the German attempts on goal found the target, including some free throws. “We have to get the attack better again. It wasn’t quite as effective at times,” complained Julian Köster after the game. However, a strong Viktor Gísli Hallgrímsson in the Icelandic goal, who defused 34 percent of the German throws, was also responsible for the ineffective offensive performance.