The DHB team’s start to the Handball World Cup was successful with a win against Poland. Andreas Wolff played an important role – but alternated himself from time to time.
A change of goalkeeper in a handball game is nothing unusual in itself. Teams often change their goalkeeper once or even several times during a game when one of their goalkeepers is in danger of losing the opponent’s offensive.
This also happened in the German national team’s opening World Cup victory against Poland on Wednesday evening (35:28). As usual, Andreas Wolff looked after the German goal from the start and seemed to have had a good evening. After all, the 33-year-old started the game with a double save. But as the game went on, the 2016 European champion had to let more and more balls pass. Around five minutes before the break he finally made way for his substitute David Späth. So far, so normal.
The exchange in the box was still unusual – because neither national coach Alfred Gislason nor goalkeeping coach Mattias Andersson actually wanted to change the keeper. “I took myself out of it,” explained Wolff after the game. But why did the goalkeeper, known for his ambition, decide to sit on the bench?
“I had a lot of hands on the ball, but they didn’t lead to saves or ball wins,” said Wolff, analyzing the unfortunate course of the first half for him. “That’s why I decided, because David is a fantastic goalkeeper, that we’ll give it a try,” said the keeper.
At the Olympic Games last summer, where the German team won the silver medal, the change always worked well and it also worked against Poland, Wolff summed up. And indeed: the goalkeeper change had an effect: Späth found his way into the game with good moves.
But the evening wasn’t over for Wolff either: he returned between the posts for the opponent’s seven-meter penalty even after he was actually substituted – and in doing so became a nightmare for the Poles. He defused three of the five attempts before finally replacing Späth around twelve minutes before the end and bringing the German team home to victory.