Xenia Smits is one of the top performers in the DHB team. The upcoming World Cup is the second home tournament in the defense chief’s career. The Belgian native is expecting a premiere on Sunday.
Beaming faces everywhere you looked after the German handball players’ successful start to the European Championship qualification. One of them belonged to defense chief Xenia Smits: “There are always things where we are critical, but we can be satisfied with the result.” National coach Markus Gaugisch’s assessment is also positive: “Plus two points and had fun, so we’re happy.” The clear 34:18 win against North Macedonia is the first step towards the 2026 European Championship in Poland, Romania, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Turkey.
But the European Championships are a long way off, and the upcoming home World Cup is primarily on our minds. “It’s obviously in the back of my mind because it’s the highlight of the year“, said Alina Grijseels in the Sportschau interview after the game. Less than six weeks left until the tournament starts. “I think it will be very special in front of a home crowd. As an athlete, you might only experience that once in your life.”
Déjà vu for Smits
Xenia Smits has already experienced this. In 2017 she was part of the national team when the Women’s World Cup was last held in Germany. She was 23 years old at the time. “Please do better than 2017”said Smits when asked about her memory of the last home tournament. At that time, the DHB team was eliminated in the quarter-finals. “I think the results of the last few years show that we have worked hard and that we have become much more stable“, says Smits, “we want to show what we can do.”
The fact that the DHB women have made progress is also due to her. “Xenia is incredibly important. She is the aggressive leader in coverage,” says national coach Markus Gaugisch, describing the 31-year-old. Teammate Grijseels emphasizes this: “She is an extremely positive person, always gives full throttle and moves forward. She is incredibly good for the team.”
Career premiere
Since the home World Cup in 2017, Smits has developed into one of the key players in the DHB team. She now has 143 international matches under her belt and was named handball player of the year last year. Despite a long career and a lot of experience, Smits is facing a first: in the European Championship qualifying game on Sunday, she will face her first home country, Belgium, with the national team for the first time.
In 2008 she came to the handball training center in Germany, and in 2013 she was nominated for the German national team for the first time after her naturalization. Your 144th international match is now a journey into the past. It’s just under an hour’s drive between her birthplace, Wilrijk, and the venue in Hasselt. “A very special game for me. I don’t yet know what my emotional rollercoaster will look like“, says Smits.
Looking forward to the start of the World Cup
It is the last game before the DHB team meets in November for the final course immediately before the start of the World Cup. “The anticipation is great, the will is even greater” – for Smits this applies twice: for the premiere against Belgium and her second chance at the home tournament.
In order for Smits and her teammates to remain smiling, the DHB team must first win in the preliminary round against Serbia, Iceland and Uruguay. In the main round you would face the three best teams in Group D (Faroe Islands, Montenegro, Paraguay, Spain) before going into the knockout phase.