Historic bankruptcy – German handball players only twelfth in the World Cup
Stand: 25.01.2021 | Reading time: 3 minutes
Philipp Weber (left) can only rarely prevail against the defense of the Poles
Source: AFP
In the last World Cup game, the national team made a rough appearance. Instead of getting security for the Olympic qualification in six weeks, Captain Gensheimer and colleagues leave Egypt with a few question marks in their heads.
Mith a petrified face, national coach Alfred Gislason sat for minutes in his chair looking for the first explanations for the historic World Cup bankruptcy of the German handball players. After a sobering 23:23 (11:12) against Poland, the DHB selection returned from the title fights in Egypt as twelfth in the World Cup with the worst placement in the association’s history.
At the disappointing farewell performance on Monday in Cairo, Philipp Weber and David Schmidt were the best throwers for the Gislason team with four goals each. The worst performance of a DHB selection so far was ten years ago with eleventh place in Sweden.
“We handled our chances extremely badly and shot the goalkeeper warm. We also make too many technical mistakes, ”criticized Gislason. “It was a muddled game.” Captain Uwe Gensheimer wasn’t satisfied either: “We couldn’t build on our good attacking game and then we got hectic.” Goalkeeper Andreas Wolff saved the German team from the third tournament failure with a last-second parade.
Unsuccessful Olympic test
Even before the Poland game, the newly formed German team after nine cancellations had missed the quarter-finals prematurely due to defeats against Hungary and European champions Spain. On Tuesday they will not only return home from a major event for the fifth time in a row without a medal, but also without the hoped-for sense of achievement at the end of the World Cup. The last precious metal for the DHB selection so far was in 2016 with an Olympic bronze.
The summer games are also the next big goal, for which the Gislason troops first have to qualify in Berlin in mid-March. The game against Poland was therefore already planned as a test for the four-way tournament with Sweden, Slovenia and Algeria, in which two Tokyo tickets will be awarded. But the chance to gain self-confidence for the difficult task was not used.
National coach Alfred Gislason
What: AP
Here goalkeeper Wolff, who could hardly convince in the course of the tournament, parried a seven meter right at the beginning. However, that remained a very rare sense of achievement for the European champion from 2016, because the people in front of him did not get up to operating temperature.
There were often large gaps in the defense, which the Poles gratefully used. In addition, many chances were neglected in the attack. The German players failed ten times in the first half to Poland’s goalkeeper Adam Morawski. The hit rate in the first 30 minutes was only 46 percent.
After eight minutes there was only one hit, in the 19th minute the Gislason troops were behind with three goals at 6: 9. The national coach didn’t like the hustle and bustle on the floor at all. Nevertheless, the 61-year-old Icelander only took a break four minutes before the break to take corrective action.
Lousy attack
Even after the move it didn’t get any better. For six minutes there was no hit, which annoyed Gislason and required another time-out at 11:15. “You made four technical mistakes, one more stupid than the other,” he scolded loudly.
But it was a long time before his charges caught up. Only ten minutes before the end did the German team catch up again at 18:19 and equalize shortly afterwards. In the final phase, Marcel Schiller discarded a seven meter score at 22:22, a little later he hit from the outside. But it wasn’t enough to win.
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