JOEL MARKLUND/Bildbyran/imago
Show the thing: Rasmus Lauge Schmidt and the World Cup
Not much new under the sun: Denmark’s men’s national handball team has become world champion. Coach Nikolaj Bredahl Jacobsen’s team beat France by 34:29 (16:15) on Sunday evening in Stockholm. The Danes win for the third time in a row. Nobody has done it before them.
Controversial decisions
“One could almost speak of boredom without any sensation,” wrote Bob Hanning, coach of second division club 1. VfL Potsdam, in his column for the Kicker last Friday after the semi-finals and the first placement games. With the exception of a minor surprise (Hungary), the quarter-finalists already met all forecasts. There the favorites prevailed, and in the final the most highly traded defending champions faced the French, who were considered the second strongest team despite a large hospital.
The final was correspondingly intense, but in the end it was clearly in favor of the Scandinavians. Favored in places by controversial referee decisions that not only Eurosport-Co-commentator Pascal “Pommes” Hens brought up against the North Macedonian referee team: “There is a little frustration about some whistles that were against us, we have the feeling that some of them mattered,” France coach Guillaume Gille remarked loudly after the game Online portal handball-world.news on. What is probably meant are several situations in the middle of the game in which the defending Danes were clearly in the goal area and yet no penalty was awarded to France. That may have prevented a tipping point in the game at one point or another, but from a sporting point of view the Danes deserved to win. Above all, the left back player Rasmus Lauge Schmidt (31, Telekom Veszprem), who is more responsible for defensive tasks, showed his offensive qualities and scored non-stop. Aging superstar Mikkel Hansen (35, Aalborg Håndbold) was able to hold back – he didn’t throw a single goal in the first half. On the other hand, it was also evident that handball’s Lionel Messi, Nikola Karabatic (PSG), at the age of 38, is being replaced more and more by the next generation. Already in the quarterfinals against Germany (35:28) he remained on the bench for the entire second half.
40-minute world champion
The final was not a duel between the goalkeepers. The French keepers remained below the level they had shown so far in the tournament. The temporary change in the middle of the first half from first goalkeeper Charles Bolzinger (22, Montpellier) to 30-year-old club colleague Rémi Desbonnet, who had driven the Germans to despair with 14 saves (also after being substituted on), didn’t help either.
In the early Sunday afternoon, they confidently prevailed against tired Norwegians (28:24) and finished fifth in the tournament. As throughout the competition, goalkeeper Andreas Wolff was the outstanding player. The 31-year-old, who plays for KS Kielce in Poland, had after the match against Egypt (35:34), which was decided in extra time, against the ARD-»Sportschau« aptly described his team as the »40-minute world champion«: From the middle of the second half, they gave up a seven-goal lead against Egypt, and the quarter-finals against France were also lost after three quarters of the game, when the DHB team didn’t score a single goal for minutes. Before that, the team also showed a sometimes dominant behavior against favored opponents, especially at the beginning of the games. Where the problems are – whether in terms of condition, concentration, deficits in tactical coordination or simply a lack of quality – should now be analyzed in the upcoming qualifying games for the Olympics in Paris 2024 and a home European Championship next year.
Speaking of the European Championship: In a gripping game for third place, Spain took revenge against Sweden, who were playing in front of their home crowd, for last year’s European Championship final defeat and won 39:36 after the break (18:22).
