Vhe talked about the perfect game earlier. The German team should have come very close to this unattainable ideal, as captain Johannes Golla, among others, saw it in this world championship quarterfinals. In the meantime, especially in the first half, it even did so against record world champions and Olympic champions France. but soon after the break, the Germans couldn’t keep their concentration and level high enough on Wednesday evening in Gdansk, so that in the end there was a quite clear 28:35 defeat.
“We made too many mistakes in the second half. We have to digest this game first,” said national coach Alfred Gislason on the ZDF microphone, but added: “I’m very proud of the boys, they gave everything.” Instead of medals, it’s now Friday and Sunday in Stockholm places five through eight. Most recently, the Germans had reached a semi-final at the 2019 home World Cup shared with Denmark. However, they lost that in Hamburg against Norway, and then the game for third place in Herning against France.
This time Gislason and his team had the small consolation that they might have moved a little closer to the top of the world – but only with a performance like in the first 30 minutes. After a balanced and therefore very strong first half from a German point of view, in which Gislason’s team was temporarily in the lead by four goals, the score was 16:16. It was an excellent team performance, spread across many, almost all shoulders, and to which Andreas Wolff in goal once again made a powerful contribution with his hands and feet.
The German game ran out of air
For a few minutes after the break it looked as if the Germans could pull away again. But then practically nothing went together in the attack, the German game literally ran out of air. “We made it good for 40 minutes, then we break in”, said Golla, with six goals the best scorer of the German team: “The result is a bit too high.” His conclusion: “There is still a long way to go to the absolute top of the world .”
After the retro charm of Katowice’s “Spodek” we went to the rather cool functionality of Gdansk’s multi-purpose arena. The German handball players had to factor out the atmosphere factor to a large extent. Although they still had an advantage in mood, the drums and horns got lost a bit in the much larger hall. One reason for the lower atmospheric density: This World Cup required considerable flexibility in travel planning at the interface between the quarter- and semi-finals.
The German team and their fans only found out late in the evening what would have happened after winning the quarter-finals, in Stockholm or on the spot in Gdansk, which probably also had an impact on the desire to travel to Gdansk. Behind this is the assurance to co-hosts Sweden that they will definitely be able to hold their semi-finals in Stockholm. They are doing it now – against France, in Gdansk Spain is playing Denmark.
Before it even started on Wednesday, the teams had to exercise a little extra patience, the game started almost half an hour later because the preliminary game went into the second overtime, in the end Spain was the winner with a 35:34 over Norway Winner. But then the German team was there. The very first actions brought self-confidence, a save from Wolff against Mem, one or two good passes to the circle, for example from Weber, a nice goal from Mertens, a determined block from Golla at the back – that made sense. The Germans extended their lead by 5:3 (5th) and 7:4 (8th) to four goals: it was 11:7 after a quarter of an hour.
Paul Drux was back in the game, he had to pass against Norway with a cold and his team also missed out substantially, as a robust alternative in defence. In general, the question was how the strength would be, especially for Knorr, who had done outstanding things so far, but sometimes carried a bit of the burden on his shoulders. Gislason played the breadth of his squad, made many and varied changes: almost all Germans were in the game.
Painful last minutes
But suddenly the thread broke, a bit too much risk, a few mistakes too many, and less than four minutes later the French had equalized again. Up until the break, the lead was doggedly fought for, when the score was 15:14, Joel Birlehm came onto the field for the first time for a seven-metre throw and saved it straight away, but the French caught up with every German one-goal advantage.
After the break, the Germans put forward two in the person of Golla, and Groetzki missed the almost certain 20:17 in a counterattack. Maybe that was the sticking point. Shortly afterwards, after the 20:18, Gislason’s team had to accept a 0:5 run: 20:23 (54th).
Man of the evening: France’s Desbonnet unnerved the German attackers in the second half.
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Image: Reuters
For the French, goalkeeper Remi Desbonnet, who was actually the substitute keeper behind future Kieler Vincent Gerard, became more and more of a factor in winning. He didn’t allow a goal for eight minutes and thus robbed the German team of their chance to win. Desbonnet had a sensational save rate of 47 percent and was consequently named man of the match.
After all: Even after the 21:25, the Germans worked their way a bit closer, but you could see how difficult many things were now, the shooting rate was no longer correct, the mistakes were piling up. The (almost) perfect game was no longer even vaguely recognizable, instead there were painful last minutes.
