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Page 1 — When world class isn’t enough
Page 2 — “It wore us down”
Johannes Golla improved with each of his actions. First, in one of the first defensive actions, he forced a bad pass from the Danes with a push. Germany in possession of the ball. Next, he didn’t let Mathias Gidsel, the best handball player of the moment, get through and instead lifted him towards the audience with a wrestling hold. That reacted like a goal. Four minutes later he was knocked over in the attack, but held on to the ball, immediately got back up and continued rolling. Foul, seven meters.
Finally, it was he who completed a counterattack after a save from Andreas Wolff. Instead of the first Danish lead, Germany was ahead 9:8 after a quarter of an hour, and shortly afterwards they were even three goals ahead after two more ball conquests by Golla. “Defending was more fun than attacking,” Golla said. He was so excited that he once pinched the German assistant coach’s neck out of anger over a missed substitution. Golla led the pack.
The Germans lost the home European Championship semi-final against Denmark 26:29, but they played hard against the Danes in this semi-final. Hygge works differently. Sebastian Heymann once overdid it when he imagined himself as a character from the video game Tekken mixed up and received his second two-minute penalty early on. But the German toughness was well received by both the audience and the Danes. When they gave interviews after the game, Gidsel’s ankle and Mikkel Hansen’s knee were bandaged in ice packs. But they were full of appreciation for the rough ride they had received. “We beat each other up for 60 minutes,” said Germany’s Christoph Steinert, “you can feel it.”
Specialists in wrestling and toughness
The Germans wanted to counter the Danish superiority with special skills in wrestling and toughness. That succeeded. The best defense of the tournament met the best attack and there was a clear winner at halftime. They led 14:12 against the world champions and the sensation shimmered through the Cologne Arena. The German middle block of Golla and Julian Köster, later also with Heymann and Jannik Kohlbacher, blocked, prevented and pushed the throw rate of the exceptional Danish throwers Gidsel and Simon Pytlick below 50 percent. They didn’t even know this quota until then. If Golla and Köster had been brought a Kölsch, they would have eaten the glasses. And everyone scored at the front, finally the entire burden wasn’t just in the hands of Juri Knorr. In any case, they gave the Danes something to think about during halftime.
Last summer he was the captain of the U21 World Cup, now he stepped onto the big stage: Renārs Uščins, player of the match. © Ina Fassbender/Getty Images
But the nasty thing about games against Denmark is that their cool coach Nikolaj Jacobsen looks along his bench and he discovers even more torture tools for the already suffering opponent. All you need to know about the Danes is that the real sensation is players like Flensburg’s regular goalkeeper Kevin Møller or Berlin’s Lasse Andersson (fourth in the Bundesliga top scorers list) because they didn’t make it into the European Championship squad. So Jacobsen looked in his toolbox and decided on a thumbscrew, pliers and the red-hot iron.
Three tricks tipped the game. He brought in a new playmaker, 37-year-old Mikkel Hansen, before the break. Not every coach allows himself the luxury of only bringing in the three-time world handball player when things get tough. Hansen took control of the game; his assists and runs showed why he is a relevant part of the Goat debate in handball. He also hit every seven meter.
To score the goal, Jacobsen has to decide before every game between a Rolls-Royce and the Bugatti: Niklas Landin or Emil Nielsen? For German goalkeeper Andreas Wolff, they are the best duo, not only today, but in handball history. Nielsen came after the break and saved the first three balls, ending up with eight out of 19.
Johannes Golla improved with each of his actions. First, in one of the first defensive actions, he forced a bad pass from the Danes with a push. Germany in possession of the ball. Next, he didn’t let Mathias Gidsel, the best handball player of the moment, get through and instead lifted him towards the audience with a wrestling hold. That reacted like a goal. Four minutes later he was knocked over in the attack, but held on to the ball, immediately got back up and continued rolling. Foul, seven meters.
Finally, it was he who completed a counterattack after a save from Andreas Wolff. Instead of the first Danish lead, Germany was ahead 9:8 after a quarter of an hour, and shortly afterwards they were even three goals ahead after two more ball conquests by Golla. “Defending was more fun than attacking,” Golla said. He was so excited that he once pinched the German assistant coach’s neck out of anger over a missed substitution. Golla led the pack.
