Dhe German handball players didn’t go to Rotterdam to see the famous Erasmus Bridge or take one of those harbor tours where they serve the famous bacon pancakes. “We didn’t come here as tourists,” said national coach Markus Gaugisch before the semi-finals of the World Cup in the Dutch port city. In any case, tourists who play a bit of handball on the side would certainly not have taken the French women by surprise in their semi-final and reached the final of the World Cup. The fact that the German handball players achieved this on Friday evening is a sensation.
32 years after the last World Cup final with German participation, when the title was surprisingly won in Oslo in 1993, the selection of the German Handball Federation (DHB) defeated the reigning world champion and Olympic runner-up France 29:23 (15:12). The silver medal is already secured, and on Sunday (5.30 p.m., ARD) it’s even about gold. The opponent is the reigning Olympic champion and European champion Norway, who won their semi-final 35:25 against hosts Netherlands.
:Goalkeeper as a goalscorer
Katharina Filter is one of the strongest goalkeepers at the World Cup. She will probably need an even better performance in the semi-final against France.
It won’t just be about gold on Sunday, but also about a tidy sum of money. The German Handball Association had massively increased the bonuses for the women’s team before the World Cup compared to previous tournaments. For winning silver, the team would receive 300,000 euros; a World Cup title would be worth 425,000 euros.
For the first time at this World Cup without home advantage and for the first time against an absolute top nation, the German selection in Rotterdam simply continued where they had left off three days earlier in the quarter-final win against Brazil in Dortmund. With a consistently outstanding performance, with nine goals from captain Antje Döll, who was voted player of the game, five goals each from Emily Vogel and Viola Leuchter and eleven saves from goalkeeper Katharina Filter, the selection also won a competitive game against France for the first time since 2005. At the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris, the German team failed in the quarterfinals against the French. And now: eighth win in the eighth game within 17 days.
When the final siren sounded in Rotterdam, there were dances and tears among the German players, as they had done after the quarter-final victory. Well deserved after everything that had happened in the previous 60 minutes of the game. “You can see how cool they are,” praised national coach Markus Gaugisch on the ARD microphone and added, himself quite touched: “They have confidence in their strength and that strength is their defense.” His team hadn’t conceded many goals against a French team that otherwise prides itself on its counterattacking strength. “The last few weeks have been fantastic,” said Gaugisch, “you can’t get out of the euphoria – the team is showing true team spirit.”
The players couldn’t really believe it shortly after the game. “It’s crazy!” gushed 21-year-old Viola Leuchter, “that was sixty minutes of pure struggle – I can’t take it anymore. If anyone had told me that before, I would have flipped them off.” That’s what happened to 37-year-old captain Antje Döll. “Phenomenal,” they “died for each other,” was their first review: “We took the performances from the main round with us to Rotterdam and got on the nerves of the French women with flying colors.”
In addition to gold, there is also a decent amount of money at stake in the final
The foundation was laid by a fabulous first quarter of an hour, in which the team started the game extremely stable and quickly took a 10:6 lead. Five goals from Döll, three from backcourt shooter Leuchter and four saves from goalkeeper Filter immediately demonstrated the strengths and self-confidence of this team. Filter then held on to important balls, while the 21-year-old backcourt player Nieke Kühne repeatedly broke aggressively into the French defense. At 15:12 at the break, the chances of the final were already good.
At the start of the second half, Annika Lott, who plays for a club in Brest, got the French team even deeper into trouble with three goals (21:17). When the lively Kühne got his hand slapped in the face by Oriane Ondono in the 45th minute, the Frenchwoman saw the red card. Although the German players were not able to take advantage of all their chances on offense, they secured the lead through courageous defense. Xenia Smits and Aimée von Pereira in particular showed a world-class performance in the headquarters. They were far from the only ones who stood out.
In the end, the French women allowed themselves to make nervous mistakes, while the German handball players played their game without any slumps. So you won’t stay in Rotterdam just to have a nice Sunday. They also won’t go to the World Cup final as tourists. “Now we are in the final,” says coach Markus Gaugisch: “Now we want to win it too.”
