For better or for worse, German handball players are experiencing their football moments these days: millions of television viewers are watching, spellbound, to what extent the selection of the German Handball Federation (DHB) meets their high standards. Thousands of people feel called upon to become home national coaches and think they know exactly what their quasi-colleague Alfred Gislason does quite well or very badly.
And an array of handball veterans from Stefan Kretzschmar to Michael Kraus publicly praise or, depending on the outcome of the game, criticize every German appearance at the European Championships. Welcome to madness.
And congratulations on staying cool despite all the exaggeration and excitement that we know from football and especially around the DFB team and finishing first in the European Championship preliminary round after a brilliant and unified performance against Spain.
Ignored background noises
The fact that the handball team is in the main round as hoped and was able to take away two plus points is evidence of the quick comprehension of both young and old. The national coach, who has been in the post for almost six years, has drawn the right conclusions from his botched coaching, which led to the defeat against Serbia: he has taken advantage of the breadth of his top squad. And Gislason’s loyalists, front and back, went to work with courage and determination, which seemed rousing given the precarious starting situation.
This has already been seen differently from German national teams in similar situations. Namely those from football at the past World Cups. Unlike the DHB selection in Herning, the DFB teams in 2018 and 2022 did not manage to quickly come to terms with an unexpected preliminary round defeat against Mexico and Japan and make up for the disadvantage with a broad chest.
In 2018, the self-absorbed Joachim Löw – unlike the self-critical Gislason these days – was no longer able to take the team with him. In Qatar, the German football players’ heads were spinning so much from all the background noise that they could no longer follow Hansi Flick’s whirlwinds and thoughts. The handball players, on the other hand, were not fooled by the sounds they had to listen to from their fellow countrymen.
Things were particularly bad for Bob Hanning, who became a kind of Didi Hamann of handball in his “Bild” column. The difference is that the football grantler is a paid Sky expert and not a competitor of the national coach. The fact that Hanning, managing director of the German champions Füchse Berlin, looked after Italy at the European Championships did not stop him from boldly interfering in other people’s affairs.
He accused Gislason of all sorts of omissions and tried to create an apocalyptic mood. “It’s about nothing less than the future of our sport,” wrote Hanning in a tabloid-like manner before the Spain game. The handball players almost had to be happy that Germany’s performance wasn’t immediately talked about, as is often the case in football. Or even about the impending end of the world.
Gislason’s DHB team was often accused of being too quiet. It is precisely his strength to let the vanity fair go by. With the art of fading out and reflecting on yourself, the Olympic silver medalist could go far.
