With the victory over Spain, the German national handball team moves into the main round of the European Championship. Alfred Gislason’s team averted embarrassment with a strong performance. In order to achieve the goal set by the association, one thing is needed above all: consistency.
For the German handball players, the victory on Monday evening in Herning, Denmark, against Spain was nothing less than preventing one of the biggest embarrassments in the association’s 77-year history. The German Handball Association (DHB) has never had to complain about a national team being eliminated after the preliminary round of a European Championship. In this respect, Captain Johannes Golla and his colleagues were able to successfully prevent the disaster. But nothing more at first.
While the performance in the duel with the Iberians was very strong, in the two previous games at the start against Austria (30:27) and then against Serbia (27:30) there were undulating trends in terms of performance in national coach Alfred Gislason’s team. Good phases alternated with a playful lack of ideas. That has to change quickly in the main round that begins on Thursday – otherwise the German handball players would have only postponed the failure for a few days.
That would be more than fatal, because the World Cup is coming up in our own country in a year, and the men’s national team is still the biggest draw in the ranks of the DHB. The team’s image has been a bit tarnished recently, but this now needs to be improved in the four remaining duels.
It won’t be an easy task, as the next opponents will probably be Denmark, Portugal, France and Norway. Above all, the Germans need to perform consistently at a high level in every game in order to maintain their chances of reaching the semi-finals of the continental title fights for as long as possible.
The goal is semi-finals
National coach Alfred Gislason is also under observation. His sometimes unfortunate actions, such as the buzzer going off immediately before Juri Knorr’s goal to actually make it 26:26 against Serbia, must not be repeated, nor should the constant reorganization of his attack formations.
The DHB selection needs a man on the sidelines who radiates clarity and strength and sets the tactics one-on-one. Against Spain, all of this was finally visible from the boss on the bench for the entire 60 minutes – that gives hope for the true test of maturity that now follows in the main round.
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The next few days will be crucial in the “Decade of Handball” proclaimed by the DHB, with the organization of several major international tournaments and the home World Cup in 2027 as the highlight. Golla, Knorr and Co. can achieve a lot – especially since they have now even moved into the main round with 2-0 points. You can afford one (already taken into account) defeat against the high-flyers from Denmark, but another one could have fatal consequences. After all, the DHB had set the goal of reaching the semi-finals. The association, coach and team now have to measure themselves against this.
