The shock was followed by the exclamation mark: 24 hours after their defeat against Spain, the German handball team made amends and made hopes for a successful European Championship.
Goal party for the anniversary: The German handball team has set a small exclamation mark eleven weeks before the European Championship kick-off. The team of national coach Christian Prokop defeated runners-up Spain in Berlin 28:24 (16:9) and showed the right reaction to the defeat of the previous day (24:26) on the day of the 100th anniversary of handball.
The German team rehabilitated itself for the sobering performance 24 hours earlier with the strong performance in the capital, especially in the first half of the year. The European champions showed a strong improvement in their defence and nourished their hopes for a successful tournament in Croatia (12th place). till 28. January 2018).
“After the match on Saturday, we had to make amends and we showed this from beginning to end,”said outstanding keeper Silvio Heinevetter after an “extremely hard” week of training on the ARD microphone. National coach Prokop was simply happy to have done “a lot better”, especially in the first half of the week, which was “very informative”. He had been able to “gather a lot of knowledge”with regard to the EM.
Heinevetter was the most conspicuous actor in Berlin’s Schmeling-Halle, bringing the Spanish shooters to despair in rows. Captain Uwe Gensheimer also scored eight goals in nine attempts to score.
“That’s close to what I want from the team,”said DHB Vice President Bob Hanning about the first half, in which DHB’s side repeatedly scored with quick counter-blows. He wanted to overstate the results from the new edition of the European Championship final (at that time 24:17) but not overestimate them:”We are in the test phase, the results are irrelevant,”said Hanning. The team needs such games to get into gear.
Prokop, who used the games mainly for viewing his EC squad, is likely to have gained important insights this weekend. While his goalkeepers Heinevetter on Sunday and Andreas Wolff impressively demonstrated their suitability for the European Championship on Saturday, the attack left a lot of room for improvement.
Especially on Saturday the DHB team had a hard time in the final round and made too many technical mistakes (14!), which Spain punished again and again with ice-cold counterattacks. The German team simply couldn’t find any remedy against the moving 5:1 defence of the opponent.
On Saturday, the women from national coach Michael Biegler, who seem to be already at operating temperature one month before the World Cup in their own country, did much better. The surprising 23:18 victory against the Dutch world class team, which, however, has been decimated in terms of personnel, gives Germany’s sixth place in the European Championship a tailwind for the decisive phase of the World Cup preparation.
But the DHB also looks back on an eventful weekend outside the handball field. In addition to the glittering 100th anniversary celebration with many former and current handball greats on Sunday morning, the course for a successful future was set on Saturday in the capital city.
The delegates approved the comprehensive package of measures “Perspective 2020+” by a large majority, which is intended to further advance the professionalization of the association. The reform provides for a full-time board of directors under the chairmanship of the former Secretary General Mark Schober – a “milestone”for many observers. In addition, the executive committee around CEO Andreas Michelmann was re-elected for a further four years in office.