The German women handball players, who are weakened by their lack of substitution, have also won the second and final endurance test for the home World Championships. Six days before the kick-off match in Leipzig against Cameroon (1. The team of coach Michael Biegler, who refused to play eight players, defeated the team of Iceland in Dresden with 32:19 (17:12).
The day before, the German women had defeated Slovakia in Bratislava with 23:22 (16:13).
After the successful dress rehearsal, there is still a lot of room for improvement for the World Cup. At first, the DHB team did a lot of carelessness against the Icelandic women, who tended to be rather second-class in the international arena – also due to the exhausting nightly return journey from Bratislava:”It was only at four o’ clock in the morning that the team arrived in Dresden,”said Biegler at Sport1.
We know that we still have to work on each of the building blocks, and we have to be a little more consistent in everything. But the performance is passionate, sympathetic,”said Biegler.
Not used in Bratislava and Dresden were captain Anna Loerper (muscular fiber tear) and backroom player Xenia Smits (finger fracture). Until next Thursday, when Biegler has to name his 16-member World Cup squad, the shattered players are to be spared and there is no further risk of injury.
The anticipation for the opening match on Friday in Leipzig is growing all the time:”We’ve been looking forward to playing at home for months now,”said captain Loeper on the sidelines of the match against Iceland at Sport1, adding:”We have a great team and hope we can take the euphoria with us and push the pressure a little further away”.
The Home World Championship will be the last tournament for the esteemed Biegler. After 20 months in office, he will be replaced by Dutchman Henk Groener:”We now want to reward ourselves for the 20 months,”Biegler said in view of the World Cup. The cooperation with the team is “outstanding. Now it’s time to recall the quality the team has worked out.”
In group D Germany will face South Korea (3rd), Serbia (5th), China (6th) and runners-up Netherlands (8th) next to Cameroon in the preliminary round. The top four teams in each of the four preliminary round groups reach the last sixteen.