Dream of a medal shattered: The German women’s handball team has crashed at the home World Cup. The team of national coach Michael Biegler lost to the European Championship fourth Denmark in Magdeburg after a desolate attacking performance with 17:21 and missed the target clearly. The last World Cup medal won the DHB selection ten years ago with bronze.
Backroom player Xenia Smits could not prevent the second defeat in Magdeburg with her six goals. For Biegler it was the last game as DHB coach.
The 56-year-old changes to SC DHfK Leipzig, the men’s Bundesliga team, and the Dutchman Henk Groener takes over on 1 January. January the German team.
“Now the whole World Cup starts all over again,”Biegler explained before the knockout match. Contrary to the disastrous appearance in the final group game against Vice World Champion Netherlands, his ladies started in front of 4133 spectators much more concentrated and after 13 minutes led 5:4.
But in the middle of the first half, however, there was a break in the German game. Again and again the inhibited hosts failed because of the outstanding goalkeeper Sandra Toft, technical mistakes led to ball losses and invited the three-time Olympic champion to simple goals.
In two 6:4 overcount situations, the DHB team had no goals of their own, and Svenja Huber and captain Anna Loerper also failed by seven meters.
Despite a strong goalkeeper Clara Woltering and a decent defence, the sixth place in the European Championship was trailing 5:8 after 21 minutes due to his offensive weakness.
Biegler tried to calm down his ladies in a time-out, but they still went into the break with a four-goal gap.
The German game remained faulty and too easy to calculate even after the change. The loud support of the audience didn’t help at all. At 9:14, Biegler took the next break.
The national coach spoke loudly to his players, and he addressed the deficits clearly. Only seconds later, however, Lone Fischer also missed the third German seven-metre mark. Biegler let himself fall stunned on the bench and buried his face in his hands.
“Such mistakes simply leave you speechless,”said former world handball player and Sport1 expert Daniel Stephan. Loerper converted the fourth seven-metre to 10:14, but the quality was not good enough for a chase to catch up.
The best chances were missed in a row. Even Woltering with her numerous parades couldn’t save anything. Minutes before the final whistle, the first players had tears in their eyes.