Handball EC: DHB-Team: A defeat that encourages?

The German national team showed a clear improvement in their performance when they lost 25-26 against Denmark. However, the position of the playmaker proves to be a weak point – and now Paul Drux is also injured. What remains is the hope that the last match of the main round against Spain (Wed, 8.30 pm in the LIVETICKER) will be a real final for the semi-final.

Players, coaches and officials had the same problem: nobody knew exactly what to think of this defeat against Denmark.

On the one hand, all participants agreed that it was the best German appearance at this tournament so far. On the other hand, however, the Bad Boys had once again carried out hair-raising actions, which made the road to the semi-finals even more difficult.

“We have fought a great battle in which defensive tactics are excellent. In the end, it wasn’t enough because we made two or three mistakes that were punished with simple concedes,”said national coach Christian Prokop, who gave his team a partial “naïve attitude”.

Germany had evened out the match against the Olympic champion over long distances. The defence around Finn Lemke, Hendrik Pekeler and Patrick Wiencek confronted us with all the consequences. Leaving aside Silvio Heinevetter’s unhappy three-minute appearance (0 out of 4) in the person of Andreas Wolff (11% of 31.35%), the goalkeeper’s performance was quite respectable.

It was only when coach Nikolaj Jacobsen let the seventh fielder play from the middle of the second half that the Danes gained the decisive advantage. Superstar Mikkel Hansen (5 out of 10) benefited most from this development, and after a horrible first half of the conversion, he made merciless use of the available space.

“In the 6:6 we defended excellently, only with the seventh outfielder it became difficult”, DHB Vice President Bob Hanning said:”With Hansen you have to leave the defence, which is difficult in undernumbering. He has in his litter at the last moment still this wrist direction change. There’s nothing the goalkeepers can do if the defence doesn’t go out.”

Also in the attack some things worked quite useful after a good start. From the half positions in the rear area, there was considerably more steam than in the previous games. Julius Kühn, who last stood next to himself and was the best thrower of the DHB team with six goals, stood out above all else.

Tobias Reichmann (a goal) was hardly able to make a mark on the outside right. On the outside left, however, Rune Dahmke (4 out of 5), who was nominated and came early for the weak captain Uwe Gensheimer, was all the more convincing.

“To be honest, I’m a little speechless. I had the feeling all along that we really could do it. We fooled everything and did a lot of things right,”said the Kieler.

The major weak point was the rear space centre position, on which Philipp Weber in particular revealed great uncertainties. The 25-year-old worked against an opponent like Denmark, who was washed away with all his might.

“In the end, we know that we still have air upstairs in the attack. Kühn and Dahmke were strong, Steffen Weinhold too. But it is precisely where the game is controlled, i. e. in the centre of the rear, that we have to increase,”said Prokop.

It’s all the worse that Paul Drux has injured a man against the Danes, who can also be used as a playmaker. The Berlin resident was again injured at the meniscus. Drux will have to undergo surgery and will return to Berlin on Monday.

What remains is the hope that this last match in Varazdin against Spain will be a real final. There are countless variations of how to reach the semi-finals in Zagreb.

To put it simply, Macedonia’s last two games are no more than two points. If the leader of the group C preliminary round loses against the Czech Republic, the German team can be assured of a win by late Tuesday evening.

In the event of a victory for the Macedonians, the Danes will have to help marksmen one day later, immediately before the new edition of the European Championship finals of 2016 between Germany and Spain.

There is a chance that Macedonia will lose at least once. After all, star player Kiril Lazarov is injured, his bet in the remaining two games is in the stars.

“This performance against Denmark helps us to look to the future,”said Weinhold:”With a bit of luck it’s all about everything,” and Wolff added:”We played a great game. Many players have shown a different face. I’m sure if there’s a final against Spain, we’ll do well again.”

If this happens, Germany would benefit from the much longer regeneration time compared to the Spaniards. If things don’t go as planned, the DHB team will have to face the rough preliminary round, when some of the points were carelessly gambled away.

This scenario also haunted Hanning’s mind:”We are now dependent on other results, which is simply not fun. Everything was top against Denmark, but we should have taken one more point out of the preliminary round. We weren’t good enough.”