After the Czechs’ triumph against Macedonia, the DHB team has secured their semi-final final against Spain (20.30 in LIVETICKER). What is the key to victory? Is Christian Prokop treated fairly? Do players trust the national coach? And who are the guys on the German team?
Prior to the showdown, SPOX editor Felix Götz will discuss with Olaf Bruchmann (editor-in-chief Handball Week), Christoph Dach (Tagesspiegel) and Sascha Staat (district of Ab – the podcast) in the panel discussion on the 2018 European Handball Championship in Croatia.
Olaf Bruchmann: Christian Prokop has acted somewhat unhappily in some nominations, but he is the national coach and therefore has the power of decision making and his decisions must be respected. You have to give him the chance to prove that what he’s been tactically righting is working. That’s why your thesis is justified. You might be a little unfair with him and convict him too quickly. He just doesn’t have a standing. Perhaps it would have been a good idea to give him another two or three years in the Bundesliga to develop. Dagur Sigurdsson already had a different reputation before he took office – also on an international level. He has been training Austria, which of course is not the biggest handball power of all. Nevertheless, he knew how things were going at an EM. Prokop is a very inexperienced trainer, which does not mean that he is a bad trainer.
Christoph Dach: I see it differently. Bob Hanning said that the criticism had become partly personal, but I do not share this impression. Nobody is interested in discrediting Christian Prokop. He has to put up with an assessment of his sporting performance. In the first few games it was pretty tough and a lot of things were shaky, the national coach had a big part in that. His failure to nominate Lemke was his cardinal mistake. He used it to open up a construction site that didn’t need it. Even people who watch handball only once a year will remember that Lemke together with Andreas Wolff was the head of this team in the past years. In my opinion, Prokop has also underestimated the power of the office.
Sascha Staat: I agree with the thesis that Prokop did not get a real chance. People have been very hard on him so far. You have to leave the church in the village. He made decisions that were not popular. But I think that he has given his reasons for these decisions in a technically comprehensible way. I’m too quick to criticize the national coach. It’s his first tournament and the task as defending champion is very difficult due to the expectations.
Felix Götz: Like Christoph, I can’t understand why the national coach made himself completely unjustifiably vulnerable by not nominating Finn Lemke. Bastian Roscheck was now really far from being able to play an important role. Prokop seems to be sometimes nervous during the European Championship, I sometimes found his many changes a bit wild. There is no question that he is a very good coach. If you look at what happens in the social media, it’s weird. Prokop has no standing at all. The impression arises that he is solely responsible for every technical error, for every ball that is not held, for every bad performance. According to the motto: Everything Dagur Sigurdsson did was absolutely right. Everything Prokop does is fundamentally wrong. That is, of course, total nonsense. And don’t forget, friends: Prokop and his team are only one win over Spain to reach their tournament goals.
Page 1: Prokop has not yet had a fair chance in public!
Page 2: The team does not trust Prokop!
Page 3: The DHB team lacks leaders!
Page 4: That’s the key to defeating Spain!
Page 5: This meaning would have a defeat against Spain!