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He often won the duel against Uwe Gensheimer (right): Goalkeeper Felipe González
Photo: MATHIAS BERGELD / imago images / Bildbyran
The new faces:
The German handball players had just moved the game to the left when the ball came to Juri Knorr.
He quickly pulled back towards the middle, faked briefly, kept moving and threw through the gap that he had torn himself - from nine meters the ball landed powerfully next to the right post in the goal.
Such scenes stand for Knorr, who is only 20 years old and is already considered the future of German handball.
The son of Thomas Knorr, top scorer of the European Championships in 1996, should be the defining figure in the backcourt in the DHB selection.
At this World Cup, he is representative of a team that consists of many new and young faces.
The result:
In the next few weeks, the question will also be of how well the hygiene concept of the organizers in Egypt will work against the corona virus.
There are doubts and there have already been numerous players who tested positive, two teams had to cancel their participation at short notice - but the final round has been running since Wednesday and now Germany has played its first game: 43:14 (16: 4) against Uruguay - that was allowed expect against the outsider also in height.
Cape Verde (still an outsider) on Sunday and Hungary (not an outsider) on Tuesday are the other German opponents in the preliminary round.
Commercial break:
In the TV broadcast of the ARD, the corona policy of the World Cup organizers was quickly the subject of the half-time break.
"After initial difficulties, everything is going very well," reported DHB Vice President Bob Hanning and he promoted the tournament again.
The players would have breakfast in their rooms so as not to take any chances, Hanning pointed out.
The international handball federation has also increased the test capacities and is now making cuts every day.
It will be known in the next few days whether the already fragile Cairo bubble will hold.
The witcher:
For the first time Uruguay has qualified at a World Cup finals in handball, and you were allowed to write down a particularly beautiful story for the souvenir album.
In the sixth minute, Felipe González fended off a seven-meter throw against Uwe Gensheimer, making it the first in Uruguayan World Cup history.
The goalkeeper patted his chest proud of the defensive act.
The 27-year-old was followed by many more knockers and a lot of cheers, in the end the goalkeeper from Colegio Alemán had ten saves and 24 goals against (his goalkeeper colleague conceded the other 19 goals) - and the organizer liked the many defensive actions so much that he won González Appointed player of the game.
Overwhelmed opponent:
Not everyone treated the losers with such respect. Bob Hanning, for example, noted at half-time that one or the other of the Uruguayans was "a bit overweight".
The Uruguayan selection is not a collection of professional athletes, most of the players only train three times a week and the World Cup participation was only successful because the tournament was inflated and is taking place for the first time with 32 instead of 24 nations.
According to media reports, there are only a hundred handball players in Urugay.
At break it was 4:16.
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Coach Gislason was also dissatisfied with Gensheimer after the game
Photo: Anne-Christine Poujoulat / POOL / EPA-EFE / Shutterstock
Gensheimer's tickets:
The result was clear, the difference in quality was great, but in the 22nd minute the national coach had something to complain about in his first break.
His team had to become clearer in the financial statements, demanded national coach Alfred Gíslason, and he also meant Uwe Gensheimer.
After the game, Gíslason renewed his criticism of Gensheimer's final qualities - "too much awarded for my taste": In addition to the seven-meter throw in the sixth minute, the top star of the German selection missed three more chances.
But these were more like marginal notes in a game that, given the balance of power, does not yet have a particularly high significance for the further course of the tournament.
Without number one:
The place in the German goal usually belongs to Andreas Wolff, and the 29-year-old is actually intended to be number one at this World Cup.
But in the opening game against Uruguay he was missing from the squad.
But that was not a punishment for DHB coach Gíslason after Wolff criticized teammates who did not come to the World Cup because of the corona pandemic.
Gíslason did not like this criticism, but he wanted to test a different team of goalkeepers with Johannes Bitter and Silvio Heinevetter, and the opening opponent allowed this test.
The outlook:
On Sunday, the German selection will face Cape Verde, the next newcomer to the World Cup.
Another victory is expected, but the Corona issue should then be the focus.
The opponent had several corona cases in the team immediately before arriving in Egypt, and another four were added after arriving in Cairo.
It was not until Friday afternoon that the IHF decided that Cape Verde could take part in the tournament.
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