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Philipp Weber played himself in the foreground on the backcourt position
Photo: Sascha Klahn / dpa
For the German handball players, the World Cup in Egypt ends with good news.
And with an announcement.
First the good news: The main round game against Poland will be the last for the DHB selection, then there will be no more placement game in which the bones for ninth or tenth place have to be held out again, as in previous handball tournaments has given.
This round has been abolished.
Brazil on Saturday was already a game with no chance of reaching the quarter-finals.
In the evening the next one against Poland (8.30 p.m.; TV: ARD).
But after that it's really over.
And now to the announcement with which the World Cup ends: In the days after the World Cup ended, the German handball federation turned its focus to the Olympic Games in Japan.
In Tokyo - if the games can take place at all - the DHB wants to see nothing less than the gold medal from its team.
"With the balance of the world's best and the reserves that we still have in terms of players, I think that's a realistic goal," said DHB President Andreas Michelmann, who had assumed the quarter-finals at the World Cup in Egypt, and this goal was already for not to provide the weakened team.
Vice-boss Bob Hanning is also sticking to the Olympic target.
He had already given Olympic gold in Tokyo as a target in 2013.
The medal should also be a final triumph for the functionary, whose term of office in the presidium at the DHB ends this year.
Not even qualified for the Olympics
There are still almost six months until the summer games and the present looks like this: After the premature exit at the EM last year, the German team has now failed in the main round for the second time in a row at a major tournament.
After bronze in Rio 2016, she could not win a medal in any of the following major tournaments.
The standard is high, the results are thin.
And for the Olympic Games, which should be gold, the DHB is not even qualified.
The selection first has to prove itself at a qualifying tournament in March, where Sweden and Slovenia, among others, are waiting, so no lightweights, as it may have been Uruguay in the World Cup opening game.
The DHB and its ambitious Olympic goal are reminiscent of a major construction project.
The roof is due to be put on soon, but the concrete in the foundation has become brittle.
Since the groundbreaking in 2013, there have been too many setbacks recently.
After the EM 2020, for example, the site manager was replaced: Trainer Christian Prokop had to leave.
Earlier handball players criticized again and again that Prokop could not decide close games, in times he was not emotional enough and too academic.
The teaching Prokop was an easy target.
He was analytical in his way, maybe a bit cerebral, in the German handball world you had never seen someone like him at the highest level.
He wasn't a Heiner Brand and not someone who knocked on slogans.
In the end, he didn't have a lobby.
Intermediate successes such as fourth place at the 2019 home World Cup were no longer enough as an argument for Prokop.
The DHB saw its Olympic goal in danger after the actually solid EM 2020 and moved away from the coach.
But the discussions about Prokop also prevented a serious discussion of the performance level of the DHB selection.
Small successes, too big steps
Well, in Egypt, with the veteran Alfred Gíslason on the sidelines, there was no coaching discussion.
This time, however, the large number of cancellations is pointed out.
The fact is that no other nation has had to do without as many regular workers as Germany.
Defense chiefs Patrick Wiencek and Hendrik Pekeler had canceled due to the corona pandemic, and their absence was evident in the crucial games against Hungary and Spain.
The team lacked routine and experienced workers like Andreas Wolff and Uwe Gensheimer were disappointing.
Everyone in top form and everyone on board - the World Cup would certainly have gone better.
But sport is also no should, should be, if.
And there is always something at the DHB.
Only the realization that Spain, Denmark or Norway play much more consistently and in a different league and that the German national team is not currently one of the best in the world has not yet been heard from the DHB.
Hungary, which made it to the quarter-finals ahead of Germany, has not even been among the top of the world so far.
Now the DHB selection would first have to keep up with countries like Hungary.
The World Cup in Egypt would have been a good time to be satisfied with taking smaller steps.
Hopeful up-and-coming stars like Johannes Golla and Juri Knorr have only shown good approaches in the important games, but they are worth a lot, the players have collected their first World Cup minutes and good chances of becoming pillars in the DHB team one day.
They are part of a development process that takes time.
And that includes failures.
But it can be good if you give yourself time and calm.
In 2013, the Olympic gold medal may still have seemed an achievable goal, in 2016 the German handball players also became European champions.
But now this requirement only works like a brisk saying that might attract attention.
The goal seems to be a far too big next step that unnecessarily weighs on the team.
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