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The quarter-finals are mandatory for the German national team

2023-01-12T17:56:09.108Z


The quarter-finals are mandatory for the German national team Created: 01/12/2023, 18:38 World class is Germany's backcourt player Juri Knorr (Wednesday, Rhein-Neckar Löwen), who could hardly be stopped in the 33:31 friendly win against Iceland. The playmaker contributed 13 goals to the successful World Cup dress rehearsal in Bremen; eight per seven meter. © Carmen Jaspersen/dpa The officials a


The quarter-finals are mandatory for the German national team

Created: 01/12/2023, 18:38

World class is Germany's backcourt player Juri Knorr (Wednesday, Rhein-Neckar Löwen), who could hardly be stopped in the 33:31 friendly win against Iceland.

The playmaker contributed 13 goals to the successful World Cup dress rehearsal in Bremen;

eight per seven meter.

© Carmen Jaspersen/dpa

The officials and coaches from the district have a lot of confidence in the German national team at the World Cup in Poland and Sweden;

At least the quarterfinals.

Bad Tölz-Wolfratshausen – After the football World Cup is right before the Handball World Cup – this is true this year insofar as the Argentinians shot their way to the title only three weeks ago.

Yesterday, co-hosts Poland and six-time record champions France opened the 28th men's title fights in Katowice - with a laborious 26:24, France finally prevailed against the outsiders.

The second host is Sweden and is therefore also very popular, at least as a medal candidate.

The German national team will start the tournament against Qatar this Friday (8.30 p.m., live on ZDF) and will also compete against Serbia and Algeria in the preliminary round.

At his fourth major tournament, national coach Alfred Gislason can finally concentrate fully on his team and their performance on the floor.

The World Cup and Olympics two years ago, as well as the European Championships in 2022, were subject to significant corona restrictions and made it very difficult for Gislason to make his debut because he was almost never able to field the nominally strongest team.

Georg Clarke, BHV President © private

It's different this time, and the expectations among the handball fans in the district are not exactly low after twelfth place at the World Cup in Egypt: The semi-finals should be nice in view of the home European Championship next year.

That's how high Anni Leismüller bluntly sets the bar: "Germany come as a surprise team to the semi-finals," predicts the coach of the women's handball team at SC Gaißach.

Leismüller chose "France and Denmark as almost always, and with the home advantage in the back this time also Sweden" as the top favourites.

However, public viewing is not planned for the SCG, as there is no "real clubhouse".

"Our new hall isn't quite finished yet," regrets the Gaißach trainer.

"But privately, the women's team will come together in small groups, follow the World Cup intensively and keep their fingers crossed for our team."

Manuel Sauer, coach of the handball team at HSG Isar-Loisach, comes to a very similar assessment: "I think Germany will make it to the semi-finals." Like Leismüller, he classifies France and Denmark as favorites for the title, and concedes Spain outsider chances.

German squad well staffed, especially in width

Sauer sees the German squad well occupied, especially in terms of width.

In his opinion, however, two players stand out: On the one hand, backcourt player Juri Knorr from the Rhein-Neckar Löwen, who has already reached world-class level, although he is only 22 years old.

Also one of the best in the world is goalkeeper Andreas Wolff, who is between the posts at Polish club KS Kielce (Champions League winners 2016).

Germany, on the other hand, is “not so well occupied” on the right wing and half-left.

The handball players from Wolfratshausen and Geretsried don't want to sit together in front of the television for the time being.

"But maybe we'll take a look together when we're heading towards the semi-finals." Basically, the coach also likes to watch the games alone.

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Anna Leismüller, coach SC Gaißach © Sebastian Widmann

Georg Clarke doesn't want to lean too far out of the window.

"The team is not predictable," believes the President of the Bavarian Handball Association.

“There are a lot of new players with us.

In addition, we are facing a major event in Germany with the European Handball Championship 2024, which is clearly the focus of the national team," explains Clarke.

"I trust the team to do everything up to fifth place." The minimum goal is the main round, since in the preliminary round only the last player has to give up anyway.

Juri Knorr is the strongest German in terms of play, a real 'street handball player'.

He is unpredictable as a playmaker.”

Georg Clarke, BHV President

The Tölzer is particularly excited about four players in the DHB team: Juri Knorr in the playmaker position, the up-and-coming talent Julian Köster (VfL Gummersbach), goalkeeper and European champion 2016 Andreas Wolff and captain and district player Johannes Golla (SG Flensburg-Handewitt).

"Knorr is currently the strongest German player, a real 'street handball player'.

He's simply unpredictable as a playmaker," Clarke enthuses, "but he still makes mistakes because he's young." He doesn't think Julian Köster is any less talented in the left backcourt, who was nominated as a second division player for the 2022 European Championships in Slovakia and there celebrated his international breakthrough as a shooting star.

Manuel Sauer, coach HSG Isar-Loisach © Patrick Staar

National coach Alfred Gislason also attaches great importance to Clarke.

Gislason is one of the most influential figures in world handball over the past ten or fifteen years.

The 63-year-old Icelander was German champion eight times as a player and coach, and twice the European Cup and three Champions League winners as a coach.

"He's dying to win with a national team."

For the second time - after Germany and Denmark in 2019 - the International Handball Federation has preferred a two-country solution for hosting a World Cup.

This means that the players are faced with greater travel strains - especially those nations that travel far - but it is possible "to take smaller countries with you to such major events", as the BHV official puts it.

Poland alone could not host a mammoth competition like the World Cup with 32 teams.

Georg Clarke has Katowice in mind as a travel destination: if the Germans play there in the main round.

Clarke's secret favorite is Portugal

The 58-year-old quickly listed the medal favorites: defending champion Denmark, hosts Sweden and France.

However, he has a secret favorite in his portfolio.

“Portugal has continued to develop over the past few years.

In youth and junior handball, they even became world champions and runners-up,” reports Clarke.

The performance explosion stems from a project that was installed across the board a few years ago: First division football clubs such as FC Porto or Benfica Lisbon have added a handball department.

“Handball in Portugal has benefited greatly from this.

A number of Portuguese are now playing abroad, some of them also in the Bundesliga.”

Yannic Fuchs, Head of TV Bad Tölz © private

"Luck of the draw", attests Yannic Fuchs to the DHB team.

The new head of department at TV Bad Tölz, who replaced Christopher Jochem as head of handball last April, therefore also takes responsibility for the German players.

"In the main round they only have to beat a more prominent opponent, after that everything is open.

The quarter-finals have to be there.” In addition to the usual suspects, the 29-year-old from Tölzer also has Spain on his radar, “even if nominally they're not in a great position.

They always have good timing and a good team spirit. That is extremely important, especially in such long tournaments.”

Mini World Cup for youngsters on TV Bad Tölz

In addition to meetings within the club to watch and analyze the games together, the Tölzer gymnastics club has come up with something to ignite the handball fire even among the little ones.

"For the e-youth and minis, we're doing a mini World Cup, where each team represents a country," reveals Fuchs.

With so much enthusiasm, the motto for Alfred Gislason's team over the next two weeks must be: don't hesitate.

No procrastination.

Always full throttle.

The preliminary round matches of the DHB national team

Friday January 13th

Germany - Qatar 20.30/ZDF

Sunday January 15th

Germany - Serbia 18.00/ARD

Tuesday 17 January

Germany - Algeria 18.00/ZDF

Source: merkur

All sports articles on 2023-01-12

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