In the second half, Alfred Gislason’s facial expressions relaxed. However, what the national coach saw for a long time was not really good from the German handball players at the start of the Olympic qualifying tournament in Hanover. They had an unexpectedly difficult time against the African representative Algeria, who actually didn’t have the individual strength to endanger the German team. Only after an increase in performance in the second half did Germany win in a somewhat befitting manner 41:29 (16:13).
The first goal in the qualification tournament has been achieved, but the German team has to improve in the further games against Croatia (Saturday, 2.30 p.m.) and Austria (Sunday, 2.10 p.m.) if they want to end up with one of the two Olympic tickets to be awarded the Summer Games in Paris.
Everything seemed to be settled very early on, Germany started well with their first seven, Andreas Wolff was in goal, the backcourt was dominated by Juri Knorr, Julian Köster and Renars Uscins, Germany led 16:9 after 24 minutes. Uscins in particular, who knows Hanover very well because he plays for the local first division club, scored many easy goals. “He played a great game,” said Gislason with special praise. In the end, Uscins was the best scorer with ten goals.
At halftime the lead is only three goals
But then the break, Gislason’s team allowed the Algerians to get closer again in a way that was almost inexplicable. It seemed as if the number of missed throws and technical errors increased with every substitution. Sebastian Heymann in particular, who was so accurate as the first substitute in the backcourt at the European Championships in January, hardly had a successful action.
Algeria, on the other hand, scored and scored, and the half-time lead was only three goals. “We got into quite a few problems,” said Gislason. Captain Johannes Golla also criticized: “We have to talk about the fact that this is not the way we want to present ourselves.”
After the break, an intermediate spurt was needed with the established forces in order not to endanger the mandatory victory. Now the substitutions worked, Gislason brought on the young Berliner Nils Lichtlein and Franz Semper, who celebrated his comeback in the DHB jersey. “We took better advantage of our chances in the second half, that’s how it happens sometimes,” said Golla. Now comes the game on Saturday against the Croatians, against whom the German team lost at the European Championships. Gislason was optimistic despite the inconsistent performance against Algeria: “We’re looking forward to revenge.”