The German national handball team started the main round with an unexpectedly high victory. The selection of the German Handball Federation (DHB) won against completely overwhelmed Argentines with 39:19 (24:11) and presented themselves well prepared for the upcoming tasks.
After the game, the German players were surprised at how effortlessly they had achieved their fourth victory at this World Cup. “We didn’t expect it to be that clear,” said center man Juri Knorr. National coach Alfred Gislason was also very satisfied: “It was an incredibly focused performance. We completely discouraged the Argentines early on.”
It’s true, the Argentines had already suffered significant defeats in the preliminary round against Norway (21:32) and the Netherlands (19:29), but what happened to the South Americans on Thursday evening was far worse. The German team initially made two mistakes, which were immediately concealed by goalkeeper Andreas Wolff. The 31-year-old didn’t need time to get up to temperature.
The Argentines scored eleven goals in the first half and only eight in the second
Wolff not only caused insurmountable problems for the Argentines, he was on the minds of the throwers after a short time. Only Argentina’s best, Diego Simonet, appeared somewhat unimpressed and scored his team’s first two goals. But when Wolff parried his first throw, Simonet began to have doubts and stayed longer on the bench.
And things didn’t get any better for the Argentines. On the one hand, they didn’t have the means to seriously embarrass the strong DHB defense, and if they weren’t careful, there was still Wolff. At times one could get the impression that the Argentines would rather shoot wide of the goal than be duped by the German goalkeeper. The Argentines scored just eleven goals in the first half and just eight in the second.
In the German attack, on the other hand, almost everything went well. Juri Knorr scored the first two goals, then soon there was no holding back. Fine moves were completed safely, the two pivots Johannes Golla and Jannik Kohlbacher could not be stopped by the physically inferior Argentine defenders. Wing players Patrick Groetzki and Lukas Mertens stormed the goal of the unfortunate keeper Juan Manuel Bar with a counterattack. Ball after ball ended up in the Argentine goal.
Accordingly, there was desperation on Argentina’s bench, coach Guillermo Milano waved his arms wildly and tried the seventh field player in the meantime – not a good idea either. Because immediately the ball flew several times into the empty Argentine goal. It didn’t matter what the Argentines tried, they were helpless at times, the debacle had already taken its course. The superiority of the Germans was so clear that Gislason said during a break just before the break: “Play what you want.”
At half time Germany was leading 24:11, so with 13 goals, now Gislason gave his regular staff generous breaks in the second round. No reason for the opponent to give the all-clear either, from now on Rune Dahmke, Luca Witzke or Djibril M’Bengue scored the goals. In the end, the game was an easy warm-up for Saturday’s challenge against the Netherlands, a far tougher opponent who were hardly scary in their 32-30 win over Qatar. Germany is now on six points in its main round group – the hoped-for entry into the quarter-finals is only one step away.