Germany’s handball players finished the World Cup in fifth place. The team of national coach Alfred Gislason defeated Norway on Sunday thanks to the once again outstanding Andreas Wolff 28:24 (16:13) and ended the tournament with the last reserves of strength.
Captain Johannes Golla, Luca Witzke and Kai Häfner (five goals each) were the most successful throwers for the selection of the German Handball Federation (DHB) in front of 6260 spectators in the Tele2 Arena in Stockholm. With a courageous appearance, great consistency and Wolff in goal, the inexperienced team got a good feeling almost a year before the European Championships in Germany (10th to 28th January).
Germany won seven of their nine World Cup games. After the quarter-finals defeat against Olympic champions France on Wednesday (28:35), Johannes Golla and Co. declared fifth place as their new goal – and achieved it impressively.
The association management expressed satisfaction with the performance. “We took a step forward in the tournament. We placed ourselves in the closest field of pursuers. The style of play and the performance confirm that we have worked our way closer to the top of the world,” said DHB sports director Axel Kromer: “We always had ours chances of victory.”
Germany had also sniffed the sensation in the quarter-finals against record champion France, but broke from the 40th minute. “We’re not yet able to play to our full potential. That’s partly due to the inexperience of the players, but also because of the breadth that the French and Danes have, for example,” stated Kromer.
After the historically bad World Cup two years ago, the team feels ready for the first medal since the European Championship coup seven years ago. According to the wishes of the association, precious metal should finally be produced at the home EM 2024.
“The goal at the home EM must be to take the next step and get into the top four,” demanded DHB President Andreas Michelmann. And Kromer added: “Everyone who is present at the final weekend obviously wants to go to the final.”
The framework for this will be right. The DHB has already sold 40,000 tickets for the opening game in the soccer arena in Düsseldorf. For the German games in the preliminary round venue Berlin, 50 percent of the day tickets are already sold out. “We have created a good basis,” said CEO Schober.
The appearance against Norway, which had narrowly defeated Germany in the main round final at the beginning of the week (28:26), served as a further encouragement. Wolff with nine saves in the first section alone and a strong defense were the basis for success. In crunchtime, too, two days after the overtime thriller against Egypt (35:34) the forces were enough.