Led by their outstanding goalkeeper David Späth, Germany’s U21 handball players won the title at their home World Cup on Sunday evening. The German team deservedly defeated Hungary 30:23 (14:11) in the final and thus ascended the World Cup throne in youth handball for the first time in 13 years. After 2009 and 2011, it is the third World Cup title for a German junior selection in the male U21 area.
Man of the evening in front of 8235 spectators in the sold-out Max-Schmeling-Halle in Berlin was again Späth. The goalkeeper of the Rhein-Neckar Löwen showed a number of spectacular saves and delighted the audience. The most successful German throwers were line runners Justus Fischer and Elias Scholtes, each with six goals. The fans sang euphorically even before the final siren: “Oh, how nice it is.”
Hungary initially proved to be a very difficult opponent and proved why they too had won all of their World Cup matches en route to the final. In addition, DHB captain Renars Uscins and Co. seemed a bit nervous after their brilliant performance in the semifinals against Serbia (40:30) and initially missed a number of great opportunities. But after a restrained first half, the DHB juniors turned up the heat in the second section. “You notice: With every single fiber they want to tear it today. With every single fiber,” said former DHB Vice Bob Hanning on the Eurosport microphone.
After the break, the German attack got into the game better. With speed play par excellence, the DHB-Express increased to 17:12 within two and a half minutes. And when Hungary came back to three goals a little later, Späth held the balls excellently again.
Winning the title was also the perfect conclusion to the past two weeks for the German Handball Federation. The team of national coach Martin Heuberger won all of their eight World Cup games and always scored 30 goals or more.
Iceland secured third place by beating Serbia 27:23 (13:13).