international match
Handball players without a chance against Sweden – Drux seriously injured
The national coach of the German handball team: Alfred Gislason. photo
© Jan Woitas/dpa
The German handball players have no chance against European champions Sweden. In addition, veteran Drux is seriously injured. On Sunday we face Spain.
On the way to the home European Championship in 2024, Germany’s handball players had to accept the next mood dampeners with a bitter 23:32 (8:16) defeat against European champions Sweden and the serious injury of Paul Drux.
In the fifth defeat in the fifth game of the Euro Cup, the backcourt player from Füchsen Berlin tore his Achilles tendon without an opponent’s influence and was therefore out for months, which caused national coach Alfred Gislason to frown even more.
Kromer: “That’s sobering”
“The diagnosis is shocking. It’s a tragedy for Paul and the worst thing that can happen to an athlete,” said DHB sports director Axel Kromer about Drux’s serious injury. From his point of view, there was hardly anything positive in terms of sport either. “That’s sobering and of course not what we had planned,” Kromer commented on the result.
At the end of the competition, which serves to prepare for the title fights next year, the DHB selection will meet Spain, third in the World Cup, on Sunday in Berlin. Then the German team has to show a different face in order to avoid another sporting low blow. The best DHB throwers in front of 4716 spectators in Kristianstad were captain Johannes Golla and newcomer Renars Uscins, each with five goals.
The national coach surprised with his starting line-up, in which there was initially no room for World Cup shooting star Juri Knorr. Instead of the 22-year-old from the cup winner Rhein-Neckar Löwen, Leipzig’s Luca Witzke started in the middle of the backcourt. In addition, international debutant Max Beneke from second division club VfL Potsdam was allowed to play in the right backcourt.
DHB team harmless in attack
Nevertheless, the Gislason protégés revealed blatant weaknesses in the end, as they did in the two clear defeats against world champion Denmark, which the national coach loudly criticized during the first time out. After a quarter of an hour, the DHB team was clearly behind at 3:8 because too many chances were carelessly given away.
The fact that the game was not decided early was mainly due to goalkeeper Andreas Wolff. The 32-year-old made a few brilliant saves, but was left alone too often by those in front. Because there was no improvement in attack despite Knorr being brought in, the gap grew to eight at 6:14 and shortly after the change at 8:18 even to ten goals.
That became a side issue, however, when Drux went down screaming in pain during an unchallenged attack and hobbled off the floor after a break in treatment. The devastating diagnosis for the 28-year-old was not long in coming and spoiled the mood enormously.