Johannes Golla has already experienced a lot in handball, but not yet: twelve goals in an international match, that was a first for the captain of the national team. “It hasn’t happened that often in general,” he said. “We pivots are happy when we get a ball or two, and today there were a few more.”
Unfortunately, there was something else that Golla had to talk about on Thursday evening, and he probably hasn’t experienced it very often in this form. That “total failure” after the break when the Swedes pulled away from 19:16 to 25:16. And even if the German team was given a friendly farewell by the Mannheim audience after they had worked their way up to 33:37 in the new competition called EHF Euro Cup: The start of the World Cup preparations, which was actually the point, went horribly wrong .
Gislason speaks of “tuition”
A little later, Alfred Gislason sat in the press conference, clearly disgruntled. While Glenn Solberg, the Sweden coach, cascaded the word ‘super’, Gislason studied the slip of paper with the match dates as if he had just received an estimate from a craftsman’s company. The national coach spoke of “learning from lessons” and that the Swedes were “at least two classes better” at times.
When looking for the causes, he mentioned the many ball losses and technical errors, but then came to speak of a topic that has been bothering him for a long time. “We tested in defense who can stand where,” said Gislason. “And let’s put it this way: We have to keep testing.” Golla in the inner block was “outstanding”, but otherwise the defensive, from which Patrick Wiencek has said goodbye permanently and Hendrik Pekeler at least for the time being, is “a big construction site”.
Gislason could feel like a desperate homeowner with water coming through the roof everywhere. In the middle, where Golla’s neighbors Julian Köster and Tim Zechel were no help, but also on the outside, where the German players not only seemed mentally overwhelmed when the Swedes let the ball whiz along the circle as if on autopilot.
Although things went better when the Germans switched from a 6-0 to a 3-2-1 defense, the Swedes had already switched to energy-saving mode. With all the quality that a European champion brings with him – it seemed a bit disillusioned what Golla stated: “Of course we have to play better defense with more emotions if we want to achieve something again at some point.” Also Paul Drux, one of the most experienced in the team, said that with 37 goals conceded, it was clear what was the priority to work on.
This Saturday (8:15 p.m. on sportschau.de) the Germans continue in the Euro Cup against Spain in Jaen. In addition to Golla, someone else will be able to try his hand at the European Championship runner-up, Sebastian Ernst, who was nominated to replace the injured Lukas Stutzke. However, there is a punchline behind it that Gislason finds only partially funny. “The absurd thing about it is that he’s an attacking specialist in Leipzig at the moment,” he said. And that, even if he didn’t elaborate, that was exactly why he hadn’t invited him at first. “We’ll have to see how he rediscovers his defensive work,” Gislason said with a shrug.
The national coach is used to improvising, but he seems to find it difficult to get used to having to do it at a manageable level. It was almost black humor with which Gislason spoke about it. “I’ve had most of them here who play in the league and have a German passport,” he said of his options.
The Swedes came too often and too freely to throw at the German goal.
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Image: dpa
Do the players concerned and therefore the team see it as so constructive? In any case, Gislason can hope that Julius Kühn, a backcourt shooter of stature, will return by the time of the World Cup in January. He can assume that Fabian Wiede will bring in more ideas. With the sealing work, however, things could go the way you know it from other construction sites: Good craftsmen are damn hard to come by right now.
