In the best shape of his life: Patrick Groetzki has every reason to smile at this World Cup.
Photo: IMAGO / wolf sports photo
Patrick Groetzki is now 33 years old, he is the father of three girls. The winger from the Rhein-Neckar Löwen, who is currently playing his seventh world championship in Poland, has already experienced some hardships in the handball business. At the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, to name just one example, he was sent home in the preliminary round because another professional had recovered.
In any case, this Groetzki, whom everyone just calls “Johnny”, smiled happily after the game against the Netherlands. And not just because quite a few experts think he’s in the best shape of his life. He contributed five goals in five attempts to the 33:26 victory in Katowice on Saturday evening in Katowice – the German handball players thus booked the quarter-final ticket before the final main round game against Norway (this Monday, 8.30 p.m., live on ARD).
The right winger showed how harmonious the team structure is at the World Cup. “The mood is always good,” says Groetzki. “But this time there’s a little something extra.” Now that the minimum goal has been reached, namely reaching the knockout stages, they are reaching for the first World Cup medal since 2007, when they took part in the myth-enshrouded “Winter’s Tale”. won the title at home.
“The dream is, of course, that we’ll end up with something hanging around our necks,” said Groetzki. If you don’t see that as a goal, “then we don’t need to continue playing here.” The opponent in the quarter-finals will then be either Spain or France, depending on Germany’s last game against Norway. Who does he prefer? Oh, Groetzki answered with the smile of a Buddhist monk, “I don’t really care.”
Against the fast-paced Dutch, the team of national coach Alfreð Gíslason had actually indicated for the first time that they could do more. And this, paradoxically, because the German backcourt around the young director Juri Knorr did not act at the highest level this time – Knorr, for example, made four missed shots from the backcourt. In addition, the German attackers allowed themselves too many ball losses.
The German offensive machine stuttered a little – and still found solutions again and again. For example that Kempa trick to 26:17, which left-hander Christoph Steiner initiated with a pass to Philipp Weber. The German attack has not delivered such moments of surprise, which require courage and determination, for many years.
But there were other reasons that the German team was able to turn the initial deficit and dominate the game after the first quarter of an hour. Suddenly, that part of the team that had previously worried the coach, shone for the first time: the German defense. There, captain Johannes Golla (Flensburg) and Julian Köster (Gummersbach) worked together with the half-defenders and built an insurmountable wall. “The inner block was fantastic,” said Gíslason.
This defensive wall will of course be challenged in a completely different way in the quarter-finals. Both Spain and France have shooters in the backcourt, requiring German defenders to move farther from the crease. But what also encourages the German handball players is the top form of the German goalkeepers. In the toughest test so far against Serbia, Joel Birlehm (Löwen) saved the win with his saves. Andreas Wolff (Kielce) shone against the Netherlands with a catch rate of 43 percent and gave his front men security.
National coach Gíslason is now in the comfortable position of being able to rest young professionals like Juri Knorr and Julian Köster, who can make the difference, in the final main round game against Norway. The Icelander indicated that it was about distributing the burden. The French and Spaniards, who also qualified early for the knockout stages, also have this advantage.
Either way, the German handball players will go into the quarter-finals as blatant outsiders. “Spain and France have been playing at world-class level for many years,” emphasized Groetzki. But of course there is also an advantage. If you have nothing to lose, if you no longer feel any pressure to meet any expectations, you can play with complete freedom.
National coach Gíslason did not hide the fact that he had already felt the pressure to reach the quarter-finals on Saturday evening. This means that the German handball players, an important side effect, have already secured participation in an Olympic qualifying tournament for Paris 2024. That too was probably a reason for Johnny’s soulful smile. Patrick Groetzki still has a score to settle with the Olympics.
