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Page 1 — The Night of the Giants
Page 2 — A victory that handball players love
Rune Dahmke and Bence Bánhidi are seventeen centimeters apart in height. Dahmke could nestle his cheeks against Bánhidi’s chest when he stands in front of him. He did too. He actually used every means possible in defense. Clinging to him from behind, pushing him, pulling him, all that was missing was for him to start piggybacking. “The good thing is, you can do a lot against guys like that and you’re rarely punished,” he said after the twelfth round. It was as if the boxing association had relaxed its rules for one fight and allowed the welterweight to fight the super heavyweight. The Hungarian cyclist Bánhidi is 2.06 meters tall and is said to weigh at least 120 kilograms. When the Bible was written, they must have had men like Bánhidi in mind for Goliath.
Germany against Hungary, the first of two finals for Germany’s place in the semi-finals, it was the night of giants and titans, a series of wrestling matches and ass-to-ass pressing. Germany won on points with 35:28. The Hungarian gladiators were running out of breath.
Because of scenes like this: Philipp Weber was shooting towards the Hungarian defense in the 50th minute at, as he himself said, 100 kilometers per hour when their defense chief Adrián Sipos impaled him with his arm and dragged him several meters towards the touchline. In the end they both rolled over each other. So at 4 a.m. security stops the discorage, Sipos could be one of the bouncers. Weber immediately stood again, Sipos first had to put his extremities back in the right places.
Adrián Sipos rammed Philipp Weber towards the outside line. © Ina Fassbender/Getty Images
Speed helps against size. They wanted to wear down the Hungarians with lots of quick attacks. “We will destroy them in the long run,” shouted national coach Alfred Gíslason during a timeout at the end of the first half. He sounded like a military commander planning a state of siege. Until then the game was a draw because the Hungarians jumped over the German defense and put 17 of 18 shots into the goal. A new experience for the two German goalkeepers: the balls whistled past them. The Hungarians sank eight goals in the bottom right corner of the goal alone. Climb high, aim low, that’s the best handball artistry. In one scene, the Hungarians had four players in the backcourt and at the circle, the smallest of which was 2.02 meters.
But how many pirouettes can a tree do? The German wingers repeatedly moved into the middle in attack, with playmaker Juri Knorr waving them towards him. The idea was to force the Hungarians to make annoying, constant sideways movements, which worked well the first time, and the second time too, but the third time perhaps the crucial half step was missing
Among the Hungarians, it was noticeable who stayed under 1.95 meters. It was like in the movie Space Jam, with Julian Köster as the German version of Michael Jordan. He could take on the Hungarians. A folding rule fits the 23-year-old perfectly; Köster is two meters tall. And in this tournament, he grows a little more with every game. On the one hand, because as head of defense he has so far organized what always works. But, and this also surprises the national coach, he has also developed into a useful attacker. Once he scored with a Kempa trick, this artistic pass in the air. He scored eight goals, prepared four, and at his highest point a jump height of 71 centimeters was measured. If you add that and the arm length to his two meter height, Köster throws from the three meter board. And because he also threw himself into the fight in defense, he was the greatest of the evening, was named player of the game and, alongside Andreas Wolff, is the figure of the tournament so far.
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Rune Dahmke and Bence Bánhidi are seventeen centimeters apart in height. Dahmke could nestle his cheeks against Bánhidi’s chest when he stands in front of him. He did too. He actually used every means possible in defense. Clinging to him from behind, pushing him, pulling him, all that was missing was for him to start piggybacking. “The good thing is, you can do a lot against guys like that and you’re rarely punished,” he said after the twelfth round. It was as if the boxing association had relaxed its rules for one fight and allowed the welterweight to fight the super heavyweight. The Hungarian cyclist Bánhidi is 2.06 meters tall and is said to weigh at least 120 kilograms. When the Bible was written, they must have had men like Bánhidi in mind for Goliath.
