Quite a lot had risen that evening, which felt a little like spring outside the arena after the wintry days. This also included allowing the marathon man of this European Handball Championship a few kilometers less. Johannes Golla, 26 years old, wrestles with other 120-kilogram men at the back, he fights his way through the front, even against two or three heavy guys who are hanging on him.
Circulator Golla spends a lot of time in the weight room; One of his hobbies is to steel the body. National coach Alfred Gislason, who likes to ennoble him with the title “world class,” is reluctant to give up his captain – and then says afterwards, as if he feels a guilty conscience: “I would have liked to have given Golli a few minutes on the bench.” He would have.
In the 35:28 (18:17) win against Hungary, Golla “only” had to work for 51 of the 60 minutes because Gislason often used Jannik Kohlbacher up front. He did his job well, scored four times in six attempts and had fun at Golla’s side against the Hungarian heavyweights: “We held on to the big boys well,” said Kohlbacher with a wink. Golla said: “It was extremely hard work in defense. I had the feeling all along that things were working well with Jannik. It felt good that I just had to cover for a long time today.”
“The door was pushed open a little”
Golla and Kohlbacher as a team was a discovery on this Monday evening, at the end of which the selection of the German Handball Federation (DHB) cheered exuberantly in front of 19,750 people, because the convincing victory over the Hungarians, who were tired in the end, gave them every chance of reaching the semi-finals .
With a victory on Wednesday evening (8:30 p.m. in the FAZ live ticker for the European Handball Championship, on ARD and on Dyn) over Croatia, that would be the case; Denmark is waiting for the runner-up in the Cologne main round. The French, who have already won the season, will meet Sweden on Friday evening. “We have opened the door a little,” said Sebastian Heymann, another positive development with his four goals.
Great satisfaction and also a bit of satisfaction were expressed in the sentences of the German professionals. They didn’t like the festival of mistakes in the 22:22 draw against Austria two days earlier. It was not clear that this team would be able to play not only more purposefully and more balanced, but also more energetically and freshly.
Inevitably you end up with Julian Köster and his eight goals to illustrate this. There they were finally, the so-called easy goals from the backcourt. But you also end up with national coach Gislason. He skipped training on Sunday and instead decided to analyze the Austria game and give a speech.
He is said to have had a very calm, very personal influence on the team in the team hotel at the Cologne trade fair roundabout. The players later spoke of this unusual appearance, impressed and full of respect, without revealing the content. “That just shows that he is a great coach and a great person,” said Juri Knorr.
In the sixth game of this European Championship, not everything went smoothly. Hungary, with its mix of experienced and young players who came second at the Junior World Championships, came out with force from the backcourt and power at the circle, leading 6:4, 10:9, 15:14. This was also because goalkeeper Andreas Wolff didn’t touch anything, which also applied to his Hungarian counterparts. Kohlbacher’s two goals made the score 18:17 at halftime.
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After the change it went from 20:18 in the 35th minute to 23:19 in the 40th minute. Four minutes earlier, Wolff finally got his hands on the ball and became a factor. The same applied to left winger Rune Dahmke. Again he gave the team a boost of energy with his emotionality.
The Germans remained focused and defended passionately against the Hungarians, who replaced the goalkeeper with a seventh field player during their own attacks. When Christoph Steinert made it 28:22 in the 49th minute, the arena got ready to celebrate. “The differences compared to Austria were that we had self-confidence and hit the goal,” said Steinert with a sense of sober analysis.
In the last ten minutes, the Germans led by Juri Knorr offered some nice moves and brought the game to an end safely. The direction was able to record the hit from the successful 2007 World Cup; Handball fans can rely on Höhner’s “If not now, if then” text.
Now the Croatians are waiting for their leader Domagoj Duvnjak on Wednesday – a team in transition that is at the bottom of the table with one point. No reason to expect a sure-fire success: “This is a great team. “It will be just as tough as today,” said Julian Köster. Although it didn’t look “that hard” in the second round – because the Germans had a lot going for them.