Sport Handball-EM
During a time out, national coach Gislason puts a stop to German recklessness
As of: 8:13 a.m. | Reading time: 3 minutes
Angry with his players: national coach Alfred Gislason was forced to take a break
What: REUTERS
With their second victory, the German team moved into the main round of the European Handball Championship early. In the second half, Alfred Gislason raged on the sidelines. The national coach took a time out and focused on his team. He then explained the reasons.
The start to the second half was promising: with a 3-0 run, the DHB team quickly expanded their five-goal lead to eight goals in their second group game of the European Handball Championship against Macedonia. But then a few mistakes and hasty actions crept into the German offensive game. Nothing decisive in the game, the team won safely in the end with 34:25 (18:13), but enough to set alarm bells ringing for Alfred Gislason.
When the score was 22:17, the national coach took a timeout and confronted his players. The Icelander had identified recklessness and now demanded more discipline. “I told them: We can’t keep doing it as stupidly as we did. “The first person who got the ball threw it from the nine-meter line,” the national coach later reported in an interview with ZDF.
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His words resonated. They seemed to have been ringing in Jannik Kohlbacher’s ears even after the game. In any case, his analysis showed clear parallels to his coach’s comments: “If we used our attacks, we did well. But in this one phase everyone tried to throw at the North Macedonians’ goal when they only crossed the center line,” said the experienced pivot and added with a wink: “After the time-out it worked again.”
The time out that was tough: national coach Alfred Gislason and his team
Source: dpa/Sören Stache
The DHB team increased its lead to seven goals again and even increased the lead to double digits. In the end there were nine, and the performance also made the national coach somewhat mild: “The second half was very good, but in the first half we had too many missed shots, missed some clear chances and didn’t really get into the game yet the movements in defense that we had imagined. That wasn’t good enough.”
The German fans as a factor
His expectations are high, perhaps because he knows that a lot is possible for his team after this start. Two games, two wins, a promising mix of young and old – and an already euphoric audience at the home European Championships. Just don’t let up now. “The 53,000 were of course unique,” said goalkeeper David Späth, looking back at the world record game at the start in Düsseldorf, “but what happened here today was again phenomenal. Berlin, full hut – that’s great fun. I’m already looking forward to the next game. The fans push us extremely hard, they are the eighth man and can become very important over the course of the tournament.”
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That’s how my colleague Kohlbacher sees it: “It’s crazy what handball Germany is doing here. After Düsseldorf, now here in Berlin. The atmosphere is phenomenal, it’s just infectious and pulls you along for over 60 minutes. Just awesome.”