The German handball players are on the home stretch of their World Cup preparations. Before the tournament starts next week, there are still two international test matches against top opponents.
In the Baltic Sea resort of Damp, Germany’s handball players are slowly getting into the World Cup mood, which will be further fueled with good performances against Sweden.
“All the players are bursting with energy,” announced national coach Markus Gaugisch before the duels with the Olympic fourth-place finisher on Friday in Ystad and Sunday in Lund. And left winger Antje Döll reported: “You can just see the girls smiling.”
Gaugisch is hoping that the double test against the Scandinavians will provide final information and a further boost for the World Cup, in which the DHB team, which has been unbeaten in seven games, starts on November 30th with the game against Japan. “We will go into the games at full throttle because victories help us build self-image. We want to expand our series, but of course we also want to keep an eye on the tournament and try out certain things at the highest level,” said Gaugisch on Tuesday.
Goal: Summer Games in Paris
Since Monday, the 49-year-old has been working intensively with his 16-man World Cup squad on the fine-tuning for the finals in Denmark, Norway and Sweden. “We have drawn up a playbook of ideas that we want to implement. There is a lot in it,” revealed the national coach and noted with satisfaction: “I sense from the players that they want to invest everything in order to be successful.”
In addition to Japan, Iran and Poland are the other World Cup opponents of the DHB selection, whose minimum goal is the quarter-finals. That would most likely secure a spot in one of the three Olympic qualifying tournaments in spring 2024. The Summer Games in Paris are the big dream this season, after all, the DHB women last took part in the Olympics in Beijing in 2008.
But first there is the World Cup, where the German team wants to take the next development step. “We have a strong team together and want to knock on the doorstep of the world’s best. We can get into the top five,” said Döll.
Open invoice
The international test matches against the co-host of the tournament serve as a good assessment of the current situation, as the three-crown team is one of the top nations for Gaugisch. “As of now, I see four teams in the world that have the highest quality: Denmark, Norway, France and Sweden. They have the most variable game. If we continue on our path so greedily, I believe that we first have to see how “We can get close to Sweden. That’s the team we want to catch up with first,” said the national coach to the German Press Agency.
The last win against the Scandinavians was nine years ago. At the 2016 European Championships there was a 28:22, followed by three defeats. The most painful of these was at the 2019 World Cup in the game for 7th place, which meant that the German team lost its Olympic chance for Tokyo.
The DHB women still have a score to settle with their rivals. The focus in both games is clearly on optimizing your own processes so that you can go to the World Cup with a good feeling. “We want to further expand our strengths and incorporate some tactical tricks,” said Döll, formulating the goal.
Source: Stern
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