Germany’s women’s handball players are close to pulling off a surprise against world champions France. But their Olympic journey ends in the quarter-finals. Some of the DHB team’s performances are causing concern.
Despite good chances, the German handball players missed a sensation against gold favorite France and were eliminated in the quarterfinals of the Olympic Games. The team of national coach Markus Gaugisch could not take advantage of the world champions’ faulty performance and lost 23:26 (10:13) in front of an impressive crowd of around 27,000 fans. In the cauldron of Lille, co-captain Emily Bölk was the best DHB scorer with seven goals.
The German men can do better on Wednesday (1:30 p.m.). The team led by playmaker Juri Knorr will also face Olympic and European champions France in Lille and, after a strong group phase, have a good chance against the so far weak hosts.
Big gap to the top teams
The women, on the other hand, are experiencing the last days of the Olympic Games from the perspective of spectators. Although reaching the quarter-finals was the minimum goal in their first Olympic appearance since the 2008 Summer Games, the partly desolate performances in the preliminary rounds show that they are still far behind the top nations. “Of course, we thought we would be one step ahead in sporting terms,” said sports director Axel Kromer before the defeat against France.
The landslide victory against Slovenia remains the only success for the DHB team in these games, which had started very badly with the catastrophic defeat against outsider South Korea. What the German team lacks is consistency. Good phases and slumps alternate too often. The finishing is lacking in effectiveness, and Gaugisch’s protégés allow too many simple ball losses in fast-paced play.
Lots of chances, few goals
Neither France nor Germany had ever played in front of such a crowd and so both teams started extremely nervously in the OSC Lille football stadium amid deafening noise. Missed throws and ball losses characterized the first half. After more than eight minutes, the DHB team scored the redeeming goal to make it 1:1. The defense was good, but the utilization of opportunities was poor. After a quarter of an hour, the efficiency was at 30 percent. And that despite the French women appearing more vulnerable than they have for a long time.
Both teams showed a weak offensive performance. Nevertheless, the DHB women felt that they could win against the favorites. 20 minutes before the end of the game, Julia Maidhof equalized at 15:15. Because goalkeeper Katharina Filter made a strong save, Germany was suddenly very close to a sensation. But then their nerves failed again when it came to scoring and France fought their way into the semi-finals.
Source: Stern
I am Pierce Boyd, a driven and ambitious professional working in the news industry. I have been writing for 24 Hours Worlds for over five years, specializing in sports section coverage. During my tenure at the publication, I have built an impressive portfolio of articles that has earned me a reputation as an experienced journalist and content creator.
