German team before the EHF EURO: double tests in the far north
The first Men's European handball championship on German soil starts in a week - the anticipation is huge, advance ticket sales are booming, it all looks as if the EHF EURO 2024 will be the best-attended handball tournament of all time, with more than a million fans in the arenas. And the German team? Part two of the final preparation for the home tournament has just begun. After two and a half days of training in Frankfurt, head coach Alfred Gislason gathered his now 18-men squad in Brunsbüttel on New Year’s Day. This is the base for the two final test matches against Portugal in Flensburg on 4 January (16:00 CET) and in Kiel on 6 January 6th ((18:00 CET).
And then the journey continues to Cologne, where the team is preparing for the big kick-off with the world record game against Switzerland in the Düsseldorf football Arena on 10 January. “The two and a half days of training in Frankfurt were profitable, without the everyday pressure, the players could only think about the EHF EURO - and you could see everyone was really excited,” said DHB board member Axel Kromer.
Kromer and head coach Alfred Gislason also had to announce some bad news: Hanover’s backcourt player Marian Michalczik will miss the two tests and the European Championship. The 26-year-old suffered a muscle injury to his leg during training. “We had high hopes for the Hanover defence block with Marian Michalczik and Justus Fischer as an alternative to Julian Köster and Johannes Golla. But we will solve this internally,” said Gislason. There will be no subsequent nominations for the time being, the German side is preparing for the European Championships with 18 instead of 19 players. Despite this loss, Gislason was also “very satisfied” with the current state of preparation. “The boys did and do a great job, the anticipation for the European Championships has increased.”
For one player, the first test will be something very special, because there are always premieres for Johannes Golla against Portugal: On 5 November 2021 in Luxembourg, the pivot led the German selection onto the field as captain for the first time - against Portugal. And once again the Portuguese side is the opponent in Golla's first international match in the “home” Campus arena on Thursday. Germany last met Brazil in the Supercup in Flensburg in 2015. The last international match of a German national team in Kiel’s Wunderino Arena was the World Cup play-off against the Faroe Islands on 13 April 2022, which ended with a clear 34:26 win. A good omen for the home European Championship is certainly that the German team's final test took place in Kiel before the 2019 home World Championship. The 28:13 win against Argentina provided a tailwind, and in the end the DHB selection reached the semi-finals - and that is the desired goal this time too.
But first they need to determine their current position against Portugal. The Portuguese had lost nine of their last ten games against Germany, but in their only win they were something of a party crasher. It was the last match so far at the beginning of November 2021, in the main game at German Handball Day in Düsseldorf. In front of over 5,000 fans, the Portuguese team won 32:30. Both teams played their last competitive game in the almost empty football stadium in Stockholm at the end of January 2020 in the European Championship placement game for fifth place. In Christian Prokop's last match as national team coach, Germany won 29:27.
Portugal had turned from the gray mouse of European handball into a serious opponent - sixth in the European Championships in 2020, tenth in the World Championship in 2021 and with participation in the Olympics in Tokyo, then fell to 19th place at the European Championships in 2022. At the World championship in 2023 things got a little better again with 13th place. “Portugal are an ideal opponent for us, a good team that can play quickly and will also pose tasks for our defense with their 7-on-6,” said Gislason, who announced that two players from the 18-man squad will not play.
Photo: Klahn