Sebastian Firnhaber hits three times, Antonio Metzner sits in the stands –
January 15, 2021 8:10 pm
Johannes Golla and colleagues were able to warm up wonderfully against Uruguay.
15.01.2021
Photo: Sascha Klahn, dpa
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On Friday there was more bad news from Egypt than good. The Danish international Emil Jakobsen tested positive for Covid-19, he and his roommate Morten Olsen were immediately isolated from the team of the tournament favorite. Only the evening before, four positive cases with the German group opponent Cape Verde had become known, which is why its opening match against Hungary was on the brink for a long time. It did take place anyway, but the handball players’ feeling of security in the obviously holey Egyptian World Cup bubble did not improve this fact either. Especially since the teams from Slovenia and Brazil and even among the journalists had reported further infections.
In this mixed situation, concentrating on the essentials, the sport, should not be easy for the German handball players, but they have their own methods: To be on the safe side, they ate breakfast in their hotel rooms on the morning of the first group game against Uruguay. Sebastian Firnhaber and Antonio Metzner from HC Erlangen share such a room, so the duo had breakfast together, but only one of them stood on the square in the evening: Defender Firnhaber. National coach Alfred Gislason did without Metzner in his 16-man matchday squad, as well as Moritz Preuss, Lukas Stutzke and, surprisingly, goalkeeper Andreas Wolff.
Instead, Johannes Bitter stood between the German posts from the start, Firnhaber defended in front of him in the middle block from minute one. It quickly became clear that the South Americans shouldn’t be a particularly big challenge for the DHB team. After 17 minutes there was a German 8-1 lead on the scoreboard, but this was mainly due to the fact that captain Uwe Gensheimer and Co. made numerous mistakes. Despite a clear lead, the German game bumped and then there was also bad luck: Uruguay’s Bruno Valentin Mendez Suarez caused a moment of shock in the 26th minute when he accidentally hit Firnhaber in the face with a throw from the center line, Erlanger had to go a bleeding wound on the bench to be treated.