Thanks to a 27:16 victory (half time 13:5) over Argentina, the German handball juniors created an optimal starting position for the main round beginning on Monday at the U19 World Championships in Croatia. Because as winners of preliminary round group G, they take 2-0 points and plus eleven goals (from the 37:26 win over Saudi Arabia) into the group games and could win over the Faroe Islands (Monday, 5 p.m.) already definitely qualify for the quarter-finals on Thursday. The Faroese finished second in Group H thanks to a 34-31 win over Sweden, but will carry a 2-0 point loss into the main round with their 27-29 loss to Iran. Iran, top of the group, is the opponent of the German juniors on Wednesday (7 p.m., all games as a free live stream on the IHF website).
They laid the foundation for the victory over Argentina in defense with pivot Jan Schmidt from TSV Bayer Dormagen as the central figure in the inner block. National coach Emir Kurtagic spoke of a “fantastic coverage performance” and was satisfied overall with the three preliminary round victories: “Saudi Arabia and Argentina were tough nuts. That we win three times as clearly is not a matter of course. Compliments for a great preliminary round and the great willingness that everyone showed. We only have room for improvement when it comes to technical mistakes and converting chances.” His charges made too many misses (18), especially against Argentina, often played too stubbornly in attack and relied too much on one-on-one actions backcourt player. In the 20 minutes after the break, in which he also attacked, Jan Schmidt didn’t get a single usable pass to the circle. In the final phase, Krischa Leis put himself on the top scorers list with a throw from his own half into the empty Argentine goal.
Deutschland: Buchele, Höller; Gömmel (3/1), Anselm, Funke (1), Günther (3), Haake (6), Battermann (3), Göttler (1), Siemer (5/2), Schley (2), Preußner, Bertl ( 2), Leis (1), Schmidt, Hertzfeld
2023-08-06 11:32:21
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