Andreas Wolff made himself very long again. But somehow he managed to fish the ball out of the upper left corner and not only prevent the goal from being conceded, but also provide an assist at the same time. Because the goalkeeper of the German handball team immediately passed the game device well over the center line, where his teammate Luca Witzke was already waiting and was able to successfully complete the attack.
Once again Wolff had laid the foundation for a goal, as so often in the first game of the World Cup, which the DHB team won against Qatar on Friday evening 31:27 (18:13).
The relief was correspondingly great, also because the respect for the opponent had been great in advance. Because encounters with Qatar in the past have not necessarily been crowned with success. Six years ago, for example, the DHB selection had to accept a bitter defeat in the World Cup round of 16, which initiated the rapid fall after the brief high of the European Championship title.
Qatar has also been criticized for handball
Also memorable were the events of 2015, when the team were unluckily eliminated in the quarter-finals by the hosts and eventual silver medalists at the World Cup in the desert country – accompanied by suspicious comments about the questionable refereeing performance.
Because after the emirate had spared no expense or effort to sell itself to the world with what was probably the most expensive handball World Cup of all time, the rumors did not stop at alleged referee manipulation.
Even then, the ranks were filled with hired spectators, Qatar had also spent a lot of money and strengthened the squad with handball players from all over the world, who were naturalized without further ado.
Even back then, there was debate about how sustainable the extensive investments would be – and from today’s perspective it can be said that it was worth it, at least in sporting terms. The desert state is the only non-European nation that has ever made it into a World Cup final and can currently look back on five Asian championship wins in a row.
In the final phase, the flow of the game is missing
Under Spanish coach Valero Rivero, the nation has developed into a serious opponent in handball, which still relies on top performers such as Cuban-born Rafael Capote and Tunisian-born Youssef Ben Ali, but also has more and more Qatar-born players can.
Against Germany, however, Rivero started with his experienced seven, which quickly had its problems against the almost flawless German team. If only because Wolff had already made twelve saves by the half-time break.
After ten minutes of play, the scoreboard in the Spodek Arena in Katowice announced an 8:4 lead, which has since been extended to a plus of seven goals. Juri Knorr confidently converted the seven-metre throw, Kai Häfner repeatedly fought his way through the opposing defence, and the wingers converted their chances extremely confidently.
After a good quarter of an hour, however, the break came, the DHB selection gambled away their buffer within minutes, Wolff even ran into the opposing half of the game to offer one more pass in the stuttering attack. But the men in front caught themselves and extended the lead again before the flow of the game was interrupted again in the second half by a phase prone to errors.
At that moment, however, the Germans could not only rely on Wolff, but also on the numerous German fans who had traveled there. And they celebrated their team loudly – and especially Andreas Wolff.
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