Handball / denmark

trophy photo by Wenflou - Creative Common To begin with, let's summarize it very briefly: In this final, Norway, the last opponent of the Danish national handball team, did not stand a chance. 15,000 spectators in Herning, Denmark, saw a very one-sided final at this year's Handball World Championships, in which the Norwegian team could only keep up in the first minutes. Up to the score of 4:4 it looked as if two equal teams would face each other, but then the Danish team turned up the heat. Niklas Landin - Creative Common photo Wenflou The pattern was often similar, goalkeeper Niklas Landin with his many strong saves made sure that the Norwegians were not successful with their attacks and at the other side of the field it was usually the Danish superstar Mikkel Hansen, who in return sunk the ball in the Norwegians' goal and helped building up his own team's lead more and more. The decisive advantage of the Danes was of course the fantastic crowd, which loudly supported every attack and frenetically cheered every successful action. Another big part played the danish defensive, which throughout the game made the Norwegian players desperate over and over again. And since Denmark, on the other hand, was repeatedly successful in front of their opponent's goal, the fans could already cheer a 18-11 half time score. And so it continued in the second half. The Norwegians failed again and again in front of the Danish goal, who in return scored mercilessly goal after goal. In the meantime, their lead had grown to 26:15. 11 points ahead in a final are clear evidence of a huge class difference. And that against the Norwegians, who two days before had thrown the other host Germany out of their own hall. But after winning the Olympic Games 2016 in Rio, Denmark was finally about to win the World Championship. After having failed twice in the finals so far, this time they could impressively demonstrate who is the number one in handball at the moment. Ten victories in ten games speak for themselves. The many fans in the hall were rightfully enthusiastic and cheering, even if one cannot deny their moments of unsportiness on this evening. Just as they were always pushing their own team, they mercilessly booed at Norway's players at every ball contact. Despite this, I can only congratulate the Danish team on this success, and I too must honestly admit that without a doubt the best team has won this World Cup. In the so-called small final, the match for 3rd place, the teams of Germany and France met for the second time at this tournament. In the main round both teams shared the points, but this time the former world champion France had the better end for himself. Even if both teams would have preferred to play in the real final, all players went highly concentrated and motivated into this game, which remained exciting from start to finish and in the end the happier team won. Shortly before the end at 25:25, Germany was in possession of the ball, but as often in this tournament failed the last decisive pass, which the French intercepted and on their part could successfully complete their last attack. 25:26, the final siren, and Germany lost. That's how you can briefly summarize the last seconds from the view of the other host Germany. Nevertheless, it remains a great tournament, in which the German team could inspire and carry away their own audience. And of course this was also the best advertisement for handball, which has a hard time keeping up with football. But let's simply sum up the tournament in the words of the German goalkeeper Andreas Wolff: "We actually played a great World Cup. - Exactly! Andreas Wolff - Creative Common photo cropped - Sven Mandel / CC-BY-SA-4.0