Handball World Cup: full bath in testosterone

At 18:15 this evening with the opening of the German opening match of the Handball World Cup between Germany and Korea (Liveticker SPIEGEL ONLINE, TV ZDF) the time has come again: The time to get excited.

As much as handball has lost prominence, public attention and popularity in comparison to earlier - a tournament like that of a World Cup, in addition in the own country, in addition once again broadly transferred from ARD and ZDF, still has the effect, in Germany the To increase the fever curve. In handball games, there is a fundamental Aufgenheit. The atmosphere tolerates the adjective clasped.

A few days ago, author Sophie Passmann wrote a much-acclaimed and much-lauded text on handball in "Zeit" magazine. It was a single declaration of love to the sport. Handball was "the most important sport in the world," it said, among other things, they were "suspicious of people who can not do anything with handball," the sport is also "maximum brutal direct democracy", since every player in the field is equally important.

"Potato German motivation"

The "time" might also have to make up for handball. A while ago, the philosopher Wolfram Eilenbeger had more or less executed the sport, writing about the fact that the handball reflected "a potato-German willingness to perform" and stood for a "blissfully transfigured German terraced house past", the headline at that time was meaningful: "Handball: Die Alternative for Germany". The text had caused a stir after that, even Bayern footballer Franck Ribéry would have jealous, the German Handball Federation was forced to an indignant statement urged handball players felt pushed into the right corner.

The most important sport in the world or potato German? What is it? The sport evidently entices people to demand a confession. Handball polarized to an extent that hockey or volleyball should always remain closed, the community shares so to speak in a team Passmann and a team Eilenberger.

Just in time for the World Cup, sports journalists scrabbled in their personal memory of sore-rubbed knees in their youth and opponents of the village with a broad cross, who could have earned a bit of extra work as built-in wardrobes. This then turns into either wistful nostalgia or to the shard dish.

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In handball, there is still that, the flaming passion and the deep aversion, there is little in between, and that is so, is based in the sport itself. Handball is a sport that not only bubbles, but also overcooks very easily. There is always something going on, unlike in football, where during the 90 minutes you almost always have phases in which you can calmly talk to your neighbor about anything but football, no big moments of rest. Handball is a sport to express diplomatically, which gives little leisure during the game to think about the things of life.

You do not want to interfere

Power, hardness, dynamism, power, physicality - these are the attributes that bring this sport together. A virile sport, shaped by model athletes to the powerhouse on the circle. One does not have to offend the DHB-runner Patrick Wiencek, nicknamed Bamm-Bamm, if one assumes that he would be able to run around one with 110 kilograms without any evil will and turn it into a flounder. It is no coincidence that the European champions of 2016 adorned themselves with the moderately sympathetic slogan "Bad Boys". You do not want to interfere as a normal mortal on the court. Handball is something like German football. Only without protective clothing.

Earlier, when handball was watched every Sunday in the ZDF sports report by millions, I always had sympathy for the winger Peter Quarti of Tusem Essen, who was so helpless and small between all his co-players and opponents and was fortunate that Defense villain Peter Krebs was his teammate. Krebs, with all, but really washed everything, was one who avoided any skirmish. So the classic handball player. A bad boy.

Who ever sat in a major international match in the hall, when it gets tight in the closing stages, when the responsible people with crimson head camped the time table, the coaches screamed hoarsely, who decided to take an umbrella with the next visit, because the testosterone in the hall was not poured with the watering can, but immediately with the bucket.

You have to wait at every tournament just for the moment when the indignation has infected the German television commentator, as a German defeat of the supposedly arbitrarily whistling Schiedsrichtergespannen (like from Eastern Europe) and the man on the microphone does everything, the volume in the Hall still to be drowned out by his overflowing voice.

Handball is man against man, woman against woman. To venture an attack over the back space through the opposing defense chain to the gate, usually with two on the jersey tearing 90 kg heavy defensive players in the luggage, which hang like Kletten at one, is in the matter of courage samples in the sport very high settled. Without aggression, handball is unthinkable. Beautiful spirits should turn around elsewhere.

Team Eilenberger.