How the Blues took advantage of the failure in Japan to bounce back

Les Bleues approach the semi-final of the Euro with a lot of certainty and confidence.

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Henning Bagger / Ritzau Scanpix / AFP

• The French handball team faces Croatia in the Euro semi-final on Friday. 

• A year after the bitter failure at the world championships in Japan, the Blues and their coach Olivier Krumbholz say they have learned from their mistakes. 

We dug the box to avoid the cliché "Nelsonmandelesque" of "I never lose, either I win, or I learn", but sometimes you have to face the facts: Madiba's thought sticks very well. in the context of the French handball team, which faces Croatia in the semi-finals of Euro 2020 on Friday. After a Japanese World Cup missed in great widths with an elimination in the first round, the Blue made a point of 'honor to build on Kumamoto's mistakes to bounce back this year in Denmark and defend their title as European champions.

Only a few hours after leaving the Japanese road, Olivier Krumbholz announced on the still smoking embers of defeat: “I think it's a good slap on which, paradoxically, we can build something.

We have lost a number of things compared to the last two years and that deserves to be debriefed with the players.

“A year later, given the almost faultless course of its players since the start of the competition, we can bet that the lessons have been learned.

But before that, let's already send the obvious: the Blue approached this Euro in a state of physical freshness, light years from what we had seen at the end of 2019 where, according to Béatrice Edwige, the players had "all arrived very tired in Kumamoto ”.

“To be very honest, we did not meet all the conditions, individually and collectively, players and staff included, to be able to excel during this competition.

Conversely, this year we had the chance to stay at the handball house for ten days before the start of the competition and we were able to train twice a day under ideal conditions.

We got into really good physical condition before tackling this Euro.

I think that makes the diff.

"

"We have the potential to do even better", assures Siraba Dembélé via @ 20minutesSport https://t.co/66ahjytNEJ

- 20 Minutes Sport (@ 20minutesSport) December 10, 2020

"Participatory coaching is good, but ..."

You don't have to be psychic to understand in this last comment that the explanation for the failure was not just physical.

For the former international Amélie Goudjo, it's a whole that means that at a given moment, things go awry: "It's hard to explain when you've never experienced it from the inside, but sometimes , there is an osmosis, everything fits together perfectly, everyone makes the necessary efforts at the right time.

But last year we felt that it was not that, it was backwards.

"To avoid just that, Olivier Krumbholz and his players have decided" to restore order in the house, "says the coach.

The words are strong but spoken without resentment or ulterior motives:

“The failure of Kumamoto allowed us to clean, to disinfect all that a bit, we reset the counters, I see that as a form of

reset

.

There is a strong desire to move forward together and to progress.

The France team has started a new and beautiful dynamic.

The fact that we didn't see each other for a long time because of the Covid meant that, when we met, we didn't really stop to look back on the past but really with a view to projection.

"

Well, there was still a big debrief of fact with the staff and a whole series of individual interviews carried out with the players.

From there emerged an observation: the bamboche, it's over.

In the words of Olivier Krumbholz, it goes like this: “Participatory coaching is good, but at some point there must also be a form of authority that is exercised, especially in difficult times.

And I think that the return of Siraba Dembélé [the captain, absent from the 2019 World Cup] played a lot.

"" The role of captain is very important in a group and Siraba is very invested in it, she knows the players well, she makes the link with the staff, who also brings a lot of serenity to the group.

I think it did them good to find this stability, which they used to rely on, ”confirms Amélie Goudjo, who will be commenting on the semi-final on Friday on BeIN Sports.

A favorite status that you have to learn to manage

However, Dembélé's return cannot alone explain this tricolor rebound.

For Olivier Krumbholz, there was a mental deficit in the approach of the world championships in Kumamoto.

“We handled very badly having won two competitions [World 2017 and Euro 2018].

When you win one, you are satisfied with your journey, but when you win two in a row, you can believe that you are the custodian of a know-how of success.

And there you are necessarily in danger.

When we arrive with too much certainty and too little questioning, questioning, everything is there to make it go wrong.

There is a proverb that says "you never stray so far as when you think you know the road".

It was a bit like that in Kumamoto, we thought too much that we were invincible.

"

A point of view that Béatrice Edwige wishes to qualify.

“What made our strength for years is that we were advancing in hiding, we weren't too expected since we were the team that never won anything or didn't reach the last squares.

We weren't taken too seriously.

Which is no longer the case, we are no longer put forward, we are no longer scrutinized, notes the pivot of the Blue.

The majority of the teams that play us now say to themselves "if we can hook this team to our hunting roster, that would be great" So I think it is especially the mentality of the other teams that has evolved over time when they play us. .

"

"Rediscover a winning state of mind"

If opinions differ on this point, all agree that the mental aspect is one of the main keys to the success of this France team.

In this, Richard Ouvrard, the mental trainer integrated into the France group since the return of Olivier Krumbholz in 2016 plays a major role.

Even if he also made his self-criticism after Japan and reviewed his methods.

“Before, when he arrived, there was a lot of basic collective work that had to be done, and now we will say that it is more precision work, explains Edwige.

When Olivier feels that there is a little dust in the gear, he tells us "well girls, it would be nice if you had a little meeting with Richard to talk about it all together" ".

And it works.

Amélie Goudjo: "I am very interested in these questions of mental preparation and just seeing them play, I said to myself 'oh well, that's it, something has happened".

I think it really shows, especially in terms of the confidence they exude on the pitch.

"And the coach concluded:" What was essential was to find a winning state of mind. "

So far the Blues are right. 

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