Mood dampener against the secret favourites: Germany's handball players gambled away a win on the home straight in the penultimate World Cup endurance test.
The team of national coach Alfred Gislason lost to Iceland on Saturday in Bremen 30:31 (18:14) and gave up a temporary six-goal lead six days before the start of the World Cup.
In front of 8,872 spectators in the sold-out Bremen ÖVB Arena, playmaker Juri Knorr and captain Johannes Golla, each with six goals, were the best throwers for the selection of the German Handball Association (DHB), which played consistently for a long time, but then lost the thread due to personnel changes .
In an exciting final phase, Iceland recovered from the interim 23:17 (41st) from a German perspective.
The Gislason team is already testing again on Sunday (3:30 p.m./zdf.de) in Hanover at the dress rehearsal for the tournament in Poland and Sweden (January 11 to 29) against Iceland, who finished sixth at the European Championship.
The team will then move to the Barsinghausen sports school for final preparation, with departure for the preliminary round venue in Katowice on Thursday.
Gislason had repeatedly described his compatriots as "secret favorites" for a World Cup medal.
And in the first encounter with his home country as national coach, the 63-year-old saw at first how “his Isis” got off to a strong start.
The guests from the volcanic island punished German mistakes in the offensive at the beginning ice cold.
After the first DHB hit by Philipp Weber after about four minutes, the German game stabilized.
The cover for Andreas Wolff initially had problems, especially with Gisli Porgeir Kristjansson from Magdeburg.
But on the other hand, Germany was becoming more and more dangerous.
Patrick Groetzki scored the first lead at 7:6 (12th).
Knorr, who has played a fantastic Bundesliga season with the Rhein-Neckar Löwen so far, often found playful solutions in the playmaker position with a good overview - and if not, he took the shot himself.
The defense also adapted better and better to the Icelandic game.
The reward: A four-goal lead that Germany successfully brought through to the break.
"Juri took matters into his own hands and staged the others well," praised DHB sports director Axel Kromer on the ZDF microphone during the break.
Gislason, Iceland's national coach from 2006 to 2008, tried a lot.
In the inner block, Golla, shooting star Julian Köster and Simon Ernst rotated through.
All in all, the defense wasn't perfect, but it was already very decent.
Even when Iceland reduced to a goal immediately after the restart, the DHB selection initially kept a cool head - and hit back strongly: Rune Dahmke increased from left wing to 23:17 (41st).
Gislason now brought the "back-ups" Joel Birlehm in goal and Luca Witzke in the middle, now the German game became more uncertain, Iceland took advantage of this and passed.
In Poland, Germany will meet Asian champions Qatar in preliminary round group E on Friday (6 p.m., in the FAZ live ticker for the handball world championship and ZDF).
Other opponents in the battle for the main round are Serbia on January 15th and Algeria on January 17th.