The question of his first seven is answered relatively quickly for Alfred Gislason.

On the one hand, the selection of players of international stature is limited in the German squad, on the other hand, the handball national coach rarely appeared as a sponsor of the youth in his Bundesliga years.

Whenever possible, he relies on established forces: no experiments!

But will that work in a tournament with probably at least six games?

18 professionals are flying for the German Handball Federation (DHB) from Frankfurt to Katowice on Thursday for the World Cup in Poland and Sweden.

Gislason will hardly get by there without rotation.

In this respect, the friendlies against Iceland at the weekend were a pointer in two ways.

On the one hand, it was clearly visible who Gislason considers to be the regular cast.

That was not surprising.

On the other hand, the 30:31 defeat against the Scandinavians on Saturday also made it very clear what can happen if the frequent players get a break: "We saw that the first suit fits, but the second doesn't yet," said Gislason.

Then, on Sunday in Hanover, he was determined not to lose again against his home country's selection – he made fewer and later changes;

Luca Witzke, the second playmaker, stayed outside.

Juri Knorr bit through the middle and in the end celebrated with his team a hard-fought 33:31 win.

In Bremen, the DHB-Sieben showed what they were capable of for 40 minutes in front of more than 8,000 fans in the full arena at the central station.

The audience loved it.

Well guided by playmaker Juri Knorr, they pulled away from the Icelandic World Cup secret favorites by 23:17 (39th minute).

Andreas Wolff in goal was in a good mood, the defense around captain Johannes Golla was rock solid.

But then Gislason switched once - and the whopping lead melted away.

"Germany B" afforded a fatal 4:11 goal sequence.

Gislason traded back from the 52nd minute to avert defeat, but Iceland kept the momentum.

"With the changes came a break, but in the end we made too many technical mistakes with the regular team," said the national coach.

That was true - and what he meant was Juri Knorr, who in the end dared too much to make this first of two tests before the World Cup positive.

"That mustn't happen to me," said the 22-year-old director of the Rhein-Neckar Löwen.

“The atmosphere is outstanding”

With all the strength of the Icelanders, it was amazing how little the exchanged Luca Witzke, Paul Drux and goalkeeper Joel Birlehm could think of to break the wave of men from the volcanic island.

Gislason had to say that he still thought he was the second cast, because the impressions of the training sessions in Hanover were promising: "The atmosphere is outstanding, I noticed immediately how much fun they are having.

Everyone fulfills their function in the team without selfishness.

We've come a long way in a short space of time.”

Nobody was alarmed under the impression of Saturday.

"It's the purpose of such a test game to try it out," said Kiel left winger Rune Dahmke, who - like everyone in the German team - naturally preferred to emphasize the strong first 40 minutes.

The DHB selection started in a similarly convincing manner on Sunday afternoon in Hanover;

19:14 was the break.

10,000 spectators in the arena on the former Expo site gave the DHB a full house.

This lead was mainly due to Juri Knorr and his mixture of goal threat and game control.

Andreas Wolff in goal also had his share.

Because Gislason let Julian Köster play in attack and Philipp Weber stayed on the bench, the German backcourt had even more power than on Saturday until the break.

But just like the day before, the Germans got the opposition back in the game – without Wolff in goal, there was a lack of support and when the Icelanders started marking more aggressively, Gislason's team struggled.

Which was particularly remarkable given that Iceland were without two of their best players, Omar Ingi Magnusson and Aron Palmarsson.

They watched the whole thing relaxed from the stands and saw their team lose because the Germans got through the game thanks to late goals from Julian Köster and strong reflexes from Andreas Wolff.

Now it's a little easier to travel to Poland.