TOP 5 IMPRESSIONS of the World Handball Championship 2023 Final
In the final, they beat France 34:29, and thus the story that began in 2019 in Herning and continued in Cairo two winters ago came to an end.
DESCENT OF THE MASTER
Nikola and Mikkel. Mikkel and Nikola. Both of them in the “autumn of their great careers”. In a health problem that has become problematic for both of them in the past period. This was not their final. Karabatić tried, but after the ankle injury that kept him out of action for the previous four days, it wasn’t meant to be at this level. On the other hand, Mikel enjoyed the rhapsody of the guys who succeed him and settled for the role of assistant. It is hard to expect to see more of them in leading roles. The year of birth does not forgive anyone. Their biographies are a foundation for everything we see now on the playing court.
DANISH SNAKES
Simon Pytlick and Matias Gidsel. The generation of 2000 and 1999. While Gidsel positioned himself a long time ago and came as a “final solution” to the main headache of Danish handball – the position of right back, such an explosion of Pytlick in the situation where Hansen, Lauge, Holm, Mensah are ahead of him in terms of age and rating, no one could predict. Both “without muscles”, with a long stride, a technique in speed, speed in technique, something that no other national team has. They destroyed the French defense, which was objectively waiting for Mikkel Hansen. They did not meet him. They got something worse.
X FACTOR
Rasmus Lauge. There are players who show their best in the national team and not in the clubs, and that is exactly this Danish gentleman born in 1991. A passer-by through Kiel, with “you should more” impression in Veszprem, the only “ding dong” he made wearing the SG Flensburg jersey, but that’s why he’s like a fish in water in the national team. Practically from the stands, considering that during the tournament he was more in tracksuits than in a jersey, he entered and destroyed the French in the second half with 10 goals.
FRANCE WITHOUT TOOTH
Nedim Remilly deserved the title of MVP in case France won the gold. The great right-back filled all the holes, in attack and defense, except that he had not yet keep goal-line instead of Gerard and Debonnet. Dika Mem was not that Dika from Barcelona. What the French lacked most, however, was raw power at left back. Although it was said that “they can do without everyone”, at the end of the story it turned out that the long-range shots of Briet and N Guessan were missing. It went through incredible line-players, but the victories were still brought by the back-line and goalkeepers.
MOUSTAFA WITHOUT SPEECH
There was no Hassan Moustafa in Poland and Sweden for most of the tournament. The temporary 79-year-old president of the IHF returned to say “I declare the tournament is over”. He barely carried the trophy with the help of his assistant, went to one side, and ran into Landin’s frame while he was lifting it. In the last one, he missed the names of medal winners, so now the Egyptian has shortened his presentation as much as possible. Besides, we didn’t even get the presentation of the MVP and the All-Star of the tournament during the closing ceremony. Journalists and fans from around the world were left confused. Instead of Gidsel carrying the trophy in front of a multi-million audience, for that picture to go around the world, the MVP announcement came an hour later in a Facebook post on the IHF page. It’s certainly better from a marketing point of view!?
Long live handball.
PHOTO: IHF, Rafal Oleksiewicz
