Handball: Alfred Gislason with the DHB team against Croatia and Dagur Sigurdsson

Something special? No, no, assured Alfred Gislason when he looked ahead to the second chapter of Olympic qualification in Hanover on Thursday evening. On the one hand, the national coach was very cheerful after his German handball players’ 41:29 compulsory victory at the start against Algeria. On the other hand, he had already given the impression before the tournament that it didn’t matter who was sitting on the opponent’s bench against Croatia this Saturday. “The opposing coach plays no role in my preparation,” assured Gislason.

But of course all handball fans will also be watching this explosive duel from the sidelines. Dagur Sigurdsson has recently been training the Croatians, who confidently won their important opening game against Austria with 35:29 goals after a slow start. Sigurdsson is not only an Icelander like Gislason, but also always the reference of the current national coach: in 2016 he sensationally won the European Championship title with the DHB selection, and shortly afterwards Olympic bronze.

In the fall of 2014, Sigurdsson took over the team during one of the darkest phases in German handball history and showed a lot of courage when he turned young and almost unknown professionals into national players. When he nominated his first squad, a certain Andreas Wolff was there, who was still playing under the public radar in goal at HSG Wetzlar. All that was known about circle runner Erik Schmidt, who played for the second division club Friesenheim, was that he had shoe size 50. Wolff soon developed into a key player, and Schmidt also played an important role at the 2016 European Championship.

Sigurdsson also surprised with tactical moves in critical phases. When the European Championship was threatened with elimination in the preliminary round against Sweden, he changed his defense system from 6:0 to 4:2 in the second half and thus forced a turnaround. He also refused to join in with the media lamentation about the numerous injuries. “No one is missing, it’s just someone else playing,” he said and nominated newcomers like Julius Kühn and Kai Häfner, who then shone. The national coach at the time, Sigurdsson, was only interested in things that he could change himself.

Gislason, on the other hand, is accused of acting too conservatively and sticking to routine. A symptom of this was his repeatedly expressed hope of being able to persuade Kiel pivot Hendrik Pekeler to make a comeback. In addition, many experts characterize the attacking game as stereotyped and predictable. Moments of surprise are indeed rare. The only person who openly expresses such allegations and vehemently calls for the 2021 junior world champions to be integrated into the DHB selection is Bob Hanning. The Füchse Berlin manager also acts as a lawyer on his own behalf, as young professionals like Nils Lichtlein come from his club.

Although the German team achieved the minimum goal of the semi-finals at the European Championships in January, Hanning criticized the performance and spoke to the hearts of many fans. Gislason countered this criticism by pointing out that Hanning was “not a luminary of world handball.” The national coach is still under heavy pressure in Hanover. If the DHB selection misses participating in the Olympics in Paris in 2024, it would not only be one of the darkest chapters in his successful career, in which he led THW Kiel and SC Magdeburg to the Champions League title, but also his end as national coach.

Sigurdsson, who had already led Japan to the Asian Championships and thus secured their Olympic ticket, can’t do much wrong this weekend in Hanover. He calmed and calmed the nervously frayed Croatian team, which had experienced a disaster at the European Championships with eleventh place, with his coolness in the important opening game. He described his debut for Croatia as a “brutal experience”. “I’ve never experienced that before, training for three or four days and then playing a game like that where everything is on the line.” Players like Ivan Martinovic praised the coach for keeping calm and supporting them. In any case, even with a five-goal defeat against Germany, Croatia would still have everything in their own hands to secure their Olympic ticket with a win against Algeria on Sunday.

In addition to the differences in approach, it is also no secret that the two coaches are not considered the best of friends. On the one hand, they belong to different generations: the 64-year-old Gislason and Sigurdsson, who is 14 years younger, have never played together for Iceland. On the other hand, friendships are generally quite rare among top handball coaches.

Nevertheless, Gislason was anxious not to jazz up this topic. We’ve known each other from the Bundesliga for so long, he said. There they dueled between 2009 and 2015, when Gislason coached THW Kiel and Sigurdsson coached Füchse Berlin. The Kiel team’s storm run to a 37:23 victory on the last matchday of the 2013/14 season, which brought the THW the championship title because they were two goals better than the Rhein-Neckar Löwen, will never be forgotten. As newly crowned cup winners, Sigurdsson’s team was accused of having an unprofessional attitude.

The three current German national players who won the European Championship title under Sigurdsson in 2016 – in addition to goalkeeper Wolff, these are left winger Rune Dahmke and pivot Jannik Kohlbacher – the opposing coach certainly enjoys a lot of respect. “It will be a special game because he knows us very well,” said Dahmke in Hanover: “We all know that something surprising can happen with Dagur at any time.”