Interviews

By J. Schuetz Indispensable – it was the first word that came to mind while reading Julia Behnke’s announcement to retire from the women’s national handball team of Germany, with immediate effect, last week. Together with team captain, Kim Naidzinavicius, the 27-years old line player called it quits – for now. A bit more color was provided via social media, …

By J. Schuetz It’s Day 5 at the Men’s IHF World Cup 2021 and the “Bubble” still is not settled properly. Additional infections were diagnosed amongst team members of Cap Verde and as a result the match against Germany was cancelled – a first in the history of the sport. stregspiller.com addressed the challenges of organizing the tournament in the …

By J. Schuetz December 14th, EHF EURO 2020, Group II – Germany trail the Netherlands by one goal in Kolding’s “Sydbank” arena. With five seconds on the game clock, German goalkeeper Dinah Eckerle launches a precise, long-range pass across the field into the hands of teammate, Marlene Zapf, who could not convert – unfortunately. A draw would have send Eckerle …

By J. Schuetz After Croatia’s marvelous run at EURO 2020 and defeating host Denmark in the match for the bronze medal, stregspiller.com caught up with one of the team’s most charismatic players – Katarina Jezic. The experienced, line player (81 international games), who is playing handball in Siofok KC, in the Hungarian league, reflects on the team spirit leading up …

By J. Schuetz Mayssa Pessoa, the Brazilian goalkeeper of Rostov-Don, is one of the many top handball players currently sidelined because of a severe knee injury.  Back in August of this year, she tore her cruciate ligaments, while playing football during the warm-up phase of a practice session. While Covid-19 is on everybody’s mind severe injuries have increased significantly.  Actually, …

By J. Schuetz It’s not only Covid-19 that has plagued the Women’s EHF EURO 2020.  Many of the best athletes in handball have missed this championship in Denmark.  Anna Sen, the Russian Olympic champion, is just one of the prominent names who watch the event form the sidelines. .Allison Pineau (France), Alicia Stolle (Germany), Dragana Cvijic (Serbia) and Anna Vyakhireva …

Photo: stregspiller.com By J. Schuetz The Women’s EHF EURO 2020 made it to the the main round – not necessarily a given after several Covid-19 related scares in the teams of Romania and Serbia in the early days of the competition.  In fact, the match between Serbia and the Netherlands, in Group C, had to be postponed by one day …

By J. Schuetz It came down to the wire and for a moment it looked like the Women’s EHF EURO 2020 (3 .- 20. December) would be cleared from the handball calendar, like so many other events this year. But, Per Bertelsen, the President of the Danish Handball Federation, and his colleagues deserve much credit for keeping the bi-annual tournament …

Photo Credit: Mireya Gonzalez By J. Schuetz 2020 did turn dark not because of the upcoming winter season but first and foremost because of the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic.  Once again infection rates are on the rise almost everywhere and politicians around the world are struggling to find a balance between public- and economic health. Handball did not go unscathed as …