The Swiss can look back on a successful afternoon at the Handball World Championship.
21.01.2025, 19:57
21.01.2025, 20:02
SDA
Not only did they clearly defeat Tunisia 37:26, but two players who had previously performed below expectations also found their way into the tournament.
"We defended better and probably should have won higher, but that's definitely not the focus for me," says Swiss national coach Andy Schmid. For him, it was a mature performance, all the more so as there was understandably a drop in pressure after reaching the main round, the overriding goal. "What pleases me most is that the players believe in the concept and in themselves. There is a basic trust in our fundamentals that we can fall back on if something doesn't go so well."
Schmid also highlighted the fact that "we brought two players into the tournament" as a positive. He was referring to set-up man Luka Maros and left wing Samuel Zehnder, who scored seven and six goals respectively. The former was particularly unable to get going in the decisive preliminary round match against Poland (30:28), when he failed to convert any of his four shots. "The seven goals are definitely good," says Maros. "I traveled to the World Cup with high expectations after the good preparation and wanted to help the team more. After the preliminary round, I told myself that a new week was coming and that I was starting from scratch again. That's why I stayed positive."
After his unfortunate start against the Czech Republic (17:17), Samuel Zehnder, who plays for Bundesliga club Lemgo, was only allowed to shoot one penalty in the other two preliminary round games, which he missed in the 29:31 against Germany. Although Noam Leopold excelled in his position against Poland with five goals, Schmid relied on Zehnder in attack for the entire game against Tunisia, which says a lot about the national coach's approach and is one of the reasons for the team's basic confidence.
When asked whether he doubted himself, Samuel Zehnder replied: "No, not at all. I'm certainly someone who thinks a lot, but that doesn't always have to be a bad thing." He always tries to turn negative thoughts into positive ones. This approach paid off against Tunisia.
