Never have Switzerland have qualified for a Women’s World Championship, but that could all change on Tuesday evening.
At 20:15 CEST, live on EHFTV, Kerstin Kündig and her teammates can add another chapter to a truly historical year in Swiss handball.
After a 26-year absence, the Swiss men’s team were part of the World Championship in Egypt in January, as a replacement for the USA. Andy Schmid & Co. even made it to the main round. Three months later, the women’s team have their fate in their hands against Czech Republic. On Saturday night, the side coached by Danish-born Martin Albertsen sensationally tied 27:27 away from home with playmaker Kerstin Kündig the top Swiss scorer with eight goals.
“This result was simply sensational. Never before have we been so close to a World Championship - but still we have to say that the Czechs are the favourites, but maybe not as clearly as before the first leg,” Kündig told eurohandball.com the day before the clash at Gümlingen.
In the first leg, the Czechs were ahead only once in 60 minutes, at 27:26, the rest of the time saw Switzerland have the upper hand. “The Czechs are under pressure, we can be quite relaxed, though we feel this special tension all around us,” says Kündig.
Her side had qualified for the World Championship play-offs by winning the qualification 1 tournament after a draw with Belarus and by beating Faroe Islands. “And this time we were lucky with the draw for the play-offs. Two years ago we were drawn against Denmark and had no chance,” says Kündig.
The Thüringer HC player really loves the way her national team has developed in recent years: “We are stable now, we have a structure in our team, we have a certain depth in the squad and the most important thing is that we always act as a team. If one has a weak day, someone else steps in, we all carry the responsibility on our shoulders, it is not like our team has a big star.”
Another positive step on their upward journey is playing abroad: “The Swiss league is perfect for young players to make their first steps quite early, but to get used to an international way of playing and get to a top performance level, you have to go to other countries. The more players play abroad, the better our national team gets,” states Kündig.