Energy, joy and love – Netherlands’ Yara Ten Holte on Denmark/Norway/Sweden 2023 experience

“There’s a lot of press here, so there are a lot of talks, then training and it’s all just a little bit later than expected. We have to squeeze it all in.”

Netherlands’ goalkeeper Yara Ten Holte is speaking to ihf.info after finishing training on the eve of their 2023 IHF Women’s World Championship quarter-final against co-hosts Norway on Tuesday night.

And her team have certainly squeezed it all in: six wins in a row across a period of 11 days at the Arena Nord in Frederikshavn, Denmark before travelling just over 800km north to land in Trondheim, Norway.

A perfect preliminary and main round
Their six victories have come against Argentina, Congo, Czechia, Brazil, Ukraine and Spain with the Netherlands’ ending that stage of competition as the championship top scorers, racking up 218 goals (36.33 per game).

“We are all really happy about that,” said the 24-year-old to ihf.info about their perfect record. “We had a goal to reach the quarter-finals without a single loss, but I think we also improved our way of playing during the championship. I feel a lot of confidence in the team and everybody's happy – we are playing with a lot of joy.”

That joy is evident with their now traditional post-win dance to the song ‘Links Rechts’ (‘From left to right’ in English) from the Dutch party trio Snollebollekes in front of their travelling fans, the celebration appearing for the first time after that Czechia win.

It was a win which saw Ten Holte pick up the first of two, consecutive ‘hummel Player of the Match’ awards for her solitary goal and 13-save (43%) and then follow it up with 17 saves (39%) against Brazil.

“It gives you some goosebumps, but I'm really proud to be part of the team – if we don't have a team, I'm nowhere,” says the Odense goalkeeper about winning the individual awards.

“It's really hard to play a good match when there is no defence, so I always have to thank my defence. When they are working really hard and you get extra saves, that gives the team a lot of energy.

“When you were awarded with best player of the match award and you turn around to the team and in the back are our fans. I’m really happy, but I’m also like ‘what's happening at the moment?’

“In the end I'm just really happy that we play good as a team. There are some games where I think we should get the award as a team – it’s a team sport and I'm really happy to be part of it.”

The modern goalkeeper
Her goal against Czechia came in the first half after a failed attack from her opponents with an extra attacker. After her defence blocked the ball, Ten Holte picked it and confidently arched it in just the right way over the returning Czechia goalkeeper into an unguarded net.

“I’m really happy when it happens, that’s a moment that doesn’t happen a lot when you’re a goalkeeper,” she explains.

“Sometimes it's a critical situation and it just goes in. Maybe some goalkeepers wouldn't have thrown it but if you feel confident - and I was at that moment - then you just throw it and when it does go in you just feel really happy and celebrate it with the girls around you. It was just my second international goal for the Netherlands and I hope many more will come.”

As handball has evolved into the 7v6 or extra player in attack era, this presents opportunities for goalkeepers to get on the scoresheet with teams leaving unguarded goals in attack, but also more work with the shot-stoppers having to jump in and out of play, depending on the situation.

Teams and players have to be quick for the transition, with those who are best at it, such as Norway and France at this championship, able to score within just a few seconds of the opposition scoring or their attack breaking down.

And Ten Holte is relishing it.

“I love handball as a game when it goes really fast,” said the player, who made her EHF Champions League debut at just 14 years old for Dalfsen.

“That's the kind of play we do in the Netherlands, to have that sort of attacks. Of course, when we have a two-minute suspension, I will run out, and when you run back and make the save which the opponent thinks they’re going to score in an empty goal it is something special.

“In Odense we play a lot of 7v6 situations so it's a lot of running, but in the end, the girls [on court] are running a lot so I should not complain.”

A global, learning experience as part of a team within a team
With Ten Holte and her side facing teams from Europe, Africa and South America, the former Borussia Dortmund player is enjoying continuing to test herself against all styles.

“For the players, it's easier to adapt to specific situations than for a goalkeeper because you mostly don't know the players from other continents,” explains Ten Holte, who played six games, making 24 saves from 54 shots faced (44%) at Spain 2021.

“It makes it a little bit difficult because during game situations you make it up because you haven’t seen that much before, but you want to improve as a goalkeeper, to be the best in goalkeeper in that situation quickly.

“During the game you just want to adapt and learn from it as quickly as possible. This (playing against players from different continents) gives you new information, it’s different and makes it more exciting.”

Along with Tess Wester-Lieder and Rinka Duijndam, Ten Holte forms part of a Dutch goalkeeping trio at the championship. All three have played their part and been used according to their opponents. 

“We have a really good relationship with each other and then with Daniel (Larsson, goalkeeping coach) since September, there's always something unique,” said the player who represented Netherlands at the 2018 IHF Women’s Junior World Championship in Hungary.

“We are three different goalkeepers and just like the different kinds of players here, you also can put different kinds of goalkeepers in goal: which fits the best of the type of playing. That is what makes it strong at the moment for us – that we can change. No matter who’s in the goal, we can play good, we all play a good championship and that’s good for the team.”

Do the numbers matter?
Even having not played in two of their six games so far, Ten Holte has made more saves than the combined total of her teammates, stopping 47 out of 119, contributing to an overall 84 saves from 210 (40%) for her team.

“The most special saves for me are the seven metre saves,” says Ten Holte, who has stopped three of the seven penalties she faced in Denmark. “I really love to play with the players around me and if your plan is working, that gives you another kind of energy. For me, seven metres are always the saves I celebrate the most.

“Sometimes you’re feeling after the match is completely different than the statistics show, so I always keep an eye on what's my own feeling.” adds Ten Holte about the keenness of people to always assess goalkeeping performances in handball through the use of numbers.

“So if you had a 45% save rate, but you still had so many shots you could have taken, the feeling will be a little bit worse than when you have 30% and you save only three shots.”

One number which does mean something to Ten Holte is 38, her shirt number. With more ‘traditional’ numbers for goalkeepers already taken in the senior squad, she had to adapt but it worked out just find.

“When I joined Dortmund I had shirt number 30, and when I moved to the older Dutch group shirt number 16 was already taken, so then I had to decide,” she explains. “I was like ‘okay, I'll keep it to 38 - 8 is actually my lucky number and 30 is the number I started with in my professional career in Dortmund’, so it came out really good.”

Facing the European champions with familiar faces on both sides
The next challenge for Ten Holte and her squad is Norway in the quarter-finals, and it could see up to seven Odense players on court at the same time, five of which – Ten Holte included – from the Netherlands national team, along with the Norwegian pair of Maren Aardahl and Thale Rushfeldt Deila.

“That's a really big benefit,” says Ten Holte about her own national teammates playing at her club. “I know how they work, for me especially in defence I know what I can expect from them and then you can speculate on specific situations when coming to me.

“I had a small talk with them when we arrived,” adds the shot-stopper about her club teammates who potentially could be taking shots against her on Tuesday night.

“It’s a benefit for me because you know how they play, but still, Norway is a team with always a lot of qualities and everybody needs to be 100% there. You can be 100% focused on those two players, but they have many more, so we need everyone to focus on everyone.”

That focus is something which will have to be laser-sharp on Tuesday night should Netherlands want to get through to the last four, following Norway’s surprise 24:23 loss against France last time out and this is something Ten Holte is looking forward to, particularly from a goalkeeping perspective.

“I’m always looking to the Norway goalkeepers because they have always been great and still are. They have come back from injury and pregnancy but still play a really good championship,” she says about the Norwegian pair of Katrine Lunde and Silje Solberg.

“We have a great team. We have a good feeling in the team and that’s really important. We knew that a big match was coming up – either Norway or France – and now it’s Norway In Norway. It's going to be a really nice match.”