‘Ambition to not let any goal in’ – Germany’s Filter enjoying world championship life at home

With 15 minutes exactly on the clock, Germany were leading Montenegro 9:0 in the second game of their main round campaign.

Up until this point, a variety of turnovers in attack, steals, hitting the post and saves had seen the Montenegrins unable to breach the German defensive wall.

Four of the saves and one of the German goals came from goalkeeper Katharina Filter, who ended the game as the hummel Player of the Match complete with 11 saves (48%) and three goals out of three.

“It's funny, because she said to me [at the end of the game]; ‘can we please celebrate that it's three out of three – this is 100% and it’s a nice feeling,” said Germany goalkeeping coach Jasmina Rebmann-Jankovic (pictured left below) to ihf.info after their eventual 36:18 win, which saw the co-hosts move into the quarter-finals.

“I always tell my goalkeepers; ‘if the first pass is available, if there's no doubt, just do it’. We talk about what is smart and what is not smart. Today, for example, she had the ability to not only pass the first pass to a wing player, but just throw it in the goal and she did. She didn't doubt and it's okay for me. She scored, she was happy, and we were all happy.”

 

“I'm actually happy about the three goals as normally I miss one or at least one when I try,” adds Filter. “But, today, I was lucky to get those three goals.”

Along with Sarah Wachter, Rebmann-Jankovic and Filter represent the team within the team: the goalkeeping team and nowhere is this more evident than when the coach and goalkeepers are out on court during the half-time break assessing themselves and their opponents in first half and looking ahead to the second.

With seven minutes left of the pause, Filter got up to do her warm-ups ahead of returning to action but up until then her and Rebmann-Jankovic were sat together on the bench discussing what had just transpired in a 16:6 first period, Filter animated, pointing at moments just passed and in deep conversation with Jankovic.

“For me, these moments are the most important, because my first question when we sit down is; ‘how is it from your perspective, from behind the defence, what do you feel and what do you see?’,” explains the former Netherlands’ national team goalkeeper.

“When she starts explaining about the way she was thinking about some situations – today in the first half, she was like a magnet – it’s lot more of an easy conversation, but we try to find out where can we fix something; ‘where do we want to give more space?’. These conversations are more based on her perspective from the side, and then I give some of my input. I always like to know from their side how it is, because I'm not in the goal and from the side, it always looks different.

 

“This is the most important for me, and in difficult games, it's the same, then I give extra input if there's something that I've seen from the side, or if we want to change something.

“We have had the situation the other way around, which is not nice, of course and I know that some teams can turn around this these moments,” adds the Bosnian-born coach in relation to her side leading by 10 at the break.

“With this example, it's very important for me to leave ‘Kathi’ in her own head, because she's in the game and she feels good. I just give a little bit of input, if it's about the positioning, for example, or if she has something that she can tell the defence, but, otherwise, I like to let her just breathe through, keep calm and just keep going. It’s nice to start 9:0 but there were still 52 minutes left and that too long to already start to relax.”

And for Filter, this moment to reset and refocus is one built on a common goalkeeping bond and the pure element of trust amongst each other.

“We talk about the game, we talk about the team, about the fans, just everything that's on my mind, on her mind, just letting it out. It's really important for me that all three of us have this good relationship together. We have trust together; me, Jasmina and Sarah and we talk about everything,” says Filter about those minutes just before battle rages for another 30 minutes.

“Also, we are just enjoying those last few minutes on the bench to see what the team is able to do. It’s pure joy.”​​​​​​

That pure joy is evident with Filter, producing another big smile, this time when asked about what it was like to be 9:0 and playing behind such a strong German defensive line.

“I have to say it was impressive what the defence did today. It’s showing what we were able to do and what our potential is,” said the Buxtehuder SV goalkeeper.

“It's so much fun to see that we have this potential to lock down a team with Champions League players and to just be there from the start, not giving them any chances. This is something what gives a lot of trust and makes me proud of this team. If we continue like this, we can develop even more.”

 

Underpinning that development is a ruthlessness which was clearly stated by one half of the defensive block along with Emily Vogel, Aimee von Pereira, saying in the pre-match media call before the Montenegro game that her goal was to make teams ‘…no longer want to attack me because it hurts’.

“Yes, that's our goal,” says Filter with another big smile. “It's just this ambition that we have to not let any goal in, to just be annoying, to be aggressive, not wanting the other players getting near us or giving them any chance. Every now and then, I'm there to save some balls and I'm happy for every ball that doesn't get to the goal. We’re a team in defence; they work for me. I work for them. Sometimes they make a mistake, sometimes I do, but we're a team and we’re there for each other and support each other.”

The atmosphere in the Westfalenhalle in Dortmund was one of pure celebration as the players went off at half-time and then full-time, the home team looking around the arena for those nearest and dearest to them and drinking in the atmosphere that is unique to playing a home championship.

And it is one which Filter easily sums up as fun, which will now continue until at least the quarter-finals.

“The quarter-finals were our target,” she reveals, now that goal has been achieved. “We knew what the consolations were, knew it was possible, knew it would be hard, but this is what we wanted to do and, in the end, we played even better than we expected before. I'm just so happy that we are playing this good.

“Everything is fun, I just enjoy being with the team; seeing them scoring, seeing them having good actions, and the defence playing in front of all those fans – this is why we do this; I'm happy to see all those fans here and we have the space given to us to show how much fun it is to play handball.”

And that fun is recognised by her coach, her infectious smile plain for everyone to see when asked about ‘Kathi’ as a person.

“Kathi is a very easy going person, she's so happy and loves to play this game,” says the coach, who won bronze at the 2017 IHF Women’s World Championship, also held in Germany, for the Netherlands national team, where she played with Tess Wester.

“She’s a big personality in a team, not because she's loud or anything, but people look up to her and you can go to her if you need something. She's very calm in these kinds of ways which is also very nice to work with. She's open to suggestions – you can speak about everything in these kind of situations and I have a lot of respect for her.”

 

So, is one of those things reminding the players she is now coaching that she has already won a medal at an IHF Women’s World Championship in Germany?

“I like to say that, in Germany, I have won a medal and it's one of my, my favourite medals, if I have to be honest, because it was the bronze, and it was nice to finish a tournament like this,” says Rebmann-Jankovic about winning the third-place match 24:21 against Sweden in Hamburg back in 2017.

“I'm not sure how many know. There are some girls I've played against, and some of the trainers know, of course, but I'm not speaking about it so much as I would like to win a medal with this team, I would love this – this is my goal every time I go on the court. We have a very great group of girls and a great group of staff. This is always my dream as a player and now as a trainer.”

“I'm not so sure, because we talk about so many topics,” says a thoughtful Filter, trying to remember if she has heard the story before. “We talk about her time, her experience, telling us how it is, how it was; winning medals, losing games. There's a lot we talk about as she wants to prepare us the best way possible. She's not being: ‘I won this medal’. That's not her style. Her style is to help us with the experience she has.”