“It was a big experience for everybody”
In 2019, the Netherlands’ back Kay Smits talked to eurohandball.com about hoping to make it to Kiel for the EHF Cup Finals, mentioning how great it would be “playing in front of 10,000 spectators or more in that big arena”.
Sparkassen Arena is one thing — the new Budapest Handball Arena, with capacity for just over 20,000, is another. With only a small number of handball arenas holding such capacity, few players have experienced matches in an atmosphere like that in Budapest on Thursday night as the EURO opened — and Steins thinks his team handled it perfectly, while Hungary may have faltered under the pressure of the moment.
“For our team, it was a big opportunity. I think almost nobody played in an arena like this from our team, so it was a big experience for everybody and maybe it was our luck also that Hungary were a little bit nervous because, of course, they were the favourite and in a big arena with 20,000 people supporting them. I think they had some more pressure than us this game and we used it really well,” says Steins.
With a great win behind them and the main round in sight, what does Steins think of the Netherlands’ position in group B now?
“It’s still a tough group with great teams. Of course, now we succeeded to win the first game, but we have still two matches to play,” says Steins. “Iceland and Portugal are also really good teams so we have to continue to play our best handball to be able to win games in this group and especially in this whole European championship.
“It’s important for us to play at our best level and this is what we are focusing on. We are trying to continue like we did yesterday and then even maybe a little bit better.”
Keeping cool in the high-pressure final minutes
It is no surprise that Steins is rational and humble in the way he looks at the first match. His intelligence is obvious on the field, where he is the mastermind behind the Netherlands’ attack and has found his own unique style to suit his 1.73m frame — mainly speed, vision and tactical genius. Speaking about his own performance in the round 1 match, where he served eight assists and scored two goals, the Paris Saint-Germain playmaker finds room for improvement.
“About my own game, I wasn’t so happy. I think I could really play way better and I have lost too many balls; missed two, three open shots; and I desire to change for the next game. Of course we had some other guys like Kay Smits and also Dani Baijens — they were playing a really good game,” says 26-year-old Steins.
It is notable he draws focus to his teammates’ performance rather than taking any sort of credit, despite an individual game that any viewer would describe as top-class — the mark of an athlete who undoubtedly has a bright future still ahead.
Steins feels the Hungary match shows how far his team have come. In particular, it was critical to be able to hold on towards the end of the game, when Hungary drew level with three minutes on the clock.
“We are getting more experienced over the last couple of years and we kept our head in the game. We know what it means to play big games, because in the last years we only played against big teams,” says Steins, explaining how the team knew they had the ability to win such matches, but to actually deliver it on this stage in this kind of moment was another matter.
“This is the next step we have to continue with. I think we made really great steps in the last years with getting more experience, and with having more players in strong competitions and in strong clubs where you have to play every weekend, or every week, you are playing top matches,” he adds.
“These top matches are almost all decided in the last 10, 15 minutes, so I think this is something we really progressed in. And the last five minutes they came back in the game because of some mistakes we did, but we kept the head cool and we just focused on what we said before: just take it relaxed and if we have to chance to run, we run.
“So one moment they became equal in the game and seven seconds after that moment we already scored a goal against them so we took the lead again. These kinds of moments were really important in the game.”