VIDEO. “Listen to me! Calm down”: Gille ignored, Mem speaks before his blunder… the catastrophic timeout of the Blues of handball

Guillaume Gille failed to make himself heard during the last timeout. MAXPPP – ALEX PLAVEVSKI

Just before Germany equalized on a mistake by Dika Mem, taking France into overtime that it would lose in the quarter-finals of the Paris 2024 Olympics (35-34), the Blues called a rather surreal timeout on Wednesday, August 7.

This is not the first time that such a scene has taken place during the French team's matches where the players speak more than their coach Guillaume Gille during a timeout. And although it has worked several times, it must be admitted, this time, the consequences were devastating for the Blues.

With a loss of the ball by Dika Mem when there were less than five seconds left to play in this quarter-final of the Paris 2024 Olympics, then the equalizer by that devil of Renars Uščins (14 goals) for the Germans. Winners of the match at the end of extra time between the two teams (35-34).

Mem to Descat: "Listen to me! Calm down”

Whether calling a timeout at that point in the game can be widely discussed and debatable when there were only ;a handful of seconds for the Germans to organize themselves, the minute of the timeout itself was surreal.

Because Mem's mistake – dramatic as it was – could probably have been avoided with clear tactics, requested by French coach Guillaume Gille. But the Barcelona player did not want to listen to his coach, proposing a tactic himself, as required by the principle of self-management advocated by the French staff.

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Dika Mem : « Écoute-moi, écoute-moi! Calme toi! Euh j’sais pas, toi t’engage… »
Temps mort juste avant la bourde #FRAALL #Paris2024 #Handball pic.twitter.com/GBNx3IsjP4

— LeGermanOne (@LeGermanOne) August 7, 2024

Mem a d&amp ;rsquo;first repeated several times “Listen to me!” to his left winger Hugo Descat, before asking him to calm down: “Calm down!” . Then to propose a tactic which seemed rather vague to his teammates. A catastrophic time-out in short, due to the German equalizer and then the French defeat.