“What we prepared for, Dessau brought to the table,” said Lützelberger after a game that was played very quickly by both sides. “But we were clearly too weak in the implementation.” From the start, the hosts from Saxony-Anhalt put their dreaded speed game on the gas and switched extremely quickly after every mistake or misthrow by HSG. And even after Konstanz scored goals, it usually didn’t take long for the Konstanz box to ring again.
The 37-year-old was forced to call a second time-out early in the game after just 12 minutes of play. “Our retreat was not good from the first minute,” he put his finger on the wound that was to hurt his young team more often that evening. Dessau-Roßlau was superior to the yellow-blue in both directions in terms of speed and after the intermediate sprint in Konstanz to 4:4, Timo Löser set the first scent mark with 11:6.
Goalkeeper Ambrosius keeps Dessau “back free”
Driven by the great atmosphere in the Anhalt Arena and their fans who love to sing, Uwe Jungandreas’ team really enjoyed the lively target shooting. Actually, HSG Konstanz was not that bad in attack either, but according to coach Jungandreas, “Philipp Ambrosius kept our backs free.” for Dessau a total of 16 times – a catch rate of incredible 41 percent. With that he made the difference in a first half, in which the home side seemed to be more superior than the half-time score of 22:17 showed.
So the guests had once again planned a lot for the second round, but were actually beaten after just under three minutes and another Dessau rocket start and trailed by 18:26. Dessau could hardly be forced into a game against the standing defense, almost all goals came from counterattacks or the first and second wave. “With 43 goals conceded, you have nothing to do with scoring,” said a disappointed HSG coach.
Offensively, his team already showed one or the other highlight, but overall it was clearly not enough to put a top team under pressure. Instead, after Patrick Gempp’s goal at 30:20, the encounter ended without tension around 20 minutes before the end, but with the Bauhaus city-dwellers still having an extremely high urge to score. Like their euphoric supporters, they really enjoyed this lively handball game.
Lützelberger: “Today we received a lesson in speed play that only Bergisch HC has played against us in the pre-season. We made mistakes in too many areas. It was clear to us that we had to be close to the optimum. We were too far away from that in too many areas.”
However, an emotional, extremely positive moment was the return of goalkeeper Janis Boieck after a long injury break. The newcomer celebrated his competitive debut for HSG in the last quarter of an hour. The whole team was happy about that, including the coach, who added that the former youth and junior international goalkeeper still had to catch up. “Janis still needs minutes of practice and competition to fully recover, but this game presented a good opportunity to give him the first few minutes.”
The game was decided long before he was substituted on and it was only after 43 goals conceded that it was finally over for the Schänzle handball team. The players were then very self-critical and dissatisfied in the dressing room. “In all of this, however, we have to be realistic and consider where we come from and what we still have to learn,” says the EHF master coach. “Now we still have four great games ahead of us this year. So there is no time for long moping.”
Source: HSG Konstanz / Photo: Piech
