There they were again, the two faces of HSG Krefeld Niederrhein from the friendly against Tusem Essen. Just like against the second division side, the Eagles offered two different halves in the first league game of the new season on Saturday evening at TV Homburg, which has been promoted. But after being 14:18 behind at the break, they impressively took control of the events in the Robert Bosch Hall in front of 600 spectators and in the end deservedly won 36:28.
Before the game, the HSG felt the new general conditions in the south-west relay. Because they had to fight their way through some traffic jams on their way to Saarland and only arrived in Homburg 70 minutes before the start of the game. That was perhaps one of the reasons why the Eagles didn’t come into play and were already five goals behind after nine minutes (2:7). The game of the favorites was characterized by hustle and bustle, technical errors and slightly missed goal opportunities. Coach Mark Schmetz immediately took his first break. “The first half went as I expected. Homburg are not a bad team. We simply left too much behind, including two seven-meter shots,” said the coach afterwards.
Because the Eagles didn’t panic despite the loud support of the home fans and the deficit, goalkeeper Sven Bartmann made a few saves and the goal was now more effectively completed, the HSG quickly closed the gap to 7:8. But further mistakes gave the home side a four-goal advantage before the break.
At the beginning of the second half things went as if on rails for HSG, who quickly made up for the gap. The strong performance of Robert Krass began, who scored the first two of his eight goals in the end. The new circle player Ruben Sousa then made sure with two goals that the HSG took the lead for the first time in the 34th minute (19:18). Between minutes 38 and 45, the guests pulled away with a 6:0 run, which was a kind of preliminary decision. Sven Bartmann again contributed to this with strong saves. “Shortly before the break, I felt that the Homburgers were exhausted. The second half started very well for us. The defense was also very good. We solved the situations six against seven very well. Then we moved away. Homburg came back again, but because that took a lot of strength, we were able to pull away again and easily bring the game home,” said Schmetz. Krass easily increased his hit account to eight.
It’s normal that things don’t go as planned in the first game. The coach wants his players to be clever: “We have to recognize faster what the opponent is up to and what they are doing. Before the break, Homburg was always looking for the pivot that we couldn’t really get a grip on.”
With this victory behind them, everyone in the HSG camp and their fans can look forward to the home premiere next Saturday at 7 p.m. against SC Longerich. “It’s definitely a highlight game for us. For me, this is a team that will end up in the top four,” says Schmetz. The Cologne suburban team impressively swept the newly promoted Ratingen out of the hall with 35:23.
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