Two THW goal premieres
The Potsdamer are the foal team of the Bundesliga club Füchse Berlin, are trained and coached by their manager Bob Hanning and initially offered the favorite energetic resistance, only 24 hours after the Füchse defeat in Flensburg they also had some players of this game in their ranks. Right winger Yannick Fraatz, signed by league rivals Bergischer HC last week, celebrated his debut with Kiel, who still had to do without their injured players Sander Sagosen, Hendrik Pekeler, Sven Ehrig, Rune Dahmke and Magnus Landin. The left-hander scored the first goal for his new club in the 27th minute to make it 16:13 for the Zebras. Henri Pabst celebrated another premiere: In the final phase, the youngster scored his first two competitive goals in the professional outfit of THW Kiel. Coach Filip Jicha had to do without a regular left winger on the outskirts of Berlin, replacing the ailing Dahmke and Landin with Miha Zarabec in an unfamiliar outside position. The lively Slovenian made a good game and scored four times in total.
Kielers don’t start optimally
The Zebras initially struggled against the strong third-placed team in the second division, did not find their way into the game and were 3-0 down after five minutes and 5-2 down after eight minutes. When goalkeeper Tomas Mrkva made harmless the third seven-meter throw by VfL captain Karl Roosner, a jolt went through the THW team. The following 5:0 run with goals from Patrick Wiencek, Steffen Weinhold, Niclas Ekberg, Miha Zarabec and Nikola Bilyk brought the favorites 7:5 in front, until the 18th minute the Kiel team drew through great actions from Eric Johansson, Karl Wallinius, Weinhold, Wiencek and Bilyk 12:7 ahead. But a series of mistakes and time penalties allowed the outsider to catch up, which led to Josip Simic coming back 12:13 after 25 minutes. Filip Jicha’s first time-out was logical and got the favorite back on track, even though the hosts were able to shorten the lead to 16:19 at the break thanks to a directly converted free throw by Beneke.
Zebras come out strong from the booth
A much stronger THW Kiel then returned to the field from the dressing room: The Kiel team attacked more vigorously in defense and also had a real class man in Tomas Mrkva between the posts, who mutated into a wall for Potsdam’s attacker, holding a total of 18 difficult balls. Up to the 45th minute, the hosts only got two balls past the Kiel goalkeeper, and because THW also used their bag of tricks in attack and literally played the second division team against the wall, the game was over after captain Domagoj Duvnjak hit the counterattack at the latest in the 47th minute to 28:18.
Hardness and Sorcery
From then on, Filip Jicha sent his offspring to the plate, who thanked him with a lot of commitment and goals. Henri Pabst scored twice, Ben Connar Battermann and Luca Schwormstede each scored once. However, the outsider defended himself at times with unnecessary harshness: Niclas Ekberg was fouled brutally by Emil Hansson, the Dane rightly saw the red card. Eric Johansson got it too, the young Swede coming down after a mid-air challenge and spending the rest of the game on the bench with an ice pack on his aching left shoulder. The rest of the game was then a show of the German record cup winner, who did a lot of magic in front of a good 100 THW fans, threw himself into the next round, celebrated a deserved victory and later fulfilled many autograph requests from young handball fans.
Comments on the game:
THW-Trainer Filip Jicha: I’m glad we won and I’d like to compliment Bob Hanning and his team: I found it incredibly likeable how his guys walk and show willingness. We lost a lot of duels in the first half, but then the quality was on our side. Tomas denied many clear chances and therefore the result was clearer than the game suggested. I liked the fact that despite our personal problems we accepted the challenge and just played through this game.
VfL-Trainer Bob Hanning: I gladly accept Filip’s praise. As long as we had enough strength, we showed a good game. Unfortunately, we didn’t reward ourselves for that in the majority situations in the first half. We lost the goalkeeper duel by far, but the quality at THW Kiel in the goalkeeper position and in attack is different. It’s a shame we couldn’t reward ourselves with a better result. I would have been a bit happier with minus ten or minus eleven. But, and I also said this to my guys in the dressing room: There is no reason to be happy about the result, but also no reason to be sad now. We’ll take a lot from today’s Kiel game, that was a lesson for my players in many ways.
THW debutant Yannick Fraatz: I have to admit that I was a bit nervous at first. Being able to play for THW Kiel for the first time was something special. After the first good action I was a bit more relaxed. We’re not that happy with the first half today because we simply conceded too many goals. In the second half we did that quite well and then we were able to shape the game clearly.
Statistics:
1. VfL Potsdam: Voncina (28.-48., 3/1 Paraden), Ferjan (1.-28., 48.-60., 8 Paraden) – Hansson (1), Simic (2), Beneke (6), Kaludjerovic (1 ), Nowak (1), Grüner, Akakpo (4), Orlov, Roosna (5/4), Obermann (1), Fuhrmann, Sauter, Langhoff (2)
THW Kiel: N. Landin (37-39, no save), Mrkva (1-37, 39-60, 18/1 saves) – Duvnjak (1), Reinkind (1), Battermann (1), Øverby (3), Weinhold (4), Wiencek (4), Ekberg (2/1), Fraatz (1), Pabst (2), Johansson (4), Zarabec (4/1), Schwormstede (1), Wallinius ( 6), Bilyk (4)
Referees: Tanja Kuttler / Maike Merz
time penalties: Potsdam: 4 (Hansson (11th), Simic (15th), Nowak (21st), Orlov (48th)) / THW: 7 (Weinhold (6th), Schwormstede (22nd), Duvnjak (26th) , Fraatz (34′), Wiencek (37′), Mrkva (38′), Øverby (43′))
Red card: Hansson (gross foul play, 35′)
seven meters: Potsdam: 5/4 (Mrkva hält Roosna (10th)) / THW: 3/2 (Voncina hält Bilyk (35th))
Gameplay: 3:0 (5.), 4:1, 5:2 (7.), 5:7 (13.), 7:9, 7:12 (18.), 9:13 (21.), 12:13 (24.), 13:14, 13:17 (28.), 15:19 (30.), 16:19;
16:21 (33.), 17:23 (40.), 18:28 (47.), 19:33 (52.), 21:37 (57.), 23:38.
Viewers: 2050 (sold out) (MBS Arena, Potsdam)
