EEleven years after its greatest success, TBV Lemgo Lippe has crowned a phenomenal week: The Lipperlanders won the German handball cup for the fourth time on Friday. In the final of the DHB finals in Hamburg, the team of coach Florian Kehrmann defeated MT Melsungen 28:24 (15:12) and took the 3.5 kilogram and 20,000 euro trophy from DHB President Andreas Michelmann and HBL -President Uwe Schwenker in reception.
The trophy is your ticket to international business. The Lemgoers can take part in the European League next season. The greatest success of the two-time German champions was eleven years ago: in 2010 the TBV won the EHF Cup.
The day before, the Lemgoers had surprisingly stormed into the final with an almost sensational 29:28 success over the title hamster and league croesus THW Kiel and were then completely over the moon. Melsungen had qualified for the final with a 27:24 in the semifinals over TSV Hannover-Burgdorf.
2000 spectators in the Barclaycard-Arena saw a varied final, in which Melsungen as Bundesliga eight and Lemgo as eleventh did not give each other anything for free. After the TBV got off to a good start, the Melsungers took command. Above all, game players Kai Häfner and Tobias Reichmann set the tone. The Hessians went in the front twice with three goals. But Lemgo did it like the night before against Kiel and caught up with the deficit unimpressed. A few minutes later, the Lipperländer were in turn with three goals ahead.
Lemgo’s coach Florian Kehrmann probably had more to do the night before than during the game. After the incredible win against top favorite Kiel, he had to recapture his runaway team and bring them back down to earth. That succeeded. His team clearly dominated against MT after the break. Finn Zecher robbed the Melsungern’s nerves in the gate.
The agile Lemgoers often duped their rivals with lively attacks and profited from their quick actions. MT Melsungen, which has played in the Bundesliga without interruption since 2005 and has never been rewarded with a trophy, has missed perhaps its greatest chance. The team of coach Gudmundur Gudmundsson seemed to no longer believe in a turnaround as the game progressed.
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