HHungry for ball in Hamburg, 12,500 fans in the arena – but this enthusiasm had less to do with the World Cup that just ended and more with an occupied hall in Kiel: THW moved south for its quarter-finals in the DHB Cup, and because the opponent was called SC Magdeburg , the fans flocked to the Volkspark. Six of Kiel’s starting seven were in action at the World Cup final weekend in Stockholm last Sunday.
Only two Magdeburgers. They will miss their best, Icelander Omar Ingi Magnusson, for a long time with the German champions after his heel surgery on Thursday. And Magnus Saugstrup apparently also got seriously injured on Sunday at the dramatic 35:34 after extra time – it was difficult for the Magdeburg team to celebrate reaching the semi-finals. The stress discussion should get new food.
Flensburg is struggling
The SG Flensburg-Handewitt experiences what a high price it has for the clubs when almost all professionals are national players. First, their backcourt player Lasse Møller withdrew from the Danish selection during the World Cup – he was discovered to have a fatigue fracture in his left fibula. A little later, Jim Gottfridsson broke his hand and not only missed the Swedes in the decisive World Cup games, but also the SG for weeks.
Without him it was a bumpy start to the second half of the 2022/23 season: On Saturday evening Flensburg struggled to score 29:28 after extra time against HSG Wetzlar. The round of 16 game in the DHB Cup was also a tough affair because the Danish world champion Mads Mensah was injured at the beginning. He was intended to control the game for Gottfridsson. Now Flensburg is without three regular players.
An awkward situation in a phase where things will continue in the rhythm of English weeks until the international break in mid-March. After all, the SG was happy to be able to travel to the cup finals for the first time under coach Maik Machulla (since 2018). In general, it was a big topic how short the break was after the big event in Poland and Sweden. Only six nights had passed since the final in Stockholm on January 29th when Flensburg had to play. The same was true for the national players from VfL Gummersbach such as Julian Köster and Juri Knorr from the Rhein-Neckar Löwen.
While VfL lost to Lemgo, the Löwen won in Hanover. Köster and Knorr, the young protagonists of the World Cup, seemed mentally and physically tired and their performance was unconvincing. Long-term player Knorr had expressed the desire for a longer break in Sweden: “But unfortunately we don’t have that in our sport.”
Pragmatic attitude
How merciless the business is can be seen from the THW Kiel schedule. On Wednesday, trainer Filip Jicha invited his “Zebras” to gallop to Sieverstedt in the Schleswig-Flensburg district. In the test with the Oberliga representative, everyone was on board – including the two Danish world champions Niklas and Magnus Landin. The contrast between the high point and everyday life could hardly be sharper.
The Danish goalkeeper Kevin Møller showed a pragmatic attitude to the constant stress of handball: “We all only have ten or fifteen years to play at the highest level. We Danes, in particular, don’t know any different, that after the final there’s a big celebration, we rest for a bit and then go back to our clubs. They pay us. That’s the way it is.” The SG keeper may look at it a little more relaxed than highly stressed outfield players. But basically he’s right. Especially since the summer holidays this year will be six weeks long without the Olympic Games for everyone.
THW Kiel’s schedule is tight: Hendrik Pekeler playing against Magdeburg in the DHB Cup
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Image: dpa
Clubs, associations, marketers and television broadcasters aim to ensure that handball professionals are as visible as possible over the course of a season. Higher sums are in circulation everywhere. The actors benefit from this. Salaries of up to 40,000 euros gross per month are not uncommon for well-known players. “We have to do that every three days,” says Johannes Golla, captain of the DHB selection, “the audience is watching too.”
Change to Cologne
The events are to become bigger, more attractive and more colourful. That’s why the Handball Bundesliga (HBL) decided a year ago to turn its back on Hamburg after 29 years. Since 1994, the cup winner has been chosen in the Hanseatic city. Now follows the move to Cologne, where 4000 more fans can watch. On April 15th and 16th it will be time. “We want to create the best handball event in the world there,” says Frank Bohmann, Managing Director of HBL, “we can take a different step in the staging in Cologne.”
The Hamburg Arena seemed outdated to the HBL managers, and the city was less accommodating financially than in Cologne. Bohmann says: “In Hamburg we noticed that the arena had been missing home teams for a long time and that the city had invested in other sporting measures.”
The first signs of a more modern “final four” are the later throw-on times (semi-finals in the afternoon and early evening, the final at 3.40 p.m.) and the fact that there will definitely be a game for third place – third place saves in the cup competition 2023/24 the first round. So all teams and their fans get two games in Cologne. But will the tingling atmosphere prevail there like in Hamburg over the years?
