AEveryone knows what to expect – but very few have a remedy. There was and is a pattern with which THW Kiel wins its games at the end of a season. Whether in May and June in Hamburg, Stuttgart or most recently at Bergisches HC: At first it looks like a tight race before THW builds up a lead shortly before and shortly after the break. This usually comes about because goalkeeper Niklas Landin fends off balls and hits Sander Sagosen in front. In the end there are successes with a difference of three or four goals – work wins. How the new German champion under his successful coach Filip Jicha does not play nice handball anyway, but an efficient handball that brings the opponents to their knees in rows.
There are two things in particular that the best German handball club is giving the 23rd championship of the 2022/23 season, which was finally decided after the 34:27 victory at Frisch Auf Göppingen on Sunday: There is the coach who never is slacking off, always drives his team with a high work ethic – and definitely gets on her nerves at times. And then there is the topic of leadership, which has been discussed again and again in this long, exciting season.
There is no plan to relax
While the competition from Berlin, Flensburg and Mannheim also failed this time because there were not enough leaders on the floor, characters like Niklas Landin and Patrick Wiencek were at work at THW throughout the season. You are and will always be hungry for success. They put their egos on the back burner. This applies most to the Croatian veteran Domagoj Duvnjak. Usually he only plays in defense at the top of the 3:2:1 formation. Kiel has had an identity for a long time. The big rival of the present, SC Magdeburg, also developed one under coach Bennet Wiegert and that is only right, because Wiegert is just as obsessed with success as Jicha. Letting go is not intended for either of them.
It was by no means an outstanding season for THW. In the cup, Jicha’s team lost against SCM in the quarter-finals. In the Champions League, Kiel had no chance against a tough Paris St. Germain. Here Jicha found no recipe against the little playmaker Luc Steins. Surrounded by difficult Bundesliga games, the squad lacked alternatives against the French in May – the ailing Swede Eric Johansson was sorely missed. The Norwegian Harald Reinkind was the individual starter on the half right throughout the second half of the season because Steffen Weinhold’s shoulder was operated on. This could not always be compensated.
THW Kiel, coach Filip Jicha’s team, did not have an outstanding season.
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Image: dpa
On the track of a season already. And for that you have to praise Jicha and sports director Viktor Szilagyi. When Hendrik Pekeler and Sander Sagosen were absent for a long time in the first half of the season, Jicha put his trust in Petter Överby. The other newcomer, Johansson, also immediately pricked. Kiel is serious about rejuvenation and change, no one is just bought for the bank. Nikola Bilyk also plays a bigger role under Jicha; he had a decisive part in many victories in the last third of the season.
With a budget of 13 million euros, the THW has three to four million euros more available than Magdeburg or Flensburg, so a Kiel championship is no surprise. But it is also not a matter of course, considering the injuries at the beginning and a difficult phase in October and November 2022, when even Jicha came under pressure because his team lost games in the Bundesliga and the Champions League and went off course.
After the World Cup break in January 2023, it seemed as if you were seeing a friendlier, more approachable Jicha, who sometimes left the team on a long leash. Towards the end, however, when it became a duel with Magdeburg, Jicha picked up again and, as far as he could, prevented his pros from being distracted by anything during the game preparation.
As German champions, THW is now going into a special season, because the best players of recent years are leaving, goalkeeper Landin (Aalborg) and goalscorer Sagosen (Kolstad). Often enough, the two were the Kieler Lebensversicherung. How highly THW rates the post of goalkeeper shows that Szilagyi is seriously concerned with Gonzalo Perez de Vargas from FC Barcelona. He is the only one in the world at Landin’s level. His transfer would again mean that THW Kiel never lets up.
