Füchse Berlin stay cool Double winner Magdeburg starts new season with dissonance
07.09.2024, 23:57
Victories at the start of the new season of the Handball Bundesliga: the double winners SC Magdeburg and the runners-up Füchse Berlin have something in common. One thing is that they need to improve their performance. Coach Bennet Wiegert is verbally attacking the Magdeburg team.
The top handball clubs SC Magdeburg and Füchse Berlin have had some difficulty starting the new Bundesliga season. Double winners Magdeburg needed an improvement in performance in the second half to get off to a successful start with a 35:28 (18:16) win against HSG Wetzlar. The 41:35 (19:17) victory of runner-up Berlin against ThSV Eisenach was also a close match until a few minutes before the end.
“We got the opening win today, that was important for us,” said national player Lukas Märtens from SC Magdeburg on ARD: “To get off to such a start in front of our own fans is good for the next few weeks.” Coach Bennet Wiegert was also satisfied afterwards. “The conclusion is good. This is a Bundesliga game and anyone who expected us to beat Wetzlar to death doesn’t know their quality,” said the 42-year-old.
Wiegert’s team was behind for a long time and only managed to gain a two-point lead shortly before half-time. During a timeout, Wiegert addressed apparent dissonance within the team: “We have too many problems among ourselves. Throw that away! We are here together. All together.” He continued: “And now we are going full throttle together. We make mistakes together, but we are all doing it together. OK? The result is not a problem.”
After the break, things went better for the 2023 Champions League winners. Sergey Hernandez Ferrer parried a few shots in goal, the quality of the finishing increased significantly up front and Magdeburg pulled ahead with six goals in a row to make it 28:20. The Icelander Omar Ingi Magnusson was the most successful scorer with nine goals in front of 6,600 spectators.
World handball player is back on track
The Füchse won in a heated atmosphere. The Füchse initially struggled against the offensive defense of the hosts, but as the game went on, the Berlin team improved in attack. After the break, coach Jaron Siewert’s team continued to push the pace and the outsiders from Eisenach could no longer keep up. The best Berlin scorers were world handball players Mathias Gidsel and Tim Freihöfer with twelve goals each.
Record champion THW Kiel had already suffered a 27:32 defeat at Rhein-Neckar Löwen on Thursday when national goalkeeper Andreas Wolff returned. SG Flensburg-Handewitt, on the other hand, had a dream start on Friday with a 42:28 win against HC Erlangen.