Hard-fought victory against Balingen
TBV pulled clear at the end
The TBV finally wins deservedly because of their strong defense against HBW Balingen-Weilstetten with 28:21 (13:10).
Logi Geirsson was missing in the TBV-team, because of a foot injury. At the beginning Volker Mudrow sent the following starting alignment on the court: Martin Galia, Jens Bechtloff, Ferenc Ilyés, Martin Strobel, Rolf Hermann, Florian Kehrmann und Sebastian Preiß. On defense Daniel Kubes changed with Martin Strobel. Initially it was unusual for the TBV that they had to start at the side which is normally occupied by the guests during the first half. At first the match was a bit disjointed, the TBV started with two technical errors, Balingen were acting extremely offenseless against the 6-0 defense of the TBV so that the score was still 0:0 after 5 minutes. Florian Kehrmann provided the 1:0 in the 6th minute through a impressive wing shot, but the match still continued on a moderate level. Balingen were alarmingly harmless in the initial phase and the TBV unassayed in front of the goal passed up their chances so that Philipp Müller could score the 1:1 in the 8th minute.
In the space of a minute Hermann and Kehrmann followed up with 3:1, Preiß scored with a fast-break to 4:1. Already at this point it was predictable that the winner would be called TBV Lemgo in this evening. Despite of this feeling balls were carelessly lost and Balingen shortened to 3:4 in the 13th minute.
As soon as the TBV-attack accelerated the ball, success was within reach, Hermann scored to 7:4 (18th). After a great pass of Galia to Bechtloff, the score was 8:4 just a few seconds later. The next missed shot of Balingen was punished by Hermann through a secondary fast-break with the 9:4. In the 21st minute Svavarsson was substituted for Preiß. However Herth provided two scores to 9:6 (22nd), but Ilyés countered with his first goal.
The match still wasn’t on a high level, only during certain phases the TBV showed some highlights. For example Svavarsson’s fast-break to 12:7 (25th) was a good individual performance. For the first time guest-coach Rolf Brack chose his tactical variation with a 7th court player, but the following goal was more born out of coincidence, because the parried ball of Galia flew exactly in the arms of Bürkle. At a score of 13:10 the teams left the court after a predominantly disappointing first half-time.
After the intermission Mudrow put Carsten Lichtlein in between the posts, even though Galia hadn’t shown a bad performance till then. In the attack Kraus replaced Ilyés, although playing short Kraus immediately scored to 14:10. Balingen got two two-minute suspensions within 12 seconds. Bechtloff struck from the wing area to 15:10 (34th), Hermann enlarged the advantage to 16:10.
However, then the TBV missed out on pulling clear of the guests so that in the 38th minute Ettwein scored for Balingen the 16:13, who were in overload, because Kubes already had his second two-minute suspension.
In the following phase the TBV couldn’t reach a real predominance, too: the attacks simply were too uninspired. Mostly Balingen were still operating harmlessly, but anyway they were playing along blithely. In the 45th minute Schmetz kept his nerve on the seven-meter line against Marinovic. The 19:15 should have normally provided some certainty, but again in overload the TBV rushed their attacks and Balingen made it 19:16.
In the 50th minute Tamas Mocsai was substituted for Strobel, center backcourt, Hermann kept the right and Ilyés the left backcourt position. Schmetz had already replaced Kehrmann at the beginning of the second half, who got hit at his hand. However, everything still stayed the same, the TBV couldn’t pull clear. Balingen sniffed their chance and were fighting determinedly. Schmetz scored to 22:18, Lobedank countered to 22:19 (53rd). The TBV-team seemed to be uncertain, but Ilyés, apparently not as unconfident, passed behind his back to Bechtloff, who scored the 23:19. And then Preiß achieved the 24:19 from the own circle in the empty guest goal, after Balingen was playing again with a 7th court player. Galia, who had displaced Lichtlein again, was in the right place during the next scene. Now the clearance should have finally been made. Ilyés thought so as well and hit in the left bottom corner to 25:19. HBW-coach Brack called his time-out after 56:19 playing time.
However, as a matter of fact the match was decided. Schmetz again scored from the seven-meter line to 26:20, Hermann with a fast-break to 27:20 (59th). Hermann was the most successful Lemgo shooter with seven goals, yet collected in the last minute a two-minute suspension, but this was then really the last “nerve-wracking incident” during this encounter.
Dr. Rolf Brack: This was clearly an earned victory for the TBV Lemgo, of whom I had never seen such a strong defense as they were playing today. At least we had high quality in the defense as well, however we had difficulties with scoring goals. From the 10th to the 50th minutes we could leave the match relatively open that is were we have to add to. We have proved our lastly shown uptrend and this makes us feel more positive.
Volker Mudrow: The match was characterised by our defense. Only 21 goals conceded is a good effort. I have to pay Ferenc a compliment, he had Felix Lobedank really well under control. However, it isn’t acceptable to fight so hard in the defense, but then to give away balls in the attack so carelessly.