TBV loses by a narrow margin in Grosswallstadt

TBV sets the pace but is still defeated in the end

Following a weak start and an exhilarating catch-up campaign, TBV was still ultimately defeated despite a phenomenal performance from Holger Glandorf, with a final score of 24:25 (9:11) for TVG.

Grosswallstadt won the first throw; TBV's line-up was the same as for the EHF Cup, namely Martin Galia, Jens Bechtloff, Ferenc Ilyés , Daniel Kubes, Sebastian Preiß, Rolf Hermann and Florian Kehrmann. In the offensive, Michael Kraus took the left-back position and Martin Strobel came on in the centre; Kubes and Ilyés later switched with these two.

TVG got off to a better start than TBV, with Stefan Kneer bringing the hosts into the lead (0:2) with two goals from the back position. Rolf Hermann was then first to score for TBV, but TVG continued to have the better cards: Andersson in TVG's goal demonstrated his abilities, whilst in defence, TBV wasn't half as confident as in the previous few games. Kunz gained the first three-goal lead for the hosts in the 8th minute after Kubes received a time penalty (2:5), and Weinhold increased the lead further to 2:6 just a short while later (10th min.). This prompted Volker Mudrow to call his time-out for the first half. 10:05 minutes had been played at this point – and TBV hadn't even gotten into the swing of things.

Ilyés and Glandorf came on in the offensive, with the latter netting the first goal for his 27th birthday to make the score 3:6.This didn't hold for long however; Grosswallstadt continued to dominate the game for the time being. In the 15th minute, Mudrow brought Carsten Lichtlein on in goal for the as yet unlucky Martin Galia. Although Lichtlein showed himself to be on the ball from the offset, he was still unable to block the 4:9 rebound thrown by Kneer. Kraus came on in the offensive again for Ilyés, but offensive play continued to be hesitant and lacked its recent decisiveness.

In the 22nd minute, Glandorf scored with a nice pitch into the bottom right-hand corner of the goal to make it 7:10 and TBV seemed far more with it. Opportunities still weren't played though, and the throws from the back position were often careless. Given that TVG was also beginning to falter at this point, Michael Biegler chose to call his time-out at 24:24 minutes. TBV had numerous opportunities to get the 8:10 in, and Preiß finally did just this in the 28th minute after some nice play from Strobel. Lichtlein gave an outstanding performance, then Glandorf launched a sensational goal into the left-hand corner of TVG's goal to boost the score to 9:10 (28th min.). This good run was then followed by a spot of bad luck: a throw from Kraus hit the post. Grosswallstadt attempted to play out the remaining time to the half-time siren but TBV's defence didn't concede any more goals. The teams went into the changing rooms with a half-time score of 9:11, the weak start and in part inconsistent offensive having robbed TBV of a better result.

At the start of the second half, TBV continued to play as it had before the break, and Glandorf netted another goal to bring the score up to 10:11 (31st min.).The birthday boy was quick to get another in, slamming a standing throw into the bottom left-hand corner of the goal to balance things out again (11:11). He was then unlucky however, with a subsequent throw hitting the post. TVG continued to consistently take advantage of opportunities, and Kneer netted his 5th goal in the 36th minute (11:14).

Both Schmetz and Svavarsson had meanwhile come on, and each scored a goal, keeping TBV in the game, which was well-balanced at this point. Grosswallstadt struggled against TBV's defence, but repeatedly found throw opportunities. Schmetz was on the case again with a counterattack (15:16, 40th min.) and the next excellent save by Lichtlein provided another opportunity to equalise – and Glandorf used this once again with unparalleled style. However, TBV seemed to fall behind again just as quickly as it had caught up, whereby the completely unreasonable time penalty for Kraus (43rd min.) worked in TVG's favour. TBV fought back however, keeping up with play, and Kraus was able to score when both teams were a man down in the 47th minute to make it 19:19. Grosswallstadt then netted another goal, but Glandorf was simply unstoppable and his throw delivered the equaliser (20:20, 48th min.).

At this point, Rominger was in goal for the hosts (after Andersson proved unable to maintain his strong performance of the start of the game). Nine minutes from the final siren, Grosswallstadt took the lead again, Rominger saved three consecutive throws from TBV's offensive and Tiedtke netted the 20:23. TBV rebelled again though, Strobel and Schmetz followed up to make it 22:23 (54th min.) and Strobel was then responsible for the 23:23 (56th min.). Michael Biegler subsequently called his time-out after 55:51 minutes, at which point TBV probably had the better cards, psychologically.

A good two minutes before the end of the game, TBV seemed to be on track to win, but TVG took advantage of the time penalty against Ilyés for Kneer to score (24:24, 59th min.). The game certainly wasn't for the faint hearted: a technical error by the TBV brought the ball back into TVG's possession and as far as Spatz who kept his nerve against Lichtlein from the outside right. Volker Mudrow called his time-out with just 17 seconds left to play. Schmetz came on as the sixth player and Lichtlein came out of the goal. But this simply wasn't enough: following another failed lead over the circle, TBV had to concede to an exasperating defeat after having seemed to still hold all the trumps shortly before the game's conclusion.