The Bundesliga is more exciting than it has been for a long time. This not only applies to football, but even more so to handball. Five teams can become champions. The national coach likes that too. The top duel, which a world champion is already calling the “decisive championship game”, will take place on Sunday.
Will the foxes Berlin get their lead across the finish line? Will SC Magdeburg come back again? Or will THW Kiel, SG Flensburg-Handewitt or Rhein-Neckar Löwen make it in the end? Whoever wins the exciting title fight of the Handball Bundesliga: Alfred Gislason will be watching with great pleasure.
“It’s a four-way or a pentathlon. That’s very interesting to see and it’s really nice for the league and for me that there are many national players,” said the national coach before a groundbreaking weekend. On Sunday (2 p.m. / Sky) leaders Berlin will play the top game against defending champion Magdeburg. “This game”, Gislason knows, “is going to be very important”.
After all, Magdeburg is under pressure to act after the surprising defeat in the East Derby in Leipzig (32:33). The mood brightener on Thursday evening came at just the right time at international level: With the 34:33 (19:17) against the Romanian champions Dinamo Bucharest, coach Bennet Wiegert’s team successfully completed the group phase.
Second in Group A, the Magdeburg team bypasses the playoff round and is among the top eight teams in Europe for the first time since 2004. “It was a great group phase for us,” said Wiegert about the glorious comeback of the SCM: “We are very happy to have qualified for the quarter-finals early.”
Wiegert and Co. now want to take this momentum into the championship fight. A triumph against the Berliners (37:5 points), who have only celebrated victories in all competitions this year, is essential for the Magdeburg mission to defend the title. There are already six points between the two rivals, but SCM (31:7) still has two games to play.
The Berlin World Champion Mathias Gidsel therefore already described the match as a “decisive championship game” – although after the game of the 22nd matchday twelve more rounds follow. In the event of a defeat, the club from the capital, who are still undefeated this year (37:5), would lose pole position to the Rhein-Neckar Löwen (37:7), who have been unbeaten in ten league games. The Mannheimers around director Juri Knorr have the best offensive in the league with 744 goals so far and have the much better goal difference.
A lot can still happen. Only five minus points separate the top five. Thrills seem guaranteed: Because the “Big Five” meet each other in the final sprint of the season. Berlin’s sports director Stefan Kretzschmar is therefore certain that the rivals will take a close look on Sunday. “Of course the top teams keep an eye on the other top teams. As tight as it is at the top, you naturally hope that the other top teams will lose every point,” said the 50-year-old, emphasizing: “The desire to be able to win something , has grown. We really believe in something big this year.”
It’s not just Kretzschmar, who became champion and Champions League winner as a player with SC Magdeburg more than 20 years ago, that tingling before returning to his old place of work increases from day to day. “The tension builds and so does the tension. It’s the kind of game you live for. It’s a game where everything is at stake and where you can prove yourself,” he said. Coach Jaron Siewert emphasized: “The lads are all hot and know how important the game is.”
The league follows the close title race with satisfaction. “We are not only going into the final spurt of the season with great optimism, but also in the coming years. It is good for us that we have so many top teams,” said HBL Managing Director Frank Bohmann and named three points for the success of a sport: ” Excitement, high quality and an attractive game. The league was already high quality and attractive before – and now we have more excitement than ever.”