Handball – Foxes Berlin: Three games to the »Life Stream« championship

“Well, go now!” Bob Hanning apparently wants to get the question and answer session quickly. But even the 57-year-old can no different in one evening, gets out, and ultimately tells of his “lifelong space” after 20 years at the Foxen Berlin. Because the handball players from the capital previously won 37:29 against the MT Melsungen, they now have sole Bundesliga leaders Three game days before the end of the season the great chance of the first championship title in the club’s history. This is exactly what Hanning came to the second division team at the time.

Tense Berliner

It was not just any victory that was enthusiastic about the 9,000 spectators on Thursday evening in the sold-out Max-Schmeling-Halle. In the past few weeks, everything in the Bundesliga has headed for this duel: first against second, tied, the best offensive against the strongest defense. “Everyone was tense, everyone knew: Now the top game is coming,” sports director Stefan Kretzschmar later describes the atmosphere at the Foxes Berlin and in the area around the club in the days before.

This tension was then also felt in the hall: after a quarter of an hour it is 7: 7, a balanced game in which goalkeeper Dejan Milosavljev is the best Berliner. Five minutes later, the foxes run 13: 7, three of the six goals throws Mathias Gidsel. In the end he comes to 15 and says: “I don’t know what was going on today.” Once again it is the world handball player who makes the big difference. The analysis of the sobered Melsung coach Roberto Garcia Parrondo: “We couldn’t defend Gidsel well.”

nd.kompact – our daily newsletter

Our daily newsletter nd. compact Bring order to the news madness. You get an overview of the most exciting stories from the Editorial team. Get the free subscription here.

Hapless guests

The guests from Hesse, who won 25 out of 31 league games, almost nothing succeeds in this evening. And that because a team around Gidsel has grown around Gidsel, which is still playing for the title in the Champions League this season. One example is left winger Tim Freihofer: With 192 goals and a hit rate of almost 77 percent, the 22-year-old plays at the top of the Bundesliga.

Better values ​​can only show Gidsel in Berlin: With his 249 goals, he alone achieved almost a quarter of all foxes in the Bundesliga. This is also why Kretzschmar calls him “a gift” for the club on Thursday. The 26-year-old has already been named world handball player twice. With the Danish national team, he became Olympic champion in Paris last year and became world champion for the third time in early February. On Thursday he stands in the Max-Schmeling-Halle and says that he was nervous for the first time in his career before a game. The importance of this game for Berliners can hardly be described better.

Simple bill

For Jaron Siewert, “pressure” is “a positive expectation”. The coach of the foxes, at least on the outside, mostly makes the most relaxed impression among the Berliners, even on Thursday. His players cannot and do not want to hide relief and euphoria, they dance in the hall and celebrate with fans. “Leaders”, it always sounds through the hall.

It is difficult to resist your own emotions. Especially when it comes to a lifelong dream as with Bob Hanning. So he warns of the relegation fighters from Stuttgart, who won the Rhein-Neckar Löwen, opponents of the foxes on the last match day on Thursday. Next Thursday, Gummersbach will play a team in Berlin that, according to Hanning, “can beat every opponent in the league”. The master bill is simple: three games, three victories-then the now second-placed SC Magdeburg can no longer do anything. Gidsel knows the solution: “If we give 100 percent, we will win, regardless of whether the opponent is called Melsungen or Barcelona.”