On Sunday, the SG Bruchköbel's Oberliga handball team plays host to MSG Umstadt/Habitzheim. Want to get the next points for the class preservation at the Südhessen. The performance has been right with the second team of HSG Hanau so far, but the team has not yet been able to collect points in the first three games of the promotion round of the upper league. This should change on Saturday, when TSV Vellmar will be playing in the Doorner Halle.
Relegation round – MSG Umstadt/Habitzheim – SG Bruchköbel (Su., 6 p.M.): Against MSG, Bruchköbel is relying on the insider knowledge of its coach, among other things, because Tegaday Ramos-Nuez was still sitting on the bench of the table's tenth-place team in the main round.
The situation in the relegation round has recently become even worse, as HSG Bieberau-Modau has now been relegated from the 3. After the first league has been decided, five of the eight teams of the Oberliga will have to play in the Landesliga next season. Kazimir Balentovic, the sporting director of the SGB, is aware of the situation and speaks with regard to the remaining games of "that we still have five finals and must go with the appropriate attitude in each of these games. We do not want to miss the train in the direction of class preservation in any case."
The first steps on the way to this goal have been made by the Bruchköbel team last weekend, when the SGB could clearly defeat the last team of the table from Babenhausen in their own hall. Balentovic was satisfied with the double point win, but said there was still room for improvement: "We need to improve our defense, for example, so that we can better compensate for the weak phases that we have from time to time."
He says this is especially true for Sunday, where Balentovic expects a close game. "We have to fight, fight, fight," demands the sporting director, although fighting spirit alone is not enough: "We need fight and passion, of course, but also brains."It's not just mentality that's decisive, but also athletic performance – and that's where it's important, among other things, to attack the seams in the Umstadt defense in a targeted manner.
In Ramos-Nuez, the Bruchköbel team has someone who knows the opposing team very well, after all, the current SGB coach was still coaching the MSG together with Olli Schulz in the main round. "He knows the opponent well and will therefore be able to prepare our team even better," Balentovic is convinced.
Bruchköbel will play with a similar squad as last time against Babenhausen: Luca Junker is still out, Sergej Zutic's and Niklas Haupt's appearances are questionable.
Promotion round – HSG Hanau II – TSV Vellmar (Sat., 6pm): "It's about time we rewarded ourselves," thinks HSG coach Norbert Wess, whose team had sold itself dearly in each of the past weeks but always ended up empty-handed. Against Vellmar, which has one point more than Hanau, the HSG now senses a great chance to win its first point.
These hopes are not entirely unfounded, because the TSV has already fetched as many points from three games in the promotion round, but all of them in their own hall. "They have two faces", Wess has also noticed that the results of the North Hessians show a considerable discrepancy – depending on whether they play in their own hall or away from home.
This disproportion is easy to explain, because while Vellmar does not use resin at home – and the opponents are forced not to use it either – the adhesive is usually used away from home, so home advantage and away penalty weigh even more heavily than they already do. At least for the game on Saturday can be the Grimmstädtern but cordially indifferent, after all, the game takes place in the Doorner Hall, with certainly neat resin on the ball.