Coburg (oz / rg) – MT Melsungen had to experience in the first leg how uncomfortable the task against the supposedly blatant outsider HSC Coburg can be. Also on Sunday, in the second meeting, this time in Franconia, the HSC was again highly committed and by no means made it easy for Northern Hesse, as the barely 13:15 halftime score shows. However, Kühn & Co. could not be lured out of the reserve and decided the game routinely and calmly with 30:25 in their favor.
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The best shooters in the HUK Coburg Arena were right winger Florian Billek (7) for the hosts and Julius Kühn (6) for the guests. With this, the North Hessians travel to REWE Final4 with a sense of achievement behind them, where TSV Hannover-Burgdorf is waiting for the semifinals in Hamburg on Wednesday.
MT Melsungen started the game with Michael Allendorf, Julius Kühn, Domagoj Pavlovic, Kai Häfner, Timo Kastening, Felix Danner and Nebojsa Simic. Defense chief Finn Lemke, most recently against Ludwigshafen due to a concussion he suffered in the game, was back in Coburg, but initially stayed on the bench. Felix Danner took the central cover position for him. In the 5: 1 formation Domagoj Pavlovic acted in the role of the preferred.
Tobias Varvne concluded the first foray by the throwing hosts with a bang. The North Hesse made it better, where Kai Häfner scored the 0: 1 with a seamless hip throw. Nebojsa Simic started the game just as well – the Montenegrin earned respect with a double save: First he thwarted Tobias Varvne’s throw and then Felix Sproß’s throw, both of whom had every chance from the six-yard line. No question, the MT was wide awake to the point. The only faux pas in the first five minutes was Tobias Reichmann’s penalty throw. He found his master in Coburg’s keeper Konstantin Poltrum, the best seven-meter killer in the league. The MT right winger was still the winner two minutes earlier in the same situation.
Coburg was constantly trying to catch up, but the MT was initially always a nose’s length ahead and shone with remarkable hits in between. For example with the 1: 3 from Timo Kastening after the backhand attack by Kai Häfner and the backhand goal from Domagoj Pavlovic to 2: 4.
Thanks to a successful counterattack by Timo Kastening, the MT had broken into four goals for the first time after around 13 minutes (4-8). The 5: 1 defense continued to work well, and the Coburg team found it difficult to attack. At 5: 9 by Julius Kühn in the 15th minute, HSC trainer Alois Mraz stepped on the brakes with a timeout. Initially without effect, because again Julius Kühn got the 5:10 after the restart. Shortly afterwards Felix Danner from the circle even increased to 5:11 (17th) on a pass from Kai Häfner. There is no question that, from MT’s point of view, the game had taken the hoped-for path.
The further course up to the break showed that you shouldn’t be too sure even then. Coburg’s playmaker Pouya Norouzinezhad in particular thawed more and more. The fast-paced, only 1.88 m tall Iranian developed into an absolute trouble spot in front of the MT defense and with three goals he was a major pioneer of the catch-up offensive at 10:13 (24th). Reason enough for Gudmundur Gudmundsson to stop this with a break. But it went first with the HSC hit to 11:13, this time by left winger Milos Grozdanic (25th).
A Melsung outnumbered – Marino Maric had to sit on the bench for two minutes – then used the Franks to even reduce it to 13:14 thanks to Grozdanic. 15 seconds before the half-time whistle, Marino Maric put Julius Kühn on the 13:15 break.
For the second half of the game, Gudmundur Gudmundsson brought in Yves Kunkel and Tobias Reichmann, a new wing tong and Silvio Heinevetter, a fresh goalkeeper. The MT started focused, Domagoj Pavlovic marked the 13:16 in the first attack and shortly afterwards Kai Häfner made the 13:17 and Julius Kühn the 13:18 (33rd). From the Melsunger’s point of view, everything was back to normal within just three minutes.
Although Coburg was then able to reduce the seven-meter specialist Florian Billek and director Pouya Norouzinezhad to 14:18, this did not put MT’s sovereignty in serious danger. Because their goal effectiveness remained at an appealing level. And because Silvio Heinevetter defused some throws, some spectacularly, in between – including that of the freestanding Andreas Schröder at 16:20 (40th) – the lead remains reassuring. Because Marino Maric even netted to 16:21 (41st) after he had refueled impressively against two Coburg defenders.
Without making the game summary appear arrogant, the viewer did not have the feeling at this point that MT Melsungen could be in serious danger again in the remaining 19 minutes. For that she acted much too routinely and serene and, above all, with more penetrating power in attack than the home side – even if they were able to come close to three goals each time twice (18:21, 43 .; 19:22, 46.).
At the latest when Yves Kunkel had scored the 21:28 with a counter attack seven and a half minutes before the end – incidentally after a dream pass over 30 meters from Silvio Heinevetter – the preliminary decision had been made. Gudmundur Gudmundsson then gave Arnar Arnarsson, Stefan Salger and Paul Kompenhans, who had been sitting on the bench until then, a few minutes. And as with his brief appearance in Flensburg, Kompenhans took the opportunity this time to add the last MT hit to the list of goalscorers. The North Hessians definitely deserved 25:30 at this level. Now the REWE Final4 can finally come.
HSC 2000 Coburg – MT Melsungen 25:30 (13:15)
HSC 2000 Coburg: Poltrum (1 Tor / 5 Paraden / 21 Gegentore), Kulhanek (1 P. / 7 G.), Dreyer (0 P. / 2 G.) – Norouzinezhad 6, Sproß, Kelm, Nenadic, Billek 7 / 4, Mustafic, Zetterman 4, Varvne, Schikora 1, Zeman 1, Grozdanic 3/1, Schröder 2, Neuhold – Coach Alois Mraz.
MT Melsungen: Simic (4 saves / 14 goals against), Heinevetter (4 p. / 11 g) – Maric 5, Kühn 6, Lemke, Kompenhans 1, Reichmann 4/3, Kunkel 2, Mikkelsen, Danner 1, Arnarsson, Allendorf , Häfner 2, Salger 1, Kastening 3, Pavlovic 5 – coach Gudmundur Gudmundsson.
Referee: Julian Fedtke / Niels Wienrich (both Berlin)
Time penalties: 4 min. – 10 Min. (Sproß, 40:54 Min .; Nenadic, 45:53 Min. – Maric 45:10 Min .; Kühn, 33:28 und 41:23 Min .; Danner, 21:20 und 26:58 Min.)
Penalty throws: 5/6 – 3/4 (Grozdanic hits the crossbar, 32:09 min. – Reichmann fails on Poltrum, 03:59 min.)
Venue: HUK Coburg Arena, Coburg; without a spectator.
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