Before that Dominikovic won pretty much everything you can win in handball: Olympic champion in 2004 and world champion in 2003 with Croatia, winner of the 2005 Champions League with FC Barcelona, winner of the EHF Cup with Jambo Metkovic in 2000 – and now he’s happy 44-year-old on the “biggest game in our club’s history”. Dominikovic ended his playing career in 2017, first trained a few clubs and the U21 national team in Croatia – and then returned to Germany, where he played for Balingen, Kronau-Östringen, THW Kiel and HSV Hamburg, among others. Since 2020 he has been coaching the third division club TuS Vinnhorst (near Hanover).
On Wednesday (8.30 p.m.), TuS, which had been promoted from the state league to the 3rd division in just four years, is in the second round of the DHB Cup for the first time in the club’s history. Opponent is Bundesliga promoted ASV Hamm-Westfalen. This makes TuS Vinnhorst one of two current third division clubs that have won their first round games – second in the league are the “Brucker Panthers” from TuS Fürstenfeldbruck. On Wednesday (8 p.m.), Bayern will even face a former DHB Cup winner (2006 and 2010), HSV Hamburg.
Fürstenfeldbruck, still in the second division in the 2020/21 season, had beaten the second division club Wölfe Würzburg 25:24 in the first round, while TuS Vinnhorst had defeated the second division club Eintracht Hagen 28:26. While Vinnhorst celebrates its premiere in the 2nd round of the cup, Fürstenfeldbruck had already survived the first round in the 2011/12 season, but failed at the time due to the owls from Friesenheim.
Fürstenfeldbruck even has good memories of HSV: In the 2020/21 season, when TuS was relegated and Hamburg was promoted to LIQUI MOLY HBL, there was a 29:27 home win. Like Vinnhorst in the north season with 10:0 points, Fürstenfeldbruck is also at the top of his third division season (south) with 10:2 points. Coach Martin Wild is now hoping for a full hall against the clearly favored Hamburgers.
Davor Dominikovic also sees a similar role for TuS Vinnhorst: “Hamm-Westfalen is anything but a typical climber, the team has incredible quality, for example thanks to Mait Patrail, who is still very well known here in Hanover, or him Greek Savvas Savvas, who used to play in Hildesheim.”
The Croatian can feel the great anticipation in the team and in the entire club: “This game against Hamm-Westphalia is a great opportunity to present ourselves. Even the duel with Hagen was the biggest game in the club’s history, now an even bigger one awaits.” Although Hannover 96 plays Borussia Dortmund in the DFB Cup on the same day, Dominikovic is hoping for a full hall: “The footballers will play at 6 p.m., maybe After that, some fans will come to handball.”
There is no question that his boys are keen to give up the cup, and Dominikovic is not planning any major tactical constraints either: “Handball is a game sport, there should always be fun in the game. If you’re not having fun, do something else. Of course we have a lot of respect for our opponents and realistically we’re clear outsiders. They showed what Hamm can do in the win against Göppingen, a European player.” Putting on the handball shoes for the cup duel is out of the question for the coach: “Everything hurts, I’ve found my role as a coach and the players have definitely deserves it.”
In addition to Vinnhorst and Fürstenfeldbruck, another third division team for the 2021/22 season is in the second round of the DHB Cup, which will be played on Wednesday and Thursday: VfL Potsdam, which has been promoted to the second division alongside HSG Konstanz – Bob Hanning’s team expect none other than THW Kiel.
The top game of the second round is definitely the duel between the first division championship favorites SG Flensburg-Handewitt and Füchse Berlin, which will be broadcast live on Sky on Wednesday from 6:30 p.m. Sportdeutschland.TV shows all other games of the second round
Other first division duels are: HC Erlangen – MT Melsungen, HSG Wetzlar – HBW Balingen-Weilstetten, TSV Hannover-Burgdorf – TVB Stuttgart, Bergischer HC – Frisch Auf Göppingen and the game SC DHfK Leipzig against Bundesliga leaders that was postponed to Wednesday, November 2nd Rhein-Neckar Löwen. The game between Eulen Ludwigshafen and German champions SC Magdeburg was postponed to November 22 due to SCM’s participation in the Club World Championship in Saudi Arabia.
The 3rd round will be drawn on Friday at 11 a.m. in the live stream on the LIQUI MOLY HBL Facebook and YouTube channel – maybe TuS Vinnhorst or TuS Fürstenfeldbruck will also be in the lottery pot.
Photo: Klahn
