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Together we are strong: a symbolic image for the 17-point half-year record of HSG Wetzlar, including coach Frank Carstens (left) and supervisor Stefan Rühl on the sidelines. VOGLER © Red
HSG Wetzlar has left the chaos of the 2022/23 season behind them. New coach Frank Carstens has achieved the first interim goal and stabilized the team. 17 points and ninth place are reassuring at the turn of the year. However, the all-clear cannot yet be given for 2023/24.
After 16th place in the 2022/23 season, in which HSG Wetzlar had barely escaped the relegation devil, they went into the new 2023/24 round with a big mortgage. The team, club and environment were mentally counted, the last year and a half had left its mark. Now the handball Bundesliga team has had half a year with ups and downs.
Trainer – The coaching position was filled with Frank Carstens and with him the hope for continuity and further development was nurtured. He himself went to work with the goal of stabilizing the team and breathing life back into it. In addition, three new players had to be integrated: Julian Fuchs, Rasmus Meyer Ejlersen and Vladimir Vranjes.
Course of the season – At the beginning there were heavy claps against SC Magdeburg (15:31) and THW Kiel (22:33). The start went badly with 0:8 points, but that was also due to the quality of the opponents. The question here was more about how the games had been lost. The first win was against Göppingen in mid-September, but the performance remained inconsistent. The 25:30 defeat in Hamburg was followed by a surprise in Kiel when the THW were knocked out of the DHB Cup in the third round in their hall. The team took the momentum with them to TSV Hannover-Burgdorf, where they added their second win in the league.
However, the Bergische HC brought the Wetzlar team back down to earth at 28:32. The defense, which had been good up to that point and was improving step by step, was completely wrong against the BHC. The Central Hessians took over the bottom of the table and things began to rumble again in the fan camp. The HSG then showed their fighting spirit in the 30:27 win at HBW Balingen/Weilstetten, only to go down again at home against HC Erlangen 26:31. “We were 99 pfennigs short of the mark,” said Carstens aptly at the time.
As a result, the Wetzlar team collected five points that were not necessarily on the list. The home draw against TVB Stuttgart (31:31) was followed by successes at ThSV Eisenach (27:23) and against VfL Gummersbach (33:31). It was the first time that there were two green-white victories in a row. In the defeats at the Rhein-Neckar Löwen, against the Füchse Berlin and at SG Flensburg/Handewitt, the team fell into old patterns, some of which amounted to a throwback to old times.
The liberation came immediately afterwards with the derby victory against MT Melsungen. At the last second, Lenny Rubin scored his “Goal of the Year” to make the final score 28:27, which turned the Buderus Arena into a madhouse. It was the start of the last English week of the year and the most successful one at that. Four days later, SC DHfK Leipzig fell victim to the Wetzlar final spurt (30:27), before the HSG went to Düsseldorf on the day before Christmas Eve. There Wetzlar defeated Bergischen HC 28:23 and said goodbye to the Christmas and European Championship break with three wins in a row.
That also meant a big jump in the table. For the first time, HSG finds itself in the top half of the table in ninth place. However, this is not a reason to be careless when looking at the points (17:21). There are only six points between Hannover in 6th place (19:19) and Eisenach in the first relegation spot (13:25). A short phase of weakness, three defeats in a row and you can fall deep in the handball Bundesliga.
Personnel planning – The formation of the team for the next round, which was made difficult for a long time by the bumpy first half of the season, is running at full speed in the background. In mid-November, the Macedonian Filip Kuzmanovski left the club early and the Dane Mathias Mark Pedersen came in. Lukas Becher recently extended his contract, while Emil Mellgard has to leave the club. Replacing him is Lion Zacharias, who became German A youth champion with the Rhein-Neckar Löwen in the summer of 2022. Hendrik Wagner is leaving HSG for TBV Lemgo, Magnus Fredriksen is moving to the Danish first division club SønderjyskE Håndbold in the summer of 2024. Furthermore, the contracts of Leonard Grazioli, Mathias Mark Pedersen, Ole Klimpke, Jovica Nikolic, Nemanja Zelenovic, Lenny Rubin, Julian Fuchs and Erik Schmidt expire. There is a lot to do for those responsible in the next few weeks in order to put together a team suitable for the Bundesliga in the future. It goes without saying that the future of the Swiss backcourt giant Lenny Rubin (“My contract is expiring. Not everything has been completely clarified yet. I think there will be an announcement soon.”) plays a central role.
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What went well – The defense has stabilized, especially the newly formed middle block with Rasmus Meyer/Vladimir Vranjes. The team also recovered mentally from the turmoil of previous years and was able to win the last three games of this year in tricky phases in their favor.
Needs improvement – There is still room for improvement in terms of goalkeeping performance and shooting percentage. The number of technical errors must be minimized. Consistency and self-confidence must return to the team and each individual player. It is also important to make the Buderus Arena, together with the spectators, the fortress of previous years.
Forecast – If HSG Wetzlar comes out of the European Championship break well and scores well in the four (!) groundbreaking February duels with rivals from the bottom third of the table ThSV Eisenach, TVB Stuttgart, HBW Balingen/Weilstetten and HC Erlangen, they can join early then maybe 22 or more points will take you decisively away from the relegation zone. Provided that the European Championship drivers and top performers Lenny Rubin, Stefan Cavor and Domen Novak return healthy from their national teams and do not fall into a performance gap.
2023-12-29 16:25:31
#Reassurance #allclear
