The “best in the west” come from Halver and Schalksmühle in third division handball. The SGSH won the last game of the season at HSG Krefeld 30:26 (15:13) and finished the promotion round in fourth place.
Krefeld – It was no longer the kind of highly emotional, dramatic top game when the showdown between HSG Krefeld and the SGSH Dragons came along twice in the normal championship round. The victory, however, tasted sweet for the SGSH. 30:26 (15:13) the Schmetz team also won the third comparison with the rivals from Niederrhein. And that was not only fourth place in group 2 of the promotion round to the 2nd Bundesliga. So it was clear above all: The best in the west in the 3rd league of handball players come from Halver and Schalksmühle. After the game, Maik Pallach admitted this sheepishly, who for the third time had not come up with a sustainable recipe for defeating his former club.
End-of-season games can sometimes seem bizarre. More than 900 spectators provided a worthy setting in the Glockenspitzhalle, the referees came from Magdeburg and Irxleben especially for the game. The game was actually nothing more than a farewell game, and farewell games are sometimes better friendlies. At the HSG, the injured wingers Schulz and Braun were missing, as was regular keeper Sven Bartmann, who had taken a corona infection out of the game on his birthday.
The personal situation with the guest was by no means better, on the contrary: Florian Diehl and David Bleckmann had to pass, Linus Michel had been requested by TuS Ferndorf to keep the TuS reserve in the Oberliga. Jan König was there, but ailing and therefore only usable for short assignments. Instead, there was half a youngster team in reserve – in addition to Börner and Dragunski, there were also Jannack, Schnepper and Lüsebrink from the second team.
“Grand without four”: SGHS also wins the third comparison against HSG Krefeld
Making a virtue out of necessity, Mark Schmetz built a first seven from the existing staff, which the people of Krefeld didn’t like at all. There is usually a lot to be expected at the SGSH, but not really with a left-hander in the playmaker position. But Brian Gipperich did an excellent job in this new role, annoying the inner block of the Pallach team with his courageous 1:1 actions. In addition, the top athlete covered in the 5:1 defense at the top – with the clear task of narrowing the circle of Merten Krings. “At Krefeld, everything goes through Merten Krings,” Schmetz later stated with satisfaction, “it was clear to us that a lot would be gained if he didn’t come into play like that.”
It all worked out well, but what was perhaps the decisive advantage that evening was the goalkeeping performance. It wasn’t even that Lasse Hasenforther didn’t perform well. On the contrary. The ex-Gummersbacher was one of the best in Krefeld in the last game of the season. But Hasenforther couldn’t match the performance of Ante Vukas. For a long time, the Croatian was in the SGSH goal with a quota of more than 50 percent saved balls. He saved two seven meters and countless free balls. After the game, Maik Pallach spoke appreciatively of “20 hundred percent”. Above all, the Krefeld wing brought Vukas to despair, as he did twice in the normal championship round.
Vukas and Gipperich somehow represented the type of player who can make the difference in the season finale in particular, because self-motivation is generally high. The fact that Krefeld’s coach Maik Pallach later complained that his team preferred to talk about the relegation in the Bundesliga before the game in the dressing room than to prepare for the game – it could be an indication that there are differences in the mental area Has.
Be that as it may: After the 15:13 at the break, the SGSH even pulled away to 20:15 (37 th ). After that, the game became buggy. “We hoped that with this squad we would have enough strength in the end,” explained Mark Schmetz later. It should be enough, but also because the Krefelders had thrown in misses or technical errors with great reliability in the situations in which they still had the opportunity to bring the tension back into this game. The SGSH shouldn’t care. The eight goals from Merten Krings, who was goalless in the first half, didn’t bother them anymore.
Finals: Potsdam against Pforzheim, Konstanz against Wilhelmshaven
“I can only give the team a huge compliment on how they put up with the loss of four backcourt players,” said a happy Mark Schmetz, “they showed again today that they are a real team in which everyone fights for the other. We played an outstanding season. That was really fun.”
And while this season is now over for Krefeld and the SGSH, the final pairings for promotion to the 2nd Bundesliga are certain. HSG Konstanz trembled to win 34:33 against neighbor Pfullingen and thus won the southern group. With the SGSH victory in Krefeld, SG Pforzheim/Eutingen (and not VfL Pfullingen) entered the finals as the second southern team. In the north, Wilhelmshavener HV appeared to have recovered well from the debacle in Hildesheim and used its match point against TuS Spenge (37:32) to secure second place. The final pairings are: VfL Potsdam – SG Pforzheim/Eutingen and HSG Konstanz – Wilhelmshavener HV. Anyone who prevails here in the first and second leg can go on the hunt for goals and points in the new season in the 2nd Bundesliga.
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