Oldenburg
The good news: handball trainer Niels Bötel was back on the bench at VfL Oldenburg on Wednesday evening after having survived an appendix operation. The even better news: His team secured the Bundesliga league prematurely with the hard-fought 25:24 (14:11) home win against HSG Bad Wildungen and the tenth win of the season. With nine games still outstanding, the VfL women now have a cushion of eleven points on a possible relegation place.
“After we won the first leg in Bad Wildungen, it is clear to me that our opponents definitely want to win here in Oldenburg,” said Bötel, who left the coaching primarily to his assistant coach Jonas Schlender on Wednesday evening, just before kick-off . An assessment that was true. The guests from Northern Hesse offered the hosts a heated duel in the small EWE arena. In Bötel at VfL and Tessa Bremmer near Bad Wildungen there were two outright tactics freaks on the coaching benches.
After a hectic initial phase, in which the guests had already received a time penalty after 40 seconds after a foul on Oldenburg’s Toni-Luisa Reinemann, the VfL women were the first to enter the game through their speed game. Driven by Reinemann (she was the best Oldenburg thrower with seven goals at the end of the game) and national player Jenny Behrend, the VfL women moved away 7-3 after nine minutes. By now, at the latest, Bad Wildungen had arrived in Oldenburg and the expected biting duel developed.
Oldenburg: Renner (9 parades), Reese (with a 7m), – Fragge 3, Teiken 4, Reinemann 7/2, Buhl, Hoitzing 2, Martens, Steffen 1, Carstensen 3, Behrend 4, Knippert 1. Trainer: Bötel.
Bad Wildungen: Brütsch (11 parades), Schüpbach – Ingenpaß 1, Heusdens, Platen 1, Smits 6/2, Schmidt-Robben, Mühlner 1, Schnack, Da Silva Pereira 3, Struijs 5/1, Scheib 2/1, Blase, Spielvogel 4, Plümer 1. Trainer: Bremmer.
Referee: Christian and Fabian vom Dorff.
Time penalties (min.): 0/8 – Ingenpaß, Heusdens, Platen, Mühlner.
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At 8: 6 (15th minute) it was the turn of the Vipers from Northern Hesse again, but then failed again and again due to the courageously gripping VfL cover with an attentive goalkeeper Julia Renner. On the other side, the hosts left a few chances to score, so that VfL “only” stayed at 14:11 at halftime.
It remained tight: Bad Wildungen quickly shortened to 15:16 (34th). Meanwhile, the Oldenburg women despaired of the class of the Swiss guest keeper Manuela Brütsch, who fended off several so-called “one hundred percent”. But VfL goalkeeper Renner could also be relied on that evening, and so the hosts took off again after 46 minutes from 18:17 with 21:17.
Bad Wildungen switched to offensive 4 + 2 cover and came up again (22: 20/51.). This laid the foundation for a thrilling final phase in which the VfL women first kept their nerves and the two points via the stations 24:20 (54th) and 24:23 (57th). The Oldenburg women don’t have much time to breathe, because the away game at the Neckarsulmer Sportunion is already on Saturday (6 p.m.).
“That was just pure fighting today,” said VfL player Merle Carstensen: “For 60 minutes you could feel that two teams here absolutely wanted to keep the class. It’s great that we scored one more goal – as requested by the coach.
