The first game of the new DAIKIN HBL season took the WILD BOYS to SC DHfK Leipzig in beautiful Saxony. For Lenny Rubin, Bruno Reguart, Gianfranco Pribetić, Achilleas Toskas, and Luka Krivokapić, this was the first game in the TVB jersey. The returnee Jonas Truchanovičius, who was back on the pitch for the TVB for the first time after his serious knee injury, was also looking forward to the game., The eyes were on each other. In the end, the game ended differently than those in charge had hoped. The WILD BOYS had to return home without any points.
The first few minutes of the match belonged to the home team. In attack, the WILD BOYS initially lacked consistency and precision in finishing. The first goal for the WILD BOYS in the 2024/25 season was a real eye-catcher: Kai Häfner served the debutant Lenny Rubin, who finished with a Kempa. Miljan Vujović has also now arrived in the game and makes two saves. The start of the match was characterized by both teams feeling each other out and technical errors in the offense, so few goals were scored. Leipzig were stronger in the final stages and deservedly led 4-1 after 8 minutes. Daniel Fernández was as safe as usual from the 7m line and scored the hard-fought goal. Due to two time penalties, the WILD BOYS briefly defended with just four players – and successfully! Goalkeeper Vujović prevented the goal from being conceded when they were outnumbered. Stuttgart kept fighting back, but the lead remained with the home team. Miljan Vujović, who was playing well, repeatedly prevented Leipzig from pulling away. However, Stuttgart’s offense still showed some shortcomings: careless mistakes led to ball losses and too many free throws missed the goal. The score was 15:12 at halftime.
The WILD BOYS had to start the second half with fewer players due to a time penalty and conceded two goals right at the start. The five-goal lead now had to be made up. TVB head coach Michael Schweikardt interrupted the home team’s three-goal run with a timeout to shake the WILD BOYS awake after their sleepy start. But that didn’t seem to work: Leipzig consistently increased their lead to 20:12. It was only Gianfranco Pribetić who was able to interrupt the hosts’ run after 7 minutes in the second half. But the green-whites kept scoring. Stuttgart went into the last 20 minutes of the game with a heavy handicap in the form of a nine-goal deficit. Leipzig remained strong from the backcourt, while our backcourt shooters were rather weak. Even with 10 minutes to go, Leipzig were still leading by 7 goals. TVB Stuttgart finished the season opener in Leipzig with a final score of 33:24.
The WILD BOYS must get over the bitter defeat in Leipzig as quickly as possible and work hard on the identified weaknesses so that they have a reason to celebrate again in the home opener against SG Flensburg Handewitt next Sunday. Here you can get tickets for the match:
