jEvery year we look for trends in the big handball tournaments. This time it became clear that more and more goals are being scored from six meters away, while goals from long distance are becoming less and less. A performance of the Euro Cup that you can see in Magdeburg shrugging their shoulders, because the SCM has been playing like this for six years: the players in the defensive zone fight tirelessly in duels and try to get into a shooting position as close as possible to the opponent's goal; Of course, the possibility of scoring from six meters is greater than from eleven.
Like Magdeburg under the coach Bennet Wiegert When he started consistently in 2018, the reaction from the scene was: Let them do it. Does not prevail. It's too tiring.
One championship, one victory in the Champions League and three Club World Cup titles later: “Dyn” commentator Stefan Kretzschmar not only ennobled Magdeburg Handball on Wednesday afternoon as a “style-definer”: the ball circulated safely among the league's own ranks, when the leader lost 33:26 in Kiel. THW won numerous duels against six-meter throwers Felix Claar, Janus Smarason and Omar Ingi Magnusson. But the three Magdeburgers almost always managed to get the ball out: national player Lukas Mertens and 90 percent man Tim Hornke were there and scored 15 goals together.
The SCM, under the direction of Wiegert, has already rehearsed a plan b) and c) in case its usual goal guarantees fail. In Kiel it was the wingers, in other games it was the Dane Mika Damgaard who scored from distance. The rhythm game, which used to be a distinctive feature and is now rarer, can also help: some goals were scored in the first half to go from 5:5 to 10:5. While Kiel acted in a haphazard way on the counterattacks, Magdeburg's ball ran automatically before anyone scored.
It was the 28th consecutive match in Magdeburg without losing. Wiegert's students have long developed a naturalness in his performance that is reminiscent of that of the French at the European Championships. But while the new European champions rely on individual class in difficult moments, Magdeburg solves its tasks as a group. So it was a success that was not enthusiastically celebrated when the Ostseehalle fell silent. Coach Wiegert also coldly referred to him when he said: “It's always good to have two more points than THW.” There are already eight points.
Magdeburg are undefeated in Kiel since 2017. Their handball is modern, defines style and is successful: even the treble of championship, cup victory and Champions League victory seems possible. That was the last time THW Kiel achieved it in the 2011/2012 season.