The stars of THW Kiel enjoyed their luxury to the full before the league hit. “It’s very nice,” enthused captain Patrick Wiencek about the unusual preparation for the top game against SC Magdeburg. Before the game on Easter Sunday (2 p.m. / Sky), the people from Kiel are not just highly motivated – the batteries of Wiencek and Co. are exceptionally full. Kiel is bursting with energy.
While Magdeburg was still challenged on Thursday evening at Bergisches HC (38:34), the record champions had a whole week to get in the mood this time. That’s an eternity in top German handball.
“Normally we have a three-day rhythm, and one day of it is used solely for regeneration,” says Wiencek. But this time you could “prepare for everything”. “On defence, on attack, on special players,” said the line runner.
The Kiel team now want to convert this advantage in training time into two points on the field. Easter Sunday is about nothing less than leading the table. Kiel and Magdeburg are both on 40 points at the moment – exactly one point behind Füchsen Berlin, who did not play at the weekend.
“If we do our job,…”
For Rune Dahmke, the tight championship race, in which SG Flensburg-Handewitt (39 points) and Rhein-Neckar Löwen (37 points) are also involved, is simply “madness”. Kiel’s title math is simple: “If we do our job, we’ll have it in our own hands to be at the top at the end of the season,” said Dahmke, considering the fact that THW played one game less than its competitors.
Self-confidence and self-image seem to have returned to the zebras in time for the end of the season. The 36:29 win in the last home game against the foxes gives tailwind, and world handball player Niklas Landin in goal (with THW since 2015) and exceptional playmaker Sander Sagosen (since 2020) definitely want to say goodbye to Kiel with a championship title in summer.
Desires for revenge will certainly also play a role on Sunday. They haven’t forgotten the lost championship last season in Kiel, nor the bitter end in the quarter-finals of the cup two months ago, when Magdeburg barely got the better of Hamburg (35:34) in the overtime thriller. From Kiel’s point of view, something like this should by no means be repeated in the championship.