HSG Wetzlar is tumbling towards the bottom of the handball Bundesliga table and is now without a coach. Momir Ilic is taking the consequences of the sporting downturn and resigning.
Coach Momir Ilic is no longer the coach of HSG Wetzlar. The day after the desolate one 28:38 defeat against Hannover The coach and his assistant coach Vladan Jordovic announced his resignation. The HSG announced this in a press release on Thursday afternoon. “This step is painful for us as a club. Momir and Vladan have invested everything to achieve a turnaround together with the team. The fact that we didn’t succeed affects us all,” said sporting director Jasmin Camdzic in an initial statement. He paid respect to Ilic for his responsible step.
On Thursday, Ilic was quoted as saying: “The club and the people here in Wetzlar have grown close to my heart in such a short space of time. That’s why I very much regret this development. At the same time, I take responsibility in this difficult situation.” Managing director Björn Seipp informed the team about the decision in the morning and at the same time held them accountable.
It takes more focus and a better mindset, says Seipp. Nothing had yet been announced about a successor. Ilic only took over the HSG in the spring, but did not deliver any good results last season.
Doom and gloom in the hall
In the summer, the sporting director appeased Jasmin Camdzic, defended the coach and promised: “The spectators can expect what must form the basis here in Wetzlar: emotional, passionate performances in which the attitude is right and fighting spirit is a given!” That seems a long time ago. Despite of the proper appearance in Hessenderby the trend was clearly downwards. The nature of Wednesday’s defeat left almost no other conclusions to be drawn.
It was a single sentence that HSG Wetzlar captain Dominik Mappes recited with glassy eyes and an embarrassed expression and that summed up the mood at HSG: “We haven’t been relegated yet,” said Mappes on the Dyn microphone. But at 28:38 on Wednesday evening against Hannover it felt the same, after relegation and farewell. There was a doom and gloom atmosphere in the hall. The game was decided early on, coach Momir Ilic had to take his third time-out after just over 40 minutes; it was just a matter of limiting the damage. Fans in the audience stared in disillusionment, many leaving their seats early before the end.
The team regularly falls apart
What made things even more difficult that evening was that the competition won. Minden won against Erlangen – and even Leipzig (with Wetzlar’s ex-coach Frank Carstens, of all people) defeated Hamburg. The HSG is in second to last place in the tableonly not at the end due to the goal difference. The sixteenth BHC still has a game to play, but is currently five minus points less than Wetzlar. The performances of the Hessians are much more frightening than the mere numbers.
The dismantling against Hannover, which this season certainly didn’t pull up as many trees as last season, was not the only one in recent times. Against the Lions it was minus 7, in Magdeburg it was minus 13, against Hamburg it was minus 10. The team falls apart into its individual parts with unsightly regularity. “We couldn’t stop the wave today,” said Mappes. “We can’t present ourselves like that.” The attitude was wrong, the vote even less so. Or as coach Ilic put it: “Nothing worked. That meant the game was decided early on.”
Difficult program
The situation in Wetzlar remains serious even after the resignation. Especially since the Wetzlarers now have a very difficult game waiting for them on the third Advent against the reigning German champions Füchse Berlin. Shortly before Christmas, ThSV Eisenach, an unpleasant opponent, will be visiting Wetzlar. And on Boxing Day the HSG goes to the high flyer in Lemgo. At that point at the latest, the tree in Wetzlar could finally burn.
