The handball players of Drenth Groep Hurry-Up suffered a painful 32-25 defeat against Lions in Sittard. The Drents missed too many important players to make it really difficult for the Limburgers.
Of course, the question remains what Hurry-Up would have been able to do on Saturday in its strongest line-up. Then it certainly wouldn’t have stood a chance against Lions, which in the second half still had some trouble keeping the stripped Drenthe team away. But the Zwartemeerders had given so much after the break that the pipe slowly went out and Lions still won 32-25.
Coach Joop Fiege, who is in his last season with Hurry-Up, could give his men a compliment because of the fighting spirit shown in the second half. The Drenten were even more accurate after the break with 15 goals than the home team who made fourteen. But that was nowhere near good enough for the Zwartemeerders to make up for the large deficit that had accumulated in the first half.
Hurry-Up believes too little in it for rest
According to Fiege, his men believed far too little in their chances against Lions, the loser of the BeNe-League final, in the first half. “They only gave 80 percent. That is far too little. Then you won’t make it against this opponent. The first half was very poor for us. We missed five injured players. That undermined the team’s confidence. Fortunately, they gave everything in the second half, so that we scored three goals”, said the Emmenaar.
Both teams went to the dressing rooms with a score of 18-10 in the game in the HandbalNL-League, in which the Dutch title is being fought. Lions were superior before the break. There were extenuating circumstances for Hurry-Up. For example, coach Fiege missed a number of basic strengths and certainly not the least. Game distributor Patrick Miedema, the man who sets the lines for the Zwartemeerders and scores frequently, was unable to play in Sittard due to back problems.
Schoemaker couldn’t play because of a closed eye
In addition, the boss in the defense was also missing with the Danish Nicolai Schoemaker. Fiege: ,,He has had a ball of resin on his eye before. As a result, that eye is closed.” Hurry-Up also has to do without the injured Sverre Jansen, the Portuguese Tiago Azenha and Ruben Fiege. Ruben’s father Joop therefore had to improvise with his line-up against top team Lions. That was clearly visible in the period before the break, in which Hurry-Up played with, among others, the youthful talent Emiel Hoogland and Wouter Pronk. Both are actually permanent forces of the Oosting Hurry-Up-E & O combination team, which plays at a lower level in the premier league.
Circle player Pronk had to start immediately in Sittard when Sjoerd Boonstra had to leave due to a red card. Boonstra, who has just returned from an injury after three months, torpedoed Lions player Tobias Weiler when he shot at the Drenthe goal. The skating judge duo was unrelenting. “Is that red card justified? It was a bit rash what Sjoerd did”, said coach Fiege. “You could see that he still lacks match rhythm. He obviously hasn’t played for a long time. Then you get something like this.”
Knocking Hurry-Up focuses in the second half
Fiege saw his team get up in the second half and go into full battle. “They had shaken off the feeling of ‘it won’t work’,” he said. Hurry-Up, once again with the indestructible Ronald Suelmann in its ranks, fought its way closer point by point. After Bernie Vermeer’s 26-23, the Drents were only three goals behind ten minutes before the end. David Ferreira, who came on for goalkeeper Boris Tot, stopped more balls than his Croatian colleague, who played one of his lesser matches.
However, it didn’t get any more exciting. The powers drained from Hurry-Up, which started making some more mistakes again. Lions exchanged some fresh forces and ran further, resulting in a 32-25 win. Although Lions is now somewhat distanced from Hurry-Up in the battle for the Dutch title, according to Fiege, no man is overboard yet. “There is no reason to panic. We’re still playing Lions at home. Hopefully we can make them nervous. But first we play against Aalsmeer on Saturday in Zwartemeer. That will be difficult enough.”
Lions Hurry Up 32-25
Rest mode: 18-10.
Scores Hurry Up: Riksten 6, Suelmann 5, Vermeer 4, Gracio 3, Soares 2, Jaspers 2, Tako, Hoogland and Pronk.
Top scorer Lions: Leaning 6.
Next game: Saturday Zwartemeer: Hurry-Up-Aalsmeer.