It’s kind of a favorite thing. Of course, the foxes had an advantage in front of home fans in an almost sold-out hall, of course, the profile of third in the table was more convincing in the run-up than that of sixteenth. But there was initially no sign of clear conditions in the game between the foxes and GWD Minden on Sunday afternoon. Only from the second half and with a lot of effort was the team around captain Paul Drux able to win 35:25 (18:15).
Because Minden kept up very well for a long time. North Rhine-Westphalia, who compete with TVB Stuttgart and HBW Balingen-Weilstetten to remain in the first division, while TuS N-Lübbecke, at the bottom, is probably already relegated, the current situation was noticeable. After more than two weeks without playing, coach Frank Carstens had sharpened his team, especially in attack, and wanted to play into the hands of the Berlin counter-attack as little as possible by losing the ball himself.
But his concept did not take off as quickly as hoped. In the first minutes of the game, his seven made a few bad passes, which the foxes on the other side gratefully used. But a quick 4:2 lead by the Berliners was followed by a 7:8 deficit (13th minute) before the tide turned again. Neither team was really convincing. Good actions were followed by reckless mistakes, mistakes in playing were followed by inattention in defense. The course of the game was correspondingly wavy.
Although Drux and his team managed to increase the goal tally to three by the break, the visitors reduced the score within seconds of the restart. The anchor of the foxes at that moment was right winger Hans Lindberg. The veteran scored five goals in the first nine minutes of the second half alone – eleven in total. The result, in combination with the stabilizing defensive, was a six-goal lead, which the Berliners were even able to increase by the end of the match. Although coach Jaron Siewert only had twelve field players available after Viran Morros’ injury, he managed to keep the pace up to the final whistle.
With the additional two points and the simultaneous defeat of SG Flensburg-Handewitt at TBV Lemgo-Lippe, the team consolidated third place before the last two Bundesliga games and can even hope for the Champions League if the Kiel team misses a goal. Minden, on the other hand, must continue to worry about remaining in the upper house.
