THW Kiel vs Flensburg: Ellefsen & Kiel’s Response to Bankruptcy

by Tobias Knaack

In the end, Elias Ellefsen a Skipagötu also increased the odds. With two technical errors, the Faroese invited Flensburg to score more goals. However, THW’s fifth defeat in the state derby in a row had already been sealed beforehand. The Kiel playmaker’s two ball losses were just the final mistakes of what the “Zebras” saw as a shaky second half.

The SG pulled ahead to 36:30 (56th) – and if the hosts had finished with the same concentration in the last four minutes: the defeat for coach Filip Jicha‘s team would have been significantly higher than with a two-goal difference (34:36).

“The 2:9 after the restart was the decisive phase of this derby. Too big a burden.”

THW-Trainer Filip Jicha

The coach had seen “two completely different halves” in the campus hall, but they had one little thing in common: We didn’t get into each one well. But while the THW was able to keep the deficit at two goals in the first half and went into the break with a three-goal lead (19:16) thanks to an outstanding final spurt (“In the first half we played down the pressure situations with a cool head”), this quickly slipped completely out of the hands of the record champions in the second half.

“The 2:9 after the restart was the decisive phase of this derby,” said Jicha, who saw it as “too big a burden in the end.” A mortgage that – once again – placed a lot of burden on Ellefsen a Skipagötu’s shoulders. And very often that’s exactly why the ball is in his hands. Perhaps too often for a single player to win a close game.

A lot of burden on Ellefsen a Skipagötu and Johansson

The Faroese scored seven goals and six assists, but was also responsible for five missed throws and five of the visitors’ ten technical errors. In the second half, his team “tried to crack down on Flensburg’s defense instead of continuing to play smart and cheeky,” explained Jicha: “We were too static.”

Good, but not good enough: THW trainer Filip Jicha with Elias Ellefsen a Skipagötu.

Only Eric Johansson (six goals, six assists) achieved similar values ​​to the 23-year-old. But the Swede also had four missed throws. SG coach Ales Pajovic indirectly expressed how great the chance of victory was after the game: “In the first half we had problems with our retreat. The fast Kiel game and Elias destroyed us.”

Duvnjak criticizes Kiel’s withdrawal behavior

But an Ellefsen a Skipagötu and a strong half alone are not enough – especially not against a Flensburg team that could add strong keeper Kevin Möller and playmaker Marko Grgic. Knowing that the first half was good, the defeat hurt THW captain Domagoj Duvnjak “damn bad. We were the better team in the first half, but we allowed a lot of easy goals in the second 30 minutes and weren’t good enough in the retreat. 20 goals conceded are simply too many.”

Because once Kiel overcame Möller, they could almost be sure that the ball would be back in their own net seconds later. And the SG also repeatedly found good solutions from the positional attack against Kiel’s 5-1 defense around Duvnjak.

Start in die European League in Montpellier

The “Zebras” don’t have time to digest the defeat, however, because from now on things are going back to quicker. The European Cup season starts on Tuesday – and with a bang: THW is playing at the start of the European League at Montpellier HC (6.45 p.m.).

The French top team has already won their country’s Champions Trophy this season with a win over Paris Saint-Germain. And so the same could apply to THW in the south of France as in the far north of Germany. Jicha had already analyzed in Flensburg: “In order to win here, you have to play more patiently and calmly. The game showed that we still need this one development step in order to be able to do this for 60 minutes.”

Montpellier could be an excellent indicator of this. However, it might take more than just a good Ellefsen a Skipagötu.