Perhaps Sebastian Hinze’s tears were the clearest proof of how surprisingly this cup triumph had caught the Rhein-Neckar Löwen. In any case, the trainer could hardly formulate a complete sentence in the first moment after Albin Lagergren’s 36:34 winning goal in the seven-meter throw, which was by no means due to a lack of language skills. The 43-year-old was simply overwhelmed by the feelings immediately after his first big title in a responsible position, after all, the lions are also the first big address in his coaching career: “I’m so proud and touched by the performance of my players.”
The Mannheimers had traveled to Cologne with the burden of four defeats in a row, all against teams from the middle of the table. They fell back to fifth place in the table, six points behind Primus Kiel. The championship fight, in which the lions had been very promising up to that point, was then declared over. The distance to the better-placed teams from Kiel, Berlin, Magdeburg and Flensburg, who are only separated by two minus points, seemed too big.
In the semifinals against SG Flensburg-Handewitt, the lions were considered outsiders, the northern lights came with the recommendation of 21 games without defeat across all competitions. But in this game the lions ended their phase of weakness, which coach Hinze himself described as a “crisis”.
“If we play like this, things will look good,” says pivot Jannik Kohlbacher about the title fight
“We already knew that we had what it takes to beat everyone,” said pivot Jannik Kohlbacher after the surprise coup. Therefore, despite the blows to the neck, one calmly “and continued to train consistently”. And: Coach Sebastian Hinze “instilled a lot of self-confidence” in the players. With this awareness of their own strength, the lions first duped the Flensburg and the next day successfully fought against the no less determined champions in a high-class final. It was an exchange of blows at a high level and with crazy speed, in which the lions presented the nimble Magdeburg attackers around Gisli Kristjansson and Kay Smits with uncompromising defensive work with unsolvable problems at times. It’s not often that an opponent can force Magdeburg’s attackers into a time game. And yet Smits had a great chance to decide the game at 27:27 with a penalty seconds before the end of regular time.
One of the decisive actions of the cup final: David Späth saves the seven-metre throw from Magdeburg’s Kay Smits.
(Photo: Thomas Haesl/Eibner-Pressefoto/Imago)
A project that was thwarted by the discovery of the evening: coach Hinze had surprisingly ordered his third goalkeeper David Späth into the goal, who parried against Smits. The 20-year-old is considered a huge talent and is actually still in the learning process with team-mates Joel Birlehm and Sweden’s Mikael Appelgren, both of whom also play for their national teams. Now he repaid the coach’s trust.
Of course, the game of the lions is a total work of art that works best when the Mannheimers come into their game with their monstrous defense and the matching goalkeeper performance. Then they can overrun any opponent, especially since in Patrick Groetzki, 33, and Uwe Gensheimer, 36, they have a somewhat outdated but still very effective winger duo.
Nevertheless, the playmaker is the all-determining factor. If the team has to play positional play in attack, then it depends heavily on Juri Knorr’s ideas. And this is also where the problem of the past few weeks is to be found: Knorr managed to continue his strong performances from the World Cup at the end of January in everyday league life – which, by the way, many teammates had not been able to do. Five weeks after the World Cup, however, he fell into this not atypical dip in performance after a big tournament, as he admitted self-critically: “I’ve played quite crap in the past few weeks.” In addition to the expectations of the Löwen fans, Knorr also has to shoulder those of the nation, he is considered a great hope in German handball. No small feat for a 22 year old.
The past unround years are in the past, under coach Sebastian Hinze success is back
The low seems to have been overcome, Knorr was exceptionally good at directing the lion game, setting the scene for the bystanders, setting the pace, was the top scorer with a total of 17 goals and repeatedly found Jannik Kohlbacher on the circle with his passes, with whom he also forms a congenial duo in the national team.
However, he spoke more boldly than his coach: “We beat two huge teams thanks to the good tactics that the coach gave us.” Of course you are a bit behind in the race for the championship title, but: “If we play like that, it looks good.” Especially since the lions no longer have to cope with a double burden. The club finished the previous season in tenth place and missed out on international business.
Since Nikolaj Jacobsen left the Danish national team in 2019, there has been unrest in the club, the Icelandic successor Kristjan Andresson never really warmed up in Mannheim. The interim solutions of Martin Schwalb, Klaus Gärtner and Ljubomir Vranjes did not bring any stability either, only under Hinze has success returned. The 46-year-old was sold by Bergisches HC as the coach of choice before the season, although victory in the cup was not to be expected that early.
Is there more possible? Hinze doesn’t want to share his circle player’s aggressiveness: the cup gives a boost, of course, but he thinks it’s impossible to catch up given the “program that we still have until the end of the season”. He had said something similar about the Final Four.
