It is a tradition that is hard to imagine life without. Fans from four camps in all corners, blocks divided by color, loud support with a home game atmosphere – the Final Four as an event is an institution in its own right. This weekend, the final weekend of this kind will be held for the tenth time in the European Cup. And it looks good that the spectators will appear in large numbers again this year.
“Ticket sales started very well, even when it was not yet clear which teams would be there,” explains Holger Glandorf, who, as managing director of SG Flensburg-Handewitt, is responsible for organizing the event at the SG’s home ground. There are still a few remaining tickets, but overall the club, which had acquired the right to host for 250,000 euros and can now expect no additional bonuses due to the premature departure, need not fear any major losses.
It is certainly an advantage that in addition to Montpellier HB and Fraikin BM Granollers, two German clubs are represented with Frisch Auf Göppingen and Füchsen Berlin. Their followers have been able to absorb some bearish cards. Especially since the willingness to travel to the fjord over the Pentecost weekend is a little bigger anyway – maybe not necessarily from the Spanish and French supporters, who from experience tend to make small blocks at major events, but from the public interested in sports from the republic.
And then there are the Danes. At the encounters in the so-called “Hell North” there is often a relatively strong faction from Scandinavia in the hall with around 6000 seats. Through the associations in the German-Danish border area, but also the love of sport. “Now that Flensburg isn’t there, I hope that the Danish handball fans will come and support us. If they don’t wear the foxes jersey, then maybe the Danes jersey to show their colors for us Danish players,” said Berlin’s Mathias Gidsel, who has just won the World Cup with Denmark for the third time in a row, in the run-up to the tournament . “I’m really counting on my Danes who can witness two great days of handball with just a short trip.”
As a young boy he often traveled to Flensburg with his family to watch handball, this is where his enthusiasm for the Bundesliga was sparked. It’s now him who the children in the stands are cheering for, it was his name that was heard again and again during the foxes’ last game at SG. Just like those of Jacob Holm, Lasse Andersson and last but not least Hans Lindberg, who, like Gidsel, are all often celebrated by a red-white division in Berlin.
The hope for a little extra support is therefore not unreasonable – and certainly welcome. With the game against Montpellier HB, coach Jaron Siewert’s team will open the final tournament against the nominally strongest opponent on Saturday (3:30 p.m.). The two-time Champions League winner, French record champions and cup winners is again having a strong season this year, has numerous selection players and, like the Berliners, has a good mix of young talents and experienced players. So it should be exciting in the race for a place in the final.
Who the opponent there is will be decided on Saturday evening (6 p.m. / all games on DAZN) between the record European Cup winner Göppingen and the surprise of the tournament from Granollers, who eliminated Flensburg from the competition in the quarter-finals. For Göppingen it is the opportunity to upgrade a mixed season and still secure an international starting place in the coming season with a title. As currently fourteenth, this is no longer possible in the league.
Unlike in the HBL, the team, which has been led by Markus Baur since November, has been convincing internationally and also has a coach who, as a player, has been a European champion, world champion and European cup winner. “Göppingen has shown over the season that they can surpass themselves internationally. All the teams that have made it this far deserve it,” says Baur’s former national team colleague and now Sports Director at the Foxes, Stefan Kretzschmar.
For the Berliners – a permanent guest in the Final Four for years – it would meanwhile be the chance to win a title after the early end in the DHB Cup and the recently dwindling prospects of the German championship this season. It was last done five years ago. “If we manage to be 100 percent ready and put our quality on the record, I’m convinced that we can be at the top in the end,” says Kretzschmar confidently. And the support of the hundreds of Berlin fans, who are by far the largest block of fans in Flensburg, shouldn’t hurt either.
Source: Tagesspiegel
Brayden White, a veteran sports writer at Global Happening, brings his wealth of knowledge and expertise to the sports section. With over a decade of experience, he is committed to delivering high-quality coverage of the latest games and events.
