The SG Flensburg-Handewitt started the new handball year with a defeat. It lost 26:33 (12:16) at VfL Gummersbach on Tuesday evening and thus conceded its third defeat of the season in the DAIKIN HBL. The SG's top scorers were Emil Jakobsen (6/4), Johannes Golla (5) and Simon Pytlick (5).
Apart from Blaž Blagotinšek, the SG's starting line-up only included players who had played in Herning or Malmö in January. Before kick-off, these same medal winners from the European Championship were given some tasty gifts from Gummersbach, but the friendliness was over as soon as the ball was thrown out. Domen Novak scored the SG's first goal in 2026 after a Danish-Slovenian combination with Emil Jakobsen. Nevertheless, the game got off to a poor start: The visitors quickly trailed 1:4 and 3:7. Kevin Møller had more saves to his name than the players in front of him and prevented worse. After nine minutes, new signing Adin Faljić got involved for the first time - as a half-back and to relieve the pressure on the only left-back Niclas Kirkeløkke. A 3:0 run in the space of 60 seconds quickly put a dent in the deficit, before Gummersbach pulled away again to make it 8:7. Kevin Møller kept the direct duel against his counterpart Dominik Kuzmanovic more than open, but the positional attack was not effective. The final scene of the first half was not exactly encouraging for the half-time analysis either. VfL backcourt ace Miro Schluroff was able to finish unchallenged from the second row to make it 16:12.
No rebellion in the second half
The second half began with a technical error - and the home side took a five-goal lead for the first time. Good actions continued to alternate too often with less successful ones. As a result, Gummersbach was able to extend its lead as the SG maneuvered itself into a slump during this phase. A team timeout had to be called at 23:15: There was a need to talk. There were still 23 minutes to play. However, it quickly became clear that there would be no major turnaround that evening. The only thing left to do was to leave the game with as good a feeling as possible. But that's difficult when you can't even get closer than seven goals. After all, there are four days without a game until the SG have to play again: at HSV Hamburg on Sunday at 4.30 pm. Several hundred SG fans will be there.
