Here is the Power Rankings Bundesliga with Ola Selby of GoHandball, where the performances, not the points, are at the base of the rankings.
Power Rankings is our ranking of the teams during the month that has passed. In other words, it’s a table reflecting how the teams have performed only during November.
Here are the Bundesliga Power Rankings for November!
1: MT Melsungen
Current Bundesliga standing: 1
Power rankings in October: 1
What a wagon Melsungen has been so far this season. And November was no exception. Sure, defeating Erlangen at home is not the hardest thing in the world. And sure, they lost against Eisenach away, but Eisenach was one of the best teams in the Bundesliga in November, and they scored the winner in the final second of the game.
Melsungen destroyed Magdeburg, winning 31–23. And then they destroyed Flensburg as well, 33–24. What did those two games have in common? A top performance by Nebojsa Simic. Against Magdeburg, the Montenegrin had 20 saves and 47 in save percentage. Against Flensburg? 16 saves and 41 percent. Magic man! And if Simic continues to play like this, perhaps Melsungen can win it all this year.
2: SG Flensburg-Handewitt
Current Bundesliga standing: 3
Power rankings in October: 8
I have already mentioned the game against Melsungen. Flensburg didn’t play as bad as the result will tell you, but a certain goalkeeper destroyed the day for SG. Emil Jakobsen scored only three goals on 33 percent of his shots. In the three other games in November, the Dane scored nine goals in each. That says it all!
In the three other games in November, it was all about the Danes for Flensburg. 35–29 against Leipzig saw Simon Pytlick scoring five times and assisting to as many goals. And Kevin Möller saved 40 percent of the shots. 37–33 against Kiel saw Pytlick have 5+4, and in the 36–27-win against Lemgo, Pytlick had 8+4, Lukas Jörgensen 7 goals, and Möller 36 in save percentage. And yeah, Jakobsen was a goal machine in all of those games.
Flensburg are looking like a strong team this season, but the loss against Melsungen could come back to haunt them in May or June.
3: Füchse Berlin
Current Bundesliga standing: 2
Power rankings in October: 4
It’s still very much an up-and-down season for this Füchse Berlin team. Is it the fact that they are playing in the Champions League this season that weighs on the team? No idea, but they are not performing as consistently as they have done for the past few seasons since the arrival of Mathias Gidsel.
Even the great Dane (not the dog) had a game in November where he actually looked human (yes, I like to play with words). Berlin only got one point away from Hamburg, and in that game, Gidsel had two goals and one assist. Chocking, I know!
But there were upsides to November for Berlin as well. Two wins, one draw, and in one of the wins, they completely destroyed Kiel after nine goals by Gidsel and eight goals by his fellow Dane, Mr.Andersson. And when Dejan Milosavljev returns to form in goal, this team will again be quite hard to beat.
4: ThSV Eisenach
Current Bundesliga standing: 10
Power rankings in October: 10
My favorite team so far in the Bundesliga this season. I have said it before, and I will say it again: What Mischa Kaufmann and his team have done so far this season is incredible. If it continues this way, the coach deserves some kind of statue outside of the arena.
Just look at this: In November, Eisenach ended Melsungen’s unbeaten streak, they defeated Rhein-Neckar Löwen away from home, and they did the same away against Leipzig. Those team’s budgets are at least double the one at Eisenach. And still, Eisenach dominates. So impressive!
Marko Grgic – what a player. Seven goals against Löwen, eight goals against Lemgo, eleven goals against Melsungen, and ten goals against Leipzig. Take a bow!
5: Rhein-Neckar Löwen
Current Bundesliga standing: 7
Power rankings in October: 9
I could just write Ivan Martinovic and be done with it. The Croatian scored nine goals against Eisenach (Löwen lost), six goals against Potsdam (Löwen won), and 16 (!) goals against Göppingen (Löwen won again).
Should I elaborate? Well, okay. Martinovic is the hottest player in the Bundesliga right now. Let’s leave it at that.
6: SC Magdeburg
Current Bundesliga standing: 6
Power rankings in October: 3
What the hell is going on in Magdeburg? Two losses and one win in November are just not good enough. Sure, they are still haunted by all of those injuries, but losing to Hannover-Burgdorf and also by eight (!) goals against Melsungen is not the Magdeburg we have been spoiled by for the past few seasons.
Is it that simple that the way Magdeburg has been playing their attacking handball simply doesn’t work anymore? Of course not. But handball goes in cycles, and perhaps Magdeburg needs to figure out a plan B when play A isn’t working. And it would help them immensely if the Icelandic stars Kristjansson and Magnusson could play better as well.
And let’s be honest, against Hannover, they shat the bed (not only the Icelandic duo but the team as a whole). They didn’t score once during the last six minutes of that game, and Hannover could turn it around and win. And Felix Claar is more missed in Magdeburg than ever…
7: THW Kiel
Current Bundesliga standing: 5
Power rankings in October: 6
For how much longer will THW Kiel keep Filip Jicha as their coach? I am not saying that Jicha is the main reason for the struggles that Kiel keeps on having, but it’s very surprising that the player legend is still the coach of this team, considering the results.
Sure, Kiel won two games out of four in November, and in most clubs, that’s fine. But for Kiel, that is almost a catastrophe. Especially considering it’s not the first time this has happened over the past few seasons.
And when they played the big teams in November, they lost. Kiel lost by nine to Berlin and by four to Flensburg. They conceded 35 goals against Berlin and 37 against Flensburg. Defense, or the lack of it, is not the only problem for Kiel. But it is the main one.
8: SC DHfK Leipzig
Current Bundesliga standing: 11
Power rankings in October: 11
Photo: Jonas Ljungdahl / BILDBYRÅN
Two wins, two losses. An okay month for Leipzig, considering they lost against Flensburg and Eisenach (one of the hottest teams in Europe right now). Against Flensburg, Viggo Kristjansson was the only player who played up to standard (the Icelandic right back scored eight times and assisted an additional five goals). Against Eisenach, the defense was terrible.
But let’s move on to greener pastures, meaning the wins. A two-goal win against Göppingen must have felt good. Luca Witzke (Flensburg next season) scored seven goals in that game and was the man of the match (at least in my book). In the win against Bietigheim, it was Franz Semper who won the game for Leipzig with his goal in the last second of the game.
To sum up, Leipzig doesn’t have what it takes to compete for European spots, but they are most likely an upper-half-of-the-table team this season.
9: TBV Lemgo
Current Bundesliga standing: 9
Power rankings in October: 5
After a couple of amazing months, Constantin Möstl has cooled down a bit in goal. That means that Lemgo has cooled down as well. In November, they lost two games and only won one. But that is not too bad, considering the opponents were tough: Magdeburg, Eisenach, and Flensburg. And two of those games (Magdeburg and Flensburg) were away from home.
Still, Lemgo defeated Eisenach, which no other team did in the month of November. They did so, thanks to Hendrik Wagner’s nine goals and Manuel Zehnder’s six goals.
10: Handball Sport Verein Hamburg
Current Bundesliga standing: 12
Power rankings in October: 13
It feels like every month since we at GoHandball started, the Bundesliga Power rankings last season have been the same when it comes to Hamburg. Every month, they win some, draw some, and lose some. And they are one of the least interesting teams in the league. Sorry.
But some interesting things happened in November. They got a strong point against Berlin at home after a great performance by Robin Paulsen Haug in goal. They defeated Erlangen after a late goal by Casper Mortensen. And they won two games in a row by 28–27.
This is obviously a team that, on any given day, can win, draw, or lose to any team. Wait, am I starting to change my opinion on this team? Are they, in fact, interesting? No, sorry.
11: HSG Wetzlar
Current Bundesliga standing: 13
Power rankings in October: 16
Wetzlar improved quite a lot in November compared to earlier months during the season. Two wins and one loss and something to build in for the future. What’s more important is that they won the right games. A win against Kiel could have been a morale boost, but it would not have helped them much if they lost against teams like Erlangen and Potsdam.
Luckily for Wetzlar, they won games against those exact teams in November. And in those two games, it was all about Till Klimpke. The 26-year-old goalkeeper had 51 in save percentage against Erlangen and 36 against Potsdam. And that’s how you win games at the bottom of the table: with a tight defense that helps your goalkeeper to win the game for you.
12: Frisch auf Göppingen
Current Bundesliga standing: 15
Power rankings in October: 12
This is not a team you can depend on. Why? In one game, the defense is not working; in the next game, it’s the offense that is lacking, and in the third game, it’s something else. They simply can not get it together, at least not so far.
They defeated Potsdam (who wouldn’t at this point?), and then they lost against Leipzig, Löwen, and even Erlangen. To lose one or two of those games would be fine, but to lose all three? That’s why Göppingen is in real danger of getting relegated this season.
Positive? Ludvig Hallbäck continues to be a huge problem for all teams in the Bundesliga.
13: HC Erlangen
Current Bundesliga standing: 16
Power rankings in October: 15
Speaking of teams that can’t be trusted…Erlangen is in deep, deep problems this season (too). There is not much to say about the loss against Melsungen (Erlangen actually played a quite decent away game but ultimately lost anyway).
But to lose against Wetzlar at home and Hamburg away is not what you expect. At least not Wetzlar at home if you want to play in the top division next season.
At least Erlangen ended the month in great fashion by taking a massive win against Göppingen. They can thank two players for that win: Marek Nissen and his nine goals and Khalifa Ghedbane and his 15 saves.
14: VfL Potsdam
Current Bundesliga standing: 18
Power rankings in October: 18
Here we go again. Potsdam can’t score goals, and that’s why they don’t win games. In November, they scored 25 goals against Göppingen, 18 goals against Löwen, and 18 goals again against Wetzlar. I mean, they are not the top teams in the league, and still, they didn’t even manage to score over 20 goals against either Göppingen or Wetzlar. Not good at all.
Note: Hannover-Burgdorf, Gummersbach, Bietigheim, and Stuttgart only played two matches each in November and are, therefore, being excluded from the Power rankings this month.