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 September.
Here are the Bundesliga Power Rankings for October!
1: MT Melsungen
Current Bundesliga standing: 2
Power rankings in September: 2
Melsungen started last year’s campaign in great fashion but eventually ended up outside of the Champions League spots. In other words, it was a “normal” Melsungen season.
The question ahead of this season was whether Melsungen could find more stability on the road and higher consistency. The answer so far? Yes! In October, Roberto Parrondos’s team won four out of four games, and they did so convincingly (in most cases).
Two players stood out: Dainis Kristopans for (of course, his size, duh) his goalscoring ability and Nebojsa Simic for his goalkeeping. The Montenegrinian is second in the Bundesliga when it comes to save percentage. And Melsungen even won away against Leipzig, beating them by one goal. Last season, Melsungen would have lost that game.
2: TSV Hannover-Burgdorf
Current Bundesliga standing: 1
Power rankings in September: 4
What is going on in Hannover? I mean, they have been a top 7 team two years in a row – but after October, they are sitting top at the table in the Bundesliga. How did that happen?
Well, for starters, Renärs Uscins plays for Hannover, and he continues to develop into a world-class player. Marius Steinhauser is scoring at a pace he has never been close to before (pretty nice playing “with” Uscins on the right side of the court, huh?), and Justus Fischer is lighting up the box score in most games with goals, assists, blocks, and steals.
But it all comes back to Uscins, who is the leading goalscorer in the Bundesliga with 76 goals. 13 goals more than Mathias Gidsel (the Dane, however, has played in two games less than his colleague at right back), the second player on the list.
3: SC Magdeburg
Current Bundesliga standing: 3
Power rankings in September: 7
Is Magdeburg back to the high standard we have been spoiled with for the past few years? Not really. But they at least looked better in October than they did in September (in the Bundesliga, not in the Champions League).
It’s still obvious how much they miss Felix Claar, and even though Gisli Kristjansson has the second-most assists in the league, he is not as great as Claar at getting all of his teammates involved.
Why, then, did Magdeburg win four out of four games in October, beating Flensburg away in one of the games? Mostly thanks to Sergey Hernandez. The Spanish goalkeeper has been on fire in goal, with ten plus saves in three out of the four games (and in the other game, Nikola Portner had 54 in save percentage). Magdeburg used to win games thanks to their offense – now they have won games thanks to their goalkeepers.
4: Füchse Berlin
Current Bundesliga standing: 4
Power rankings in September: 6
Berlin started the month by handing Wetzlar a big old beating, winning 34–25 after seven players scored three goals or more. Then they dismantled Rhein-Neckar Löwen and won by seven goals after 20 goals by the Danish duo Mathias Gidsel and Lasse Andersson (10 goals each).
What followed was a tough defeat away to a smoking-hot Melsungen. But Berlin had to play without both Gidsel and Dejan Milosavljev in that game, so no biggy.
In the next game, away to Bietigheim, that duo came back and was instrumental, Gidsel combining 12 goals with five assists and the Serbian keeper saving 14 shots. Berlin is, much like Magdeburg, not where they were at this point the previous season, but they are slowly getting there.
5: TBV Lemgo
Current Bundesliga standing: 6
Power rankings in September: 11
Last season, Lemgo finished tenth in the league. Tenth! The year before that? Eight. Now they are one pace for a spot in the European League next year. What a start to the season by this young and interesting team.
All of the above is true. But I could summarize it by writing two words: Constantin Möstl.
Do you want more? Okay, the young Austrian has the most saves so far in the Bundesliga (87) and the highest save percentage (36). In October, he had 14 saves against Leipzig (Lemgo won, 33–28), 12 saves against Bietigheim (Lemgo won again, 28–23), and 16 saves against Stuttgart (Lemgo won, 28–24). Sure, only three saves against Rhein-Neckar Löwen, but Lemgo won anyway in a slugger match (34–31).
6: THW Kiel
Current Bundesliga standing: 5
Power rankings in September: 8
THW Kiel won all four games in which they played in October. Still, I rank them sixth. Do I hate Kiel? No. Did their wins come against bad teams? Yes.
Kiel defeated Stuttgart (29–24), Hamburg (31–25), Potsdam (27–23), and Erlangen (37–28) in October, and all of those teams had a horrible October. Sure, it was important for Kiel to get everything going after a tough start, but those were games they had to win.
Things to be happy about for Kiel besides the four wins? Eric Johansson and Emil Madsen are looking like a top backcourt duo. And Bence Imre finally had a great game, scoring ten goals against Stuttgart.
7: VfL Gummersbach
Current Bundesliga standing: 7
Power rankings in September: 9
Considering that the injured key player Julian Köster missed the games against Eisenach and Potsdam, plus the fact that Gummersbach is competing at two fronts (European League as well as Bundesliga), two wins and two draws made October a good month for Gummersbach.
Gummersbach started the month by drawing against Flensburg in a Kentin Mahé revenge game (okay, not a revenge game, but at least “I want to show you what I can game). The Frenchman scored eight goals and assisted six in the 29–29 draw.
Then, a draw away against Göppingen in a poor performance before they closed out the month by beating Eisenach and Potsdam. Shout out to Ole Pregler who stepped up in Kösters absence.
8: SG Flensburg-Handewitt
Current Bundesliga standing: 8
Power rankings in September: 1
I ranked them number 1 after September, and now I feel a bit generous placing Flensburg as the ninth-best team in October. Why the generous feeling in my body? Well, Flensburg only won a single game in October, drawing one and losing two.
But the draw against Gummersbach should have been a win (Gummersbach equalized late), and the losses came against Magdeburg and a Hannover team that is playing at an extremely high level.
At least Flensburg finished the month of October by destroying Wetzlar. Flensburg fired on all cylinders and hugely won the game, 36–22.
9: Rhein-Neckar Löwen
Current Bundesliga standing: 9
Power rankings in September: 3
In September, David Späth played at a consistently high level in a way we have never seen before from the young German goalkeeper. In October, the performances were, understandably, not at the same level, and that affected Löwen, who won two games and lost as many.
But it’s no shame in losing to Berlin and Lemgo. And when they defeated Hamburg, Mikael Appelgren had a great end to the game where he sealed the win for his team.
But the overall best player for Löwen is Ivan Martinovic been. Everyone knows that he can score and assist, but more surprisingly, he has the most steals out of all the players in the league (7).
10: ThSV Eisenach
Current Bundesliga standing: 11
Power rankings in September: 13
Misha Kaufmann has to be given a lot of credit. The Swiss coach gets more out of his players than probably any other coach in this league. Matija Spikic is a great example – a goalkeeper who wasn’t even dominating in the Swedish league a couple of years ago but now is ranked third amongst goalkeepers in the Bundesliga when it comes to save percentage. The environment that has been created in Eisenach makes players thrive, that’s for sure.
Less surprising is the high level that Marko Grgic is playing at. The young German is the best player on this team, and during October, it has him, Spikic, and Filip Vistorop (19 goals in two games), who were the top performers for Kaufmann and Eisenach.
Another great thing for Eisenach? They continue to win the “right” games.
11: SC DHfK Leipzig
Current Bundesliga standing: 10
Power rankings in September: 5
Leipzig only won one out of four games in October, so it wouldn’t have been unfair to me to place them considerably lower in the Power rankings. So, why am I putting them as high as 11th place? Well, they lost against Lemgo, Magdeburg, and Melsungen, for starters.
I enjoy this team. Viggo Kristjansson, Matej Klima, and Franz Semper are all playing great in most games, and they are entertaining to watch as well.
12: Frisch auf Göppingen
Current Bundesliga standing: 14
Power rankings in September: 14
I am going to keep it short. What Ludvig Hallbäck has done so far for Göppingen has been nothing but impressive. He is an undersized player who is dominating most games with his mind and his quick feet and release – a player that the teams in the Bundesliga are still trying to figure out.
The team, however, is not playing that great. Let’s keep it at that.
13: Handball Sport Verein Hamburg
Current Bundesliga standing: 12
Power rankings in September: 12
I am having trouble seeing a clear idea of how Hamburg wants to play handball. But then again, they lost three games in October. Against Löwen, they had a chance, but a weak finish to the game ruined the evening for Hamburg.
The loss against Kiel away is what it is. But losing against Wetzlar is horrible. At least they stole a point from Hannover in the last game of the month. Where did that come from? No idea.
14: SG BBM Bietigheim
Current Bundesliga standing: 13
Power rankings in September: 10
We continue with the bad teams in the Bundesliga. Bietigheim, a team that impressed me a lot in September, looked more like expected in October. One win against Wetzlar away and three losses.
Let’s start with the positive: The win against Wetzlar was much needed.
Negative? Well, the rest of it.
15: HC Erlangen
Current Bundesliga standing: 16
Power rankings in September: 18
The most important thing in October for Erlangen happened in the first game. Erlangen defeated Potsdam, a rival at the bottom of the table, and those two points could end up having a huge impact when the league is in May and June.
Klemin Ferlin had a couple of great games in goal, but other than that, Erlangen is not looking impressive at all.
16: HSG Wetzlar
Current Bundesliga standing: 15
Power rankings in September: 17
One player in Wetzlar had a great month of October, and that was Anadin Suljakovic in goal, 36 in save percentage against Berlin (Wetzlar still conceded 34 goals in that game), and ten saves in the win against Hamburg.
But losing to both Eisenach and Bietigheim is not good enough and perhaps a sign of things to come for Wetzlar.
17: TVB Stuttgart
Current Bundesliga standing: 17
Power rankings in September: 15
No player in the Bundesliga has assisted more goals than Kai Häfner of Stuttgart. And this is a fact even though the German international had a rough month compared to September.
But Stuttgart as a team is having a hard time even being close to winning games. And in October, they lost all five they played in: against Kiel, Melsungen, Lemgo, Magdeburg, and Hannover. I know that all of those are top teams, but Stuttgart looked horrendous for much of it.
18: VfL Potsdam
Current Bundesliga standing: 18
Power rankings in September: 16
If you are having trouble scoring goals, then you won’t win many handball matches. In October, Potsdam scored 19 against Erlangen (!), 22 against Hannover, 23 against Kiel, and 26 against Gummersbach. No wonder they lost all four.