In the battle between David Späth and Andreas Wolff, the two German national team goalkeepers, Späth and his Rhein-Neckar Löwen won the Bundesliga opener against THW Kiel, 32–27. Both keepers played well in an otherwise sloppy game.
The Bundesliga is finally here! The opening day started with Gummersbach defeating Hannover-Burgdorf 32–28 away from home and Melsungen took care of business against Lemgo, winning 28–20.
But that was a build-up for the big game of the opening day: Rhein-Neckar Löwen against THW Kiel. Two teams that were disappointed about last season, where Kiel finished outside the Champions League spots and Löwen finished 12th (!).
Löwen, with newcomers Sebastian Heymann and Ivan Martinovic to flank Juri Knorr in the backcourt, looked great to start the game. And the game had hardly started before Patrick Wiencek had done a very Wiencek thing when he hit Martinovic in the head in a very clumsy way. 45 seconds in and the line player saw the red card.
Tough start for this new Kiel team, without Elias Skipagötu and Harald Reinkind tonight but with Andreas Wolff, Lukas Zerbe, and Emil Madsen among the starters.
The first half was a bit chaotic. Both teams had five-goal leads at different points of the game but Löwen looked sharper for most of it. Therefore the 14–14 score at the break was somehow logical with both keepers being their team’s best players.
The strangest thing that happened in the first half? After a Heymann goal, Juri Knorr slipped. When running back to towards the bench he signaled to the referees that the floor needed to be wiped. Looking back while running forward the playmaker rolled his ankle. Knorr would come on again to play in the second half but looked a but limited by the injury.
Löwen the better team in the second half
The home side started the second half in great fashion and not far into the half, they had a three-goal lead, 21–18. They played fast and both Heymann and Martinovic had an impact from the backcourt.
Kiel did what they could offensively to stay in the game and the duo Eric Johansson and Emil Madsen played well. But in defense Kiel looked bad for huge parts of the game. It looked worse then the result and Kiel should thank Wolff that they didn’t conceade even more goals. It seems like Kiel’s defense has not improved from last season, but then again this was just one game.
Wolff almost won the game for Kiel but instead, his buddy from the national team, David Späth, became the match winner for his team.
Löwen won the game 32–27 and got a perfect start to the Bundesliga season. Kiel have a lot of job to do if they are to compete for the league title this season.