In handball, there is currently an unusually fierce scramble for the stars. It is no secret that Simon Pytlick could leave SG Flensburg-Handewitt next summer for Berlin, where he would meet his discoverer Nicolej Krickau as coach. It is already certain that national team captain Johannes Golla will move to Melsungen and his teammate Lukas Jørgensen to the Hungarian top team Veszprem. The goalkeeper of steadfast reliability, Kevin Møller, is drawn just across the border to Danish Gudme to join GOG.
Is the strength of the new leaders in the Handball-Bundesliga merely a fleeting phenomenon? Lasse Møller’s words after the 36:34 in the 113th derby against THW Kiel on Saturday afternoon spoke a different language: “I am proud of what is developing here. We are moving as a whole club in the right direction. It is a very good path.” The core players trust the work of their superiors on the transfer market. After years of dreariness, the Flensburg-Handewitt leadership has decided on a major upheaval and now announces transfers or contract extensions on a monthly basis.
While the dethroned table-toppers THW Kiel painfully missed the knee-injured, ice-cold shooter Emil Madsen, and behind Andreas Wolff the 20-year-old goalkeeper talent Leon Nowottny is giving his best, because the signing Gonzalo Pérez de Vargas is not yet match-fit, SG coach Aleš Pajović nearly drew from the full.
That national player Luca Witzke is out with shoulder problems is no disadvantage, for the Flensburg side has, on the one hand, the already functioning axis of Lasse Møller, Simon Pytlick and Kent-Robin Tønnessen. On the other hand Pajović can bring top recruit Marko Grgić off the bench. “It’s hammer fun to play these games,” said Lasse Møller later, “we live for it. At halftime we said we would stick to our style. We were clear that we would have more resources.”
Playmaker with Cartilage Damage
As the X-Factor, playmaker and specialist for one-on-one, Lasse Møller is irreplaceable. Who would have thought? At the 2020 signing, a cartilage damage in his right knee was diagnosed about three-quarters of a year later. Møller fought for 15 months to return to the parquet. It was only in the 2022/2023 season that the “talent of the century” became a full member of the SG group.
Carried by his confidence through the long months of rehab: at the time the doctors said that if he patiently built up the muscles around the joint, he could play again.
Few believed that. Since then the 29-year-old playmaker has worn a thick brace around the joint. The whole arena lights up when he scores and his goal anthem rings out: “Give it up” by KC and the Sunshine Band. From the refrain “Baby give it up” the fans have made “Lasse shoots you all down.” Then a broad grin spreads across his face.
In sum, SG Flensburg-Handewitt simply had more energy and defeated THW Kiel now for the fifth time in a row – and that with a defense that until the 51st minute had yielded only eight goals in the second half: the swap from Benjamin Burić to Kevin Møller worked wonders. The 36-year-old veteran sealed off his goal. It was the Danish Møllers who pierced the previously unbeaten Kiel players’ resolve.
