10.02.2014, 12:20
Heart and soul. Blood and sweat

ehfTV commentator Tom O Brannagain witnessed trench warfare between KIF Kolding Kobenhavn and THW Kiel last Sunday and was impressed how players on both ends of court warred.

Heart and soul. Blood and sweat

Fire and brimstone, rough and tumble, huff and puff, but in the end Kolding couldn't blow Kiel's house down. It was trench warfare in a low scoring game, with each team launching offensives against two dominant defences.

Kolding again resembled a rag tag army as they were shorn of almost their entire back division, so they stayed with the tried and trusted double line routine, incredible defence and counter attacks. And it worked for 30 minutes as they had 7 fast breaks against Kiel.

Kiel had few players as well, but had more options in all areas. Palmarsson was left at home and Lauge, under medical advice was to be used sparingly. The difference between the two teams was that Jallouz has figured out how to play the "Kiel Way" and so could be used during the game in attack.

Add to that Zeitz and although they had only a few substitutes all were quality.

Kolding had many young boys on the bench, who may in time be called to serve the cause, but this game was too important to tinker. Bilal Suman, the coach, used his back wall in defence, and expected Andersson and Spellerberg to open the Kiel defence from the back division.

It was incredible how closely this game resembled the reverse fixture in Kiel. Kolding kept in touch, holding on by their fingertips at times to a Kiel team that always threatened to dominate but couldn't free themselves from the Kolding grasp.

It is as if this Kolding team is pushing a rock up a hill, but never quite reaching the zenith that will allow the rock to roll down the other side. They pushed, the fought, they harried, but in the end, like "Indiana Jones" the rock just came rushing back at them.

That is Kiel. At the key moments, twice in the second half Gislason took time outs and pushed his troops over the lip of the hill. With moments remaining with Kolding still in with a chance. They threw unnecessary shots when some patience might have garnered a greater reward.

I ask myself if Kiel had been two down, would they have lost and my feeling is no they would not.

The fault is not due to individual players, although today it happened to be Bo Spellerberg (hero and villain in equal measure, hero for a memorable goal, conversely for shot decisions at the death). The truth is that Bo and Lasse and the rest had run themselves to a standstill and had no energy left to allow their brain to make the correct decisions.

Picture this: Lasse Andersson has just recovered from flu, but ran himself into the ground, Rocas smashed his nose into the hoardings and played on, Boldsen pulled a leg muscle after 20 mins and soldiered on (there was no one else, he told me), Sigurdsson crashed into an advertisement board and kept going, Toft Hansen may have cracked a rib and battled on.

These men are warriors and never want to let their teams down. And amid all the huff and puff there were moments of sublime skill and team play that defied the amount of space afforded to the attacks. Ekberg has sent a message to Sweden to say, look what you missed, Jicha played a captain's role, Sigurdsson never saw a ball yet defended for an hour.. Rocas was brilliant, Laen was immense and young Lasse Andersson, well he is a star..

I love these men. I love them for what they create and what they give.
It's heart and soul.
It's blood and sweat.
It's beauty and the beast.
The fairytale continues ...

TEXT: Tom O Brannagain, ehfTV commentator