Panther coach Martin Wild spoke to the Tagblatt about exceeded expectations, goals and dreams for the future during the game break in January.
In an interview, Panther coach Martin Wild draws a positive interim conclusion on the second division season of the Brucker TuS handball players.
The most important starting point for the rest of the season: Offensive and defensive have to be better coordinated.
At the same time, the panther coach calls for further professionalization in the club.
Fürstenfeldbruck
- With eight points under their belt, the Panthers are in a better position in the 2nd handball Bundesliga than many experts predicted before the season.
After around a third of the season, the Brucker TuS handball players can have justified hopes of staying up.
Martin Wild: "We feel very comfortable in the professional handball world"
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Emotional: The coach in a dispute with the referee.
© Peter Weber
How do you feel as a surprise team in the 2nd Bundesliga?
Thank you, we feel very much at home in the professional handball world and will continue to give everything to be able to experience the 2nd Bundesliga with spectators in the next season.
This is our new dream.
What were your thoughts after the first two clear defeats? And how did you still keep the team on track so that they continue to believe in themselves?
We were all a bit shocked after the first two results.
It was more the results than the games.
Maybe we entered the games with a little too much vigor.
Pushing the pace as a promoted player in Gummersbach on the second match day was perhaps a bit naive and we probably wouldn't do it again today.
But then we changed some of the parameters quite successfully and found our way around the league quite well.
With eight points from the first 13 games, the Panthers are not - as predicted by many experts - beaten last, but in the middle of the fight to stay up.
We were ranked last in every poll.
Correct.
After the first two games, we played at eye level nine times in the following eleven games and were able to win four of them.
Against well-known teams such as Dormagen, Elbflorenz, Aue, who can work under fully professional conditions with budgets between one and two million euros.
Plus the important win against Konstanz.
That was very strong.
It's annoying that we weren't able to take anything that could be counted from the good games in Ferndorf, Dessau, Hamburg or at home against Wilhelmshaven, for example.
We worked towards it, of course, but didn't know exactly what was going to happen.
Overall, I would give the first section a 2-minus after school grades.
Martin Wild: "Technically and tactically we are very close"
According to the findings from 13 games, what is the biggest difference between the 3rd division and the 2nd Bundesliga?
Technically and tactically we're already very close.
We still make very few goals from the long-range throw zone.
This shows the high individual quality in the league.
In addition, each individual technical error is consistently punished by a counterattack.
We still make the most technical mistakes and thus concede the most counter goals in the league.
We are working on that.
And in the athletic field, the competition is still way ahead of us.
As a rule, in addition to the five handball units in the afternoon, the other clubs also have two to three mornings in the weight room with their athletic trainers.
It takes years of adjustment and cannot be made up in six months.
However, we are increasing the scope of our training step by step and want to get to that level in the medium term.
To do this, however, we have to professionalize, increase expense allowances and create training times.
Many of our young players in particular would want to keep up with this quota.
For the Germany-wide single-track 2nd league, as it has been around for ten years, you have to belong to the 35 best teams in Germany.
And for that you definitely need handball players who study on the side and no students who play handball on the side in the evening sport.
That's the reality.
With an average of 27.61 goals per game, the Panthers are the fourth best offensive in the league. Do you have an explanation as to why things are going so well forward?
The value is actually quite astonishing.
But of course we can also play handball, rely on a well-rehearsed team and well-known concepts.
We score the most goals across the whole league, have good one-on-one players, a good shot quality, and our speed game is also in the top five in the league.
This is our concept.
For the second half of the season we have to make sure that we get our back and outside shooters in better throwing positions in order to be even more variable.
Improve our superiority game and our second wave.
There is still a lot to be done.
Strong attack brings your own defense into trouble
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The many goals conceded by the Panthers make Wild thoughtful.
© Marco Steinbrenner
On the other hand, the defensive - still the showpiece in the 3rd division - is more vulnerable this season. Why is it?
Also a bit close to the attack.
Despite all the quality, we still make far too many mistakes there.
And they are punished with counterattack goals.
We defend the long range zone best in the league.
That is the primary goal of our defense.
Not that much happens about the circle either.
The breakthrough from the back space is sometimes the problem.
But we have to swallow any toad.
But we will continue to close these gaps and work together to increase our goalkeeper quotas.
If you take out the first two games against Eisenach and Gummersbach with 40 and 36 goals conceded from the defense statistics, you can see that we made good progress there too.
All strengths and weaknesses considered: Are the panthers already where they want to be in terms of sport? And where do you still see a need for action?
To be honest, compared to the league we are a bit further than I would have thought.
I think that the quality in the league in the Corona year and without spectators will also suffer a bit overall.
Three teams will be rationalized away from relegated teams in the next few years.
My goal is to be a second division team in 2025 with ambitions to secure midfield.
However, this path is even more rocky than it has been with two ascents in the last ten years.
Convincing key players and hopes for young talent
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The trainer and his key player: Falk Kolodziej (left) is the linchpin in Wild's game system.
© Marco Steinbrenner
Falk Kolodziej is currently the team's top scorer and assist. He should be able to fulfill his role as a leader, right?
Falk is playing a great season and is currently the best assist provider to the district in the league.
In addition to the one-on-one, its great strength.
He is definitely the handball head of the team and can become the defining player in Munich handball for the next few years.
After field goals even Max Horner leads clearly internally.
Prause, Stumpf, Engelmann, Leindl, Seitz.
All with good values.
The functioning collective is still our great strength.
Stephan Seitz, Tim Kaulitz, most recently Louis Oberosler and Cedric Riesner: Did you expect the youngsters in the squad to be able to play such a strong role in the 2nd Bundesliga?
Seitz, Oberosler and Riesner still have double play rights with the Allach A-youth.
We would have coordinated without Corona.
Of course, it was incredibly good for your personal development that you have been able to train fully with us for months, get playing times, show performance and become an integral part of our team in such a short time.
They are all only 18 or 19 years old and exercise obsessively.
If you continue to train with this ambition, you will become the pillars of Fürstenfeldbruck handball in the years to come.
All of them have the potential for more if they stick with it.
In your opinion, who is the biggest surprise among the panthers?
Difficult.
There is no real surprise here.
For me at least.
I know my players pretty well by now.
Martin Wild: "Our big goal is to play a second division game in a sold out panther cage"
How much does Corona influence the rhythm of the game and travel to the games? And how do the team and coaching team perceive the ghost games?
We plan the journey very well by bus and train.
Corona plays almost no role there.
The non-existent rhythm with games during the week and game cancellations - consequently catch-up dates - is really not optimal.
But we don't moan.
Unfortunately, you get used to the ghost games a bit.
But I think we make a lot of people happy when they watch TV.
We perceive that.
Our big goal is to make a second division game in a sold out panther cage.
But that will certainly not happen again this season.
After the good first third of the season, are you already thinking about a possible relegation, or are you just thinking from game to game?
Of course, the planning for the coming season is ongoing.
Everyone has to be aware that we won't know which league we'll be playing in until June.
That doesn't make planning that easy.
We have to expand our sponsor pool as quickly as possible, create the foundation for the 2nd league in order to create the conditions mentioned above and to be able to offer a perspective.
Our players then have to commit to our unique project and its continuation in the next few weeks.
In my opinion, it is worth much more to help shape your club than to earn a few euros more somewhere and run with it.
Even if we had to get some momentum in the 3rd division.
Fortunately, we can have a decisive influence on league membership in the next season.
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