Group B, Day 3: Genesys OSC (HUN) v Spandau 04 Berlin (GER) 9-9
The teams have had identical paths so far: a valuable point in an away game (in Marseille for OSC and in Sabadell for Spandau), and a heavy defeat to last season’s runner-up Novi Beograd. And after this game these paths remained parallel as the clash ended up in a draw.
The Germans took the upper hand in the first half, they were in the lead for most of the time. Their discipline, low-paced game bore its fruits early on – though the hosts could equalise four times, but Dmitri Kholod’s fine shot in an extra and Mateo Cuk’s action shot gave Spandau a 4-6 lead by halftime. Worth mentioning the outstanding performance of Laszlo Baksa in the Germans’ goal – the Hungarian netminder delivered one huge save after the other.
OSC came back strongly in the third, though, in three minutes the game was even as Ferenc Salamon scored from action and Vendel Vigvari converted a 6 on 5. Still, the hosts couldn’t carry on their momentum for a while – the remaining 5:09 minutes didn’t see more hits. This also credited OSC’s defence, which also worked well, they shut out Spandau for the entire period – their rivals missed three man-ups at this phase.
Finally, early in the fourth OSC took the lead for the first time, with a great shot from Krisztian Manhercz in a man-up – though Spandau also found the way to score after 10:13 minutes, even if from a 6 on 4. OSC missed a crucial man-up here at 7-7, while the Germans earned a penalty in a man-up and went ahead once more as Kholod made no mistake. Vigvari equalised very soon, also from an extra, but Kholod was on target again in a man-up – Spandau use all their chances pretty efficiently in the fourth.
The home side missed another man-up (Baksa posted his 17th save!), and the Germans had a possession to win the game but couldn’t create any danger. At the other end, the Magyars earned a man-up 44 seconds from time and Salamon sent the ball home with 29 seconds remaining. Spandau had one more attack, but it didn’t work – so both teams bagged one point but neither seemed to be too satisfied with that.
How they saw it
Daniel Varga, coach, OSC
“I cannot be satisfied, in fact I’m very disappointed, we should have won this game. We have goals to be in the first four and qualify for the Final Eight and this match was an important step towards that. We didn’t manage to reach this win for some reasons – however, it was difficult to play after the Hungarian Cup finals, both emotionally and physically. Still, I expected more from my team, this was the not the level we could play on.”
Athanasios Kechagias, coach, Spandau
“Congrats to my players, they played a fine game where minor things decided the outcome.
They fought hard, but I can’t really tell you a lot more, I need to watch the video and analyse what happened this evening.”
