HC Erlangen impresses in Stuttgart

HC Erlangen won its first away game of the season against TVB Stuttgart by 31:29 (17:12). The team of Head Coach Robert Andersson thus showed the right response to its opening defeat last Thursday.

Like last season, the arena in the Swabian city was firmly in Franconian hands. More than 250 fans had made the journey to get behind their HC Erlangen on the road and so gave their team the necessary confidence from the outset. On court, the only first-division club from Bavaria proved to be on top of its game from the throw-off. Building on extremely agile defense with a strong Gorazd Skof between the posts, the HC dictated the encounter and managed to open up a gap very early on. Michael Haaß directed matters commandingly in the center position and kept on putting his teammates into excellent positions to score. As a result, HC Erlangen led by five goals at half-time.

The home side from Stuttgart came out much improved after the break. The TVB slashed the gap to one in the space of ten minutes and the game threatened to tilt its way. It was then that Christoph Steinert kept the club from Swabia at bay with his four goals in a row. TVB Stuttgart would then have the chance to equalize a little later, but that was prevented by Nikolas Katsigiannis, who smoothly took up where his predecessor left off after being brought on. With this away win against a strong Stuttgart side, the HC Erlangen showed that it had drawn the right conclusions from the first game and can now prepare for the home encounter against VfL Gummersbach this Saturday with confidence.

Robert Andersson (Head Coach of HC Erlangen): “Today was perhaps the best first half we’ve played for a long time and I’m pleased my players put our game plan into practice. I’d like to thank our fans, who made a great contribution to this victory.”