First friendly, first win. Borussia Dortmund’s women’s handballers acquitted themselves well in their 35-25 (19-15) win over top-tier promoted outfit HSV Solingen-Gräfrath. Head coach Henk Groener was especially content with his team’s tempo play and praised the new signings in general. “I’ve already seen several good things.”
The start to the new season was fun. The Borussia Dortmund women’s handballers are only two weeks into their pre-season preparations and have completed three training sessions in the hall. But they already demonstrated their qualities against promoted team HSV Solingen-Gräfrath at Halle Wellinghofen on Wednesday evening in the first friendly ahead of the Bundesliga season, which commences on 9 September. BVB especially impressed after the break in their 35-25 (19-15) victory against the Bundesliga newcomers from Bergisches Land. “It’s obviously not about the result in these games, that’s of secondary importance. What’s important is that we settle and integrate the new signings,” was the positive conclusion from BVB head coach Henk Groener, who consistently rang the changes and particularly lauded the “really good tempo play” and the defensive work after the interval.
The visitors were an opponent to be taken seriously. You could sense Solingen were already well-coordinated. “We, however,” said Groener, “were still finding our feet at the start, but that improved from minute to minute.”
BVB head coach Henk Groener initially relied on Dutchwoman Tess Lieder in between the goalposts, tried out a few new things in defence and consistently rang the changes against a motivated visiting team from Bergisches Land, who had already played two friendly fixtures. “For Tess, it was enormously important to be back in goal again after an almost 18-month break. She needs playing time and went about her business well,” said sporting director Andreas Kuno. “Tess is working with full focus towards her comeback,” assured Groener.
After the break, the BVB boss relied on the largely tried-and-tested line-up from the previous season, which added defensive stability in particular. New signing Sarah Wachter performed well in goal and Lena Degenhardt made a positive impression on the left of the backcourt, as Kuno emphasised: “She has completely recovered from her shoulder injury from last season and went into 1v1 situations without any problems.” The two new signings Carmen Campos and Alicia Stolle also impressed with some good passages of play, were very present and played a great deal of confidence.