betprepare.com

Sonderjyske seek vengeance for the 19-18 defeat in the first match

It's an important meeting for the playoff race since a defeat would see Mors falling 6 points short of Sonderjyske, leaving them only in the race for spot 8. Arhus are further ahead each next round too...

Rukometni savez BiH

A win over Arhus that was followed by a draw against GOG was a great step forward in Sonderjyske bit to qualify for the playoff. They left GOG two points short in the table and in case of a win over Mors today, the home team would take a 6-point lead in the table against their opponent to basically see Paulsen's team end their race for the playoff. GOG would stay the only contender for Sonderjyske, but since the home team didn't lose in head to head games this season, a win here would accumulate unreachable advantage. 

- If we lose to Mors, the head-to-head record would be bad for us (0-2) and in order to get through to play off, we need to get some points here, we can't assume things will just happen - we have to make them happen - coach Morten Henriksen said.

His team had a good performance last Wednesday as they met GOG, especially defense-wise. Sonderjyke played zone defense, knowing full well how much GOG struggle with that, to limit their back players to a small number of goals - Chris Jørgensen 0/4, Kreutzmann 3/6, Minik Høegh 2/7. Anders Petersen was good with 13 saves and young lineman turned out to be the greatest surprise of the game as he added 4 goals in 6 attempts.

- Mors' aggressive defense with Sijan on the goal gave us a lot of trouble in the first head-to-head match. If we want to win, we need to be able to get past that defense with more efficiency, not matter if it's 6-0 or 3-2-1 - coach Heriksen said. His team lost the first game 19-18.

- I think we have some option at our disposal that will give us good chance - he added.

- We found good defense rhythm lately and we need to stick to it because Mors have a few very good players. Tobias Ellebaek could be a challenge, but if we stick to our concept, we can stop him. 

Ellebaek is Mors's left back, one of their most important players but also one of the youngest ones, which means he needs to take a lot of shots to score very little goals. He did well on Wednesday against Kolding (3/4) even though his team stood no chance. They scored only 22 goals in total, with middle back Karlsson scoring one (in 4 attempts) and defense specialist Porup finished with one and Soby Meinby added 2 goals each. You need to do your very best to bring down the top table team, and Mors were not even close. 

- We opened the game badly, but after being down 2-7 we started played 5-1 defense to get back in the game. We went on playing good defense, got only one goal short and threatened their lead a few times, but Hvidt was sadly the man of the match - coach Paulsen said. KIF goal keeper recorded 19 saves and the efficiency of nearly 50%.

Mors are very good home, but out of the 8 away games managed to win only the one with bottom table Odder (a nine-meter throw after the time was already up) and GOG in the moment of their greatest crises. They played four away games with Sonderjyske to record a win, a draw, and two defeats. 

Both teams should have all of the best players to count on today.