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Skive in injury trouble

As if a decisive defeat, second in three starting rounds, was not enough, Skive have also lost two players to injuries in the away game against Holstebro

The Danish championship is advancing at an accelerated pace in this period, and just two days since the 21-36 away debacle against TT Holstebro, Skive are playing a new away match at Odense, with roster issues joining their result problems. After the Holstebro match two more players joined their injury list. One of their best, left back Olivera Jurišić, injured her knee, while winger Ditte Kelsa suffered a concussion and a cut on her chin that needed sutures. Prior to this third round match, the injury list also contains right back Nadja Jensen and Anne Katrine Danielsen, while the returned Line Haugsted is not 100% fit for the matches in this period.

Looking towards this second away match in a row, Skive coach Ryan Ziglersen is trusting the tradition of good performances the team have against Odense:

- Even with all the issues and injuries in our team and the limited roster, we've had many even matches in the previous seasons.

Odense won their second victory this season against Nykobing, but they once again, just like against Aarhus in the previous match, the key issue for this team is how to perform at a quality level for longer than 30 minutes. If Odense played well only the first half against Aarhus, the Nykobing match was won by a quality performance in the second half.

Odense were behind by two goals at halftime, struggled with scoring and had too many mistakes on defense. With the start of the second part we saw a complete transformation of the tempo, offense became much more efficient, and the technical mistakes were reduced to a minimum. Offendal was the best scorer of the match with 8 goals, Adler ended the game with 6.

-The first half was a disaster, we spoke with the players at halftime about what things should look like on court, about how to pass the ball better and it showed on court from the moment the second part started- said Robert Gertsen, assistant coach for Odense, after the match.

Odense beat Skive twice last season, the first mach almost at this same time last year ended with +8 for Odense. They are entering this match with a fresher roster as they've had a day more to rest and since this is the third home match in a row for Odense.

Playing a counter on Skive is still viable in this period, primarily due to their dense schedule, with four matches in a period of 10 days for both teams but Skive had one less day of rest and will have their second back to back away match in just two days, while Odense will be playing their third home game in a row. The second factor are the injuries troubling Skive prior to this match. With three players on the injury list being two backs and one winger, and the injured left back Jurišić being one of their best players, one more player from the rest of the roster is also in question. Odense won two matches against teams that seem better than Skive this year, the team has not changed significantly during the break, have no injury issues and have not traveled at all, having played three home matches in a row. The only concern is their inconsistent performance, but even with just 30 minutes of quality handball they managed to beat Nykobing by +7 in their last match, while they had +6 after the first half against Aarhus, who are the hit of the start of this season. As long as such margins against Skive are on offer where a + 5-6 goals are required, they're playable with this stake.