Vive Tauron Kielce opened the new season by taking victory over Gaz-System Pogoń Szczecin – 33:30. The match beautified opening of the brand new hall in Szczecin. Polish champions started without 3 players – they had to manage without injured Karol Bielecki and Piotr Grabarczyk. Denis Buntić was not there to help either as he has been suspended for 2 matches due to his behaviour during Polish League final in May. What is more, Kielce were deprived not only of their players – their coach Talant Duyshebaev has also been suspended (4 matches) for the same reason and his duties were taken over by the second coach Tomasz Strząbała.
Defending champion did not have an easy job because their victory against Szczecin was on the edge until last minutes. Pogoń began quite harshly as already in 4th minute Ivan Čupić was severely fouled by Łukasz Gierak. During first 10 minutes Szczecin players were given three 2-minute suspensions; this harsh playing seemed to be a good idea though because the hosts kept leading and it took Kielce almost 15 minute to take the lead. However, the teams surged back and forth and they scrambled to get on the lead minute by minute.
In the 16th minute one of the two new Kielce players – Tobias Reichmann – made his debut in Polish league. Also due to the absence of Buntić, Michał Jurecki played as a right back. The changes however made no difference and Kielce could not find a way to crack well-playing Pogoń. The result at the break was 15:15.
The second half saw Marin Šego’s debut and a few of his saves at the beginning. However, Kielce goalkeepers were not the best ones on the court as Krzysztof Szczecina in Pogoń goal had a very good performance.
Short-handed Kielce scored for 17:15 and one might have thought they would start getting away but it was not the case. The second half looked just like the first one. Unfortunately for Szczecin, unlike Kielce, they didn’t change their players almost at all so they started getting tired and making mistakes. With 5 minutes to go they lost one of their best players, Mateusz Zaremba, due to his third yellow card. Szczecin got their chances to draw when with the result 31:30 Lijewski missed the goal, but they threw those chances away themselves by losing the ball a couple times. Kielce were the first one to took the advantage of the chaotic situation and scored for 32:30. In the last minute Tobias Reichmann sealed the deal scoring his first goal for 33:30.
The best scorer of Kielce was Julen Aginagalde (7), and for Szczecin it was Michal Bruna (9).
MARTYNA USNARSKA
