Vive Targi Kielce has made the first step toward defending the title by beating Orlen Wisła Płock 37:26 in the final of the Polish Championships. Despite winning all matches against Wisła in this season, Kielce was not dead cert for winning this time. Last game, which was Polish Cup final, ended up with a 1-goal victory of Kielce but Płock gained more self-confidence and believed that they can beat their rival.
The very beginning of the match seemed to prove the thesis that it would not be another easy win for Kielce. The first quarter was close-fought and it was that Płock tried to take the upper hand. However, it took a few Płock’s mistakes for Kielce to take the lead. 3 lost goals were too much for coach Cadenas who called a timeout already in 15. minute. The Oilers managed to reduce the gap (10:9 in 22. minute) but it was everything they were able to do and since this point the match resembled previous easy going games rather than the last exciting Polish Cup final. Polish champions started forging ahead and the result at the break was 16:11.
Beginning of the second half belonged to Piotr Chrapkowski who scored twice and increased the gap to 7 goals. Kielce did very well in defence and Płock started lacking ideas to break through; defending champions were also backed by their goalkeeper Sławomir Szmal. On the other side of the court decently playing Marin Šego was replaced by Marcin Wichary. “Wichura” had several brilliant saves but it was not enough for his team to even get close to their rivals. Szmal’s saves resulted in fastbreaks, successfully used by Manuel Štrlek. When Kielce reached 12-goal advantage, Płock managed to score 4 goals in a row but it was too late to come from behind. In the end Kielce won 37:26.
The second match is going to take place on Sunday (18. May), again in Kielce.
TEXT: MARTYNA USNARSKA
Piotr
18. May 2014. at 11:12
Not a good game. Tactical very big difference of these two teams. Plock didn’t have any answer at all. Plock need to play as a team and not like a medium team from Spain.