LINZ. The omens under which the handball players of HC Linz AG start the season at home against Schwaz (6.30 p.m. live on laola1.tv) on Friday have changed. After years of fighting relegation, the surprising semi-finals in May raised the bar for the following season. “We’ve got a taste for it,” says club president Bernhard Ditachmair. The sportingly most important sign is of course that the top performers in the team of coach Milan Vunjak were all retained.
With homecomer Alex Hermann, a quality player has also been brought in, who relieves top scorer Lucijan Fizuleto. The top scorer had worn the Linz game in phases in the previous season. Even then, the axis worked excellently with Fizuleto and pivot Dejan Babic. “We can build on that now,” Vunjak doesn’t start from scratch again. “It looked really good even in the first training sessions,” says Max Hermann, who could miss the start due to knee problems.
50 years HC Linz
In addition to creating the economic framework, Ditachmair called the improvement of medical care “homework for the board” for the coming season, which is entirely under the motto of HC Linz’s 50th anniversary. The first five home games will each mark a decade for the club, with key players invited and honored. “But there won’t be any legends,” Franz Berger, a man from the very beginning at HC, remembers one about ten years ago. “There were really serious injuries with a torn tendon and a dislocated shoulder, we don’t risk that anymore,” says Berger with a smile.
On September 10th, Linz will return to the European stage with the European Cup first leg at home against the Bosnian Cup winner Izvidac. “They beat top European teams in preparation,” says Vunjak, impressed after the first videos.
Source: Nachrichten
