Ludwigsburg rely on a clear No. 1
While Brest have relied on a goalkeeping duo with similar playing times in both the current and last season, HB Ludwigsburg, who were competing as SG BBM Bietigheim until last season, have a clear No. 1 and No. 2.
Last season, Gabriela Moreschi faced 82.3 per cent of all shots on Bietigheim’s goal – the highest number among all EHF Champions League teams. In contrast, Katharina Filter, Brest’s goalkeeper that played the most, was on 57.7 per cent, which was just the 13th-highest number.
Moreschi rewarded coach Jakob Vestergaard’s trust in her with strong performances. Overall, she had the seventh-best save percentage with 31.8. But especially remarkable were her highlights: Against WHC Buducnost for example, she had the highest save percentage (58.1) among all goalkeepers in the competition that faced more than 20 shots in one game. In the semi-final against Metz Handball, she led her team with a save percentage of 35.6 to the final.
The final against Györi Audi ETO KC, however, showed the weakness of the one-main-goalkeeper approach. Moreschi’s save percentage that final was her second-worst of the entire season at just 20.7, and her team had no chance.
This season Ludwigsburg have a completely revamped goalkeeping team. Moreschi, Melinda Szikora, whose knee injury forced them to adopt the one-main-goalkeeper strategy, and Sarah Nørklit Lønborg left the club, with Johanna Bundsen and Nicole Roth arriving as replacements.
Similar to last season, they have a clear No. 1 in Johanna Bundsen, who has faced 92.2 per cent of the shots on Ludwigsburg’s goal so far. Only Storhamar Handball Elite’s Eli Marie Raasok currently has a higher share with 97.3 per cent. Her save percentage of 33.1 vindicates the trust of her coach.
Being the clear No. 1 is nothing new for Bundsen, who also held this position when playing for IK Sävehof in her native Sweden last season: She stood in goal for 79.5 per cent of the shots against her team, which meant third place. However, she was able to save just 28.9 per cent, which ranked her 18th among the 24 goalkeepers that had faced at least 200 shots in total.
Of course, Sävehof had poorer defensive stats overall than Bietigheim last season, as they blocked just 0.4 per cent of their opponents’ shots from the court – fewer than any other teams. Therefore, she probably also faced much more difficult shots to save.
More from data analyst Julian Rux can be found at Handballytics.de. There you can read his latest articles, in which he analyses all kinds of handball topics from new, data-based perspectives. You can also find him on Instagram, Facebook, X, Threads and WhatsApp Channels.
photos © 2024 Marco Wolf (main image); Olivier Stephan (text image)