Flensburg's cup history: four titles, 13 appearances in the final
Four titles are an impressive number, but 13 appearances in the final underline that the history of the German Cup and the REWE Final4 is closely linked to the history of SG Flensburg-Handewitt. On 15 April (throw-off 16:10 CEST), the almost traditional semi-final against the Rhein-Neckar Löwen is the chance for SG to reach their 14th final - and the first one since 2017.
Flensburg’s cup history is closely intertwined with that of their northern neighbour THW Kiel. Only the “Zebras” had more appearances in finals (16 times) than Flensburg - and only those two clubs dueled six times in finals in Hamburg. In 2005, winners were Flensburg, on the other hand, THW Kiel won five times - including three in a row from 2011 to 2013.
Incidentally, the Flensburg side played their very first cup final even before the Final4 tournament was introduced. In 1992, after two finals against TuSem Essen (19:20, 20:19), a penalty shoot-out had to decide the winner, Essen were lucky to win 5:4. SG then made cup history two years later - in 1994, as the first final loser at the new Final4 location in Hamburg, when they lost to the defending champion SG Wallau-Massenheim.
Below THW Kiel, Flensburg were the second team to achieve a Cup hat-trick in Hamburg in the years 2003 to 2005, followed by the fourth triumph in 2015. In the all-time table of the German Cup, SG is on par with TBV Lemgo Lippe and VfL Großwallstadt as joint third behind record winner Kiel (12 titles) and VfL Gummersbach (5). Those from Flensburg who have won the cup three times in a row (2003 to 2005) include Christian Berge, Lars Christiansen, Joachim Boldsen, Jan Holpert and Sören Stryger.
The current SG coach Maik Machulla played a dual role in Flensburg's last cup win: he was actually assistant to head coach Ljubomir Vranjes, but occasionally had to step in as a player due to shortage of players. In 2015, this fourth and so far last success happened - and this with an epic victory after a penalty shoot-out against SC Magdeburg. 24:24 after 60 minutes, 27:27 after 70 minutes - and then a 21-year-old Swede appears, who shot Flensburg onto the podium with the final goal for the 5:4 in the shoot-out: Hampus Wanne, who had already decided the penalty shoot-out in the Champions League semi-finals 2014.
In one chapter of the all-time cup statistics, Flensburg is ahead of Kiel: the longest run - being in seven consecutive cup finals - from 2011 to 2017, what no other team managed to do. But: Flensburg lost three of them against Kiel, each once against Füchse Berlin (2014) and SC Magdeburg (2016). Since the final defeat against THW in 2017, Flensburg was no longer qualified for the REWE Final4 until 2023, but were knocked-out three times in the round of 16 (against Berlin 2017/18, Magdeburg 2018/19 and Hanover 2019/20) and in the past 2021/22 cup season already in round two against Erlangen. Now it's - as a throw-off to the first REWE Final4 in the LANXESS arena Cologne - the sixth cup semi-final against Rhein-Neckar Löwen. And this statistic clearly speaks for the SG: the team from the far north won all five semi-finals against the Lions.
Photo: Klahn
