Start of the relegation round

Handball players do not shy away from playing with fire

Sebastian Aufhauser is one of the top performers at the UHC.(Bild: ANDREAS TROESTER)

After a mediocre season, the Salzburg handball team will start the relegation round on Saturday. The UHC took a lot of risks in the selection of games, choosing away games against the supposedly weak teams and home games against the stronger teams.

After the basic round, the handball players of UHC Salzburg ended up in a disappointing seventh and penultimate place in the HLA Challenge. Today they start the relegation round in Bregenz. For the remaining five games of the season, there was a so-called number selection, where you could choose your home and away games depending on your position in the table.

The Salzburg team is not afraid to play with fire. They opted for away games against supposedly weak opponents such as the future teams of Bregenz, Schwaz and Linz. With home advantage, they also want to challenge the Future Team from Hard and Wels in between.

"This risk can also backfire," says chairman Thomas Manhart. However, with Sebastian Aufhauser in top form (seven goals in the last main round and second-best club goalscorer of the season), this should not happen. If the match selection does go wrong, there will be no relegation because there are only eight instead of ten teams in the North/West season. "So it's not so bad," says Manhart. What are the club's goals when it's all about the golden pineapple? "We want to continue on our path and improve year on year."