E.ON Ob I: Fradi is at 40-0

With the 40th victory of the season, albeit in a match more competitive than expected, FTC-Telekom has completed another perfect regular season, defeating Vasas. No seismic shifts occurred. In the semifinals, the defending champion will meet BVSC while the other bracket will see Vasas and Szolnok compete for the final.

There weren't many unresolved issues left for the closing round of the regular season. After Vasas easily won their midweek game against Kaposvár, it was clear that they would finish in second place.

Nevertheless, there were still those who hoped for some excitement from the historical finals matchup between Fradi and Vasas on Saturday – and they ultimately weren't disappointed. Indeed, after a closely fought first quarter (3-4), the green-whites rode a significant wave, scoring three in a row after 4-5, hence by halftime, it seemed the game might be as one-sided as their recent encounters at 4-8. Furthermore, with a bomb from Stylianos Argyropoulos making it 4-9 – few thought that in the remaining 15 and a half minutes, the defending champion would only manage two more goals.

Indeed, their attack began to falter, and even sure-handed sharpshooters like Manhercz Krisztián, Vámos Márton, and Edoardo di Somma were off-target that day – together scoring 0 out of 12 shots… Mizsei Márton defended well, largely due to which Vasas, despite being heavily outshot (26-16), kept the score closer over time.

The team from Angyalföld had narrowed the gap to 6-9 by the end of the third quarter, but midway through the final quarter, Dala Döme's action goal brought them within two. Toni Német's center goal broke an 11-minute goalless period for FTC, and although the penalties continued, Nikola Dedovic soon scored from play, followed by Batizi Benedek bringing Vasas up to 9-10 with 58 seconds left. In the end, Fradi had a bit of luck – a blocked shot rebounded off Molnár Erik, who then sent the ball back – holding possession for 48 seconds, and taking advantage of a penalty shot by Mandic at 0:11 left, Fradi secured another perfect 26/26 regular season, standing at 40-0 this season.

The other two semifinalists did what was expected: Szolnok struggled somewhat in Szentes; although they were almost always ahead by two to three goals, they couldn't completely pull away from the hosts, who came back to 11-12 towards the end, but then two Szolnok goals ended the suspense. BVSC had already secured fourth place with a crushing defeat of last-placed Pécs on Friday.

OSG Debrecen, which was in a good position for a while but lost all its key matches in spring, left no doubts that it did not want to end up like Honvéd in the previous round – who lost to the team from Hajdúság –, emphasizing it with a 0-6 first quarter by Kovács Róbert's sons. They conceded their first goal nearly 19 minutes into the second half, at 0-9, and ultimately finished in fifth place.

This also meant that later in the evening, UVSE had to suffer a catastrophic loss against Honvéd to fall behind Debrecen to 13th place (both teams had won their two head-to-heads by three goals each on their home ground, thus goal difference was decisive, with the purple-yellows having a nine-point advantage coming into the final round. They ended up losing by nine just like their rivals – Honvéd showed no mercy to the folks from Újpest.

Eger had a great 5-3 opening quarter against Kaposvár, but then produced two 1-4 quarters – with the visitors pulling off an 2-8 rally, leaving little suspense for the last eight minutes.

The seventh game was also previously played, where Miskolc, in a fierce battle, defeated the Szeged team.

Now, a longer break follows for the men, as the national team weeks are coming with a World Cup – the playoffs are scheduled to begin on April 26.

The ongoing semifinals for reaching seven points start at 6-0 for the FTC–BVSC matchup, and 5-1 for Vasas-Szolnok, indicating that theoretically, one more win could suffice for reaching the finals, which, like the bronze match, will be decided by three victories this year.

There will also be play-offs for the 5-8 and 9-12 places, while Debrecen and Pécs will compete in a three 'set' win match to avoid relegation – the loser will be 14th, while the winner may potentially play a classification match against the second-placed team from the second division.

E.ON Ob I, Round 26

VasasPlaket–FTC-Telekom 9-11

PannErgy-Miskolc–SEQOMICS-Szeged 12-11

PVSK-Mecsek Füszért–BVSC-Manna ABC 5-20

Metalcom-Szentes–Szolnoki Dózsa-Praktiker 11-13

DVSE-Master Good–Genesys-OSC Újbuda 5-14

One-Eger–Kaposvári VK 11-13

UVSE–Endo Plus Service-Honvéd 7-16

The final standings of the regular season:

1. Ferencváros 78

2. Vasas 63

3. Szolnok 63