THW Kiel: ready to start

Kiel launched the ticket sales fort he three group matches of the Champions League. There was an amazing demand. There were fans who chose to spend the night queuing in front of the cashier that sold all the 8 500 available tickets in bare 100 minutes.

“The charm of the Champions League is enormous in Kiel,” said the amazed Kiel manager, Uwe Schwenker.

Schwenker talks about the 2008/09 CL season with great enthusiasm: “Zagreb reinforced their squad with Ivano Balic,” he said. “This time not only the Spanish and German teams will be fighting for the cup.”

However, people in Kiel believe that the title holder Ciudad Real have the best chances again. “They stayed together and took Luc Abalo,” says Alfred Gislason. “Nevertheless, we will fight for the title“.

The new coach inherited a complete team from his great forerunner, Noka Serdarusic. The Icelandic will make just few changes. It is possible that he will apply a 5:1 defence, just as he used to do it at Gummersbach. In addition, he wants to use the whole team throughout the season.

“I’m looking forward to it. We have one of the best teams in the world and the team is willing and ambitious. I’m optimistic that we can reach all three titles – German championship, German Cup and Champions League,” the new coach Alfred Gislasson said.

“My objective is,” added the 48-year old coach, “to make more substitutions than before without losing quality.”

The only new boy is Swedish goalkeeper Andreas Palicka, who will be a kind of “crown prince” behind Thierry Omeyer. Palicka will replace Mathias Andersson, who will play for Großwallstadt. Apart from him Viktor Szilágyi left THW.

Keeping away from the transfer market has a reason:

“We have been following a certain philosophy for years,” says Uwe Schwenker. “We want to keep our young team together and only reinforce a couple of positions.”

Only one contract will expire at the end of the seaosn, that of Stefan Lövgren. The Swedish player will move back to Gotheburg after 10 years and open a handball school. “My decision is final,” he confirmed.