German teams ready to rumble

The three German clubs are ready for the second part of the group phase, starting on Thursday with the match Rhein Neckar Löwen vs Chambery Savoie. After the first three rounds of the Champions League, the German sides are all in a good position.

As Kiel are still spotless in Group D with three victories, THW are leading the table. Löwen too, though they lost a point against Kielce. HSV Hamburg lost on home soil against Ciudad in Group C, but showed some great performances in national and international competitions since then.

All three clubs reached the Last 16 in the German Cup, but there’s a very special match for THW coming up on 16th December. The old rival, SG Flensburg-Handewitt, will try to knock them out. Löwen will meet Melsungen and HSV against Balingen will have a relatively easy job on the way to the quarterfinals.

These three teams are also on the virtual podium of the Bundesliga right now. However, Löwen (12:4 points) lost both top matches against the two other CL participants. Kiel are leading the Bundesliga with 17:1 points. HSV are also spotless with 14:0 points.

On Tuesday evening Kiel was the lucky winner of the match in Magdeburg as they took the points with a very narrow 30:29 – thanks to seven goals from Filip Jicha. After his thump operation Börge Lund will return to THW Kiel approximately at the end of November. Due to his back problems, line player Marcus Ahlm called off his EURO 2010 participation for the Swedish national team.

Hamburg hope that Bertrand Gille will be able to play by the end of December. Blazenko Lackovic will return in December too. Even without these top players, HSV showed a brilliant performance at the Northern derby and have beaten Flensburg by 37:32.

Rhein Neckar Löwen in the meantime changed two players: Alex Alvanos, who came from Gummersbach before the season, was transferred to TuS Netelstedt. For the right winger position Löwen signed the Danish Thomas Bruhm from Handbold AG until the end of this season.

While Löwen have the home advantage against Chambery, THW and HSV have very short trips to make this weekend: Both have to travel to Denmark where Hamburg (against FCK) and Kiel (against Kolding) favourites.