“Draws are not our best friends this season“

Hello handball fans,

The crucial part of the VELUX EHF Champions League is just ahead, when the knock-out stage will start in less than 15 days. We, my team Rhein Neckar Löwen and I, have reached our first goal, clinching a berth for the Last 16 in a quite good position, second place below Veszprém. 

But as usual during this season we had to learn our lesson that draws are definitely not the best friends of Rhein Neckar Löwen. In the Last 16 of the German Cup we had to travel to THW Kiel, and won, now we will have to face the toughest possible opponent SG Flensburg-Handewitt in the semi-final of the German Cup and Vive Targi Kielce in the Last 16 of the Champions League – definitely the highest hurdle to clear from the opponents we could have faced.

But that’s life. We are facing big challenges again. Kielce’s clear goal is to make it to the VELUX EHF FINAL4 again, but we don’t have to hide either. We have beaten Kiel in Kiel, we nearly took a point at Veszprém and we tied at home with the Hungarian side. We are second in the German league, part of the German cup final tournament, so we are still dancing at three weddings, as we say in Germany.

I deeply hope to be part of the crucial part of this season. I needed to recover from an Achilles injury in the last two group matches of the Champions League and will miss our test match at Austria with the national team and I missed the cup quarter-final.

However, it’s getting better day by day, so it really looks good that I will be playing the Last 16 matches against Kielce after two weeks of rest.

Five former teammates will arrive at Mannheim for this top clash and although Karol Bielecki, Grzegorz Tkaczyk, Krysztof Lijewski and Ivan Cupic wore the Löwen jersey for a long time, I am sure they will not miss the correct dressing room for the guest team in Mannheim.

It is always great when former mates arrive as your opponents, so we are all looking forward to meet them – except for those 120 minutes on the court, where the friendship will temporarily come to an halt.

I am really looking forward to the away match at Kielce, as the fans there create a unique atmosphere in this small, but fully packed arena. It will be a tremendous feeling, even though we know that they will be against us in a fair way.

In 2011 we played there and faced Kielce in the final of the Champions League qualification tournament, losing after extra time. Despite this result I don’t feel any emotions having the opportunity of taking revenge. It is a very different match, the teams are mostly different – and we don’t have only 60 minutes, but 120, so we have the great chance to make it to the quarter-finals with the backing of our fans in the SAP Arena.

It will be interesting to see the “new” Kielce style, after Talant Dushebajev took over the team. I phoned my old friend Karol Bielecki and he told me that Talant has changed the roles of the players, giving more playing time to everybody, which means key players have more rest during the matches. As Karol said, all players appreciate this strategy.

So we will eagerly await those two matches from which we hope that they bring us one step closer to Cologne. We know that we can dream, but it is much too early to talk about the VELUX EHF FINAL4. Cologne is far away – and more teams hope to reach the final destination than ever before.

Our chances against Kielce are 50:50 – so if you like to read another “Uwe blog” on www.ehfCL.com, cross your fingers for Rhein Neckar Löwen!

Best regards to all handball fans,

Uwe Gensheimer