LAST WEEK IN THE VELUX EHF CHAMPIONS LEAGUE: Montpellier had a visit from New York City THC en route to the Super Globe, where European opposition await
Montpellier welcome American guests, while champions head east
National leagues are starting, titles are being decided and we are already set to enjoy some international club action as three European sides head to Saudi Arabia, all of which we feature in 'Last week in the VELUX EHF Champions League'.
Reigning champions Vardar have arrived in Saudi Arabia for the IHF Super Globe, an event which should tell us a lot about how strong the Skopje club look in comparison to last season.
Their potential opponents in the quarter-finals are debutants New York City THC, who visited Montpellier for their pre-tournament camp. The two sides trained together, before New York took on Montpellier's second team in a friendly match.
Montpellier certainly seemed to find the joint-session useful as they went directly to Strasbourg and won the prestigious Eurotournoi pre-season tournament, finishing ahead of fellow top flight clubs Elverum, Chekhovskie Medvedi and Szeged, who they beat 27:25 in the final.
EHF Cup winners THW Kiel are also heading to the Super Globe and were already involved in their first fight for a trophy on Wednesday, facing Flensburg in the German Super Cup. After 60 minutes could not separate them, Flensburg's Benjamin Buric was the hero as two penalty saves handed them the victory.
Veszprém got their domestic league campaign off to a bright start with two comfortable victories and it was the perfect opportunity to show off their new signings, which make for, quite frankly, a scarily impressive squad on paper.
A new signing who was not in the above squad is goalkeeper Márton Székely, but the Hungarian international is finding his own way of making an impact on the team.
Photo credi t: @NYCTeamHandball / Twitter
TEXT:
Chris O'Reilly