09.08.2007, 12:15
Preparation Tournaments All-over Germany

All four German CL teams are on court to prepare for the upcoming season. Flensburg, Kiel, HSV and Gummersbach will play again this weekend.

Preparation Tournaments All-over Germany

The four German EHF Champions League teams prepare intensively for the new season. This weekend, the Schlecker Cup is coming up. Title holder, THW Kiel, will meet the Bundesliga and CL opponents, HSV Hamburg and VfL Gummersbach at the tournament in Ehingen.

Only a few kilometres away, SG Flensburg-Handewitt will play a tournament for Bundesliga teams in Sindelfingen (near Stuttgart).

Flensburg success - von Behren out

Three teams of the German quartet have already won tournaments in the last weeks. The fist was Flensburg to win, but that was a bitter success: German national player, Frank von Behren, who missed the World Championship for a knee injury, broke his hand at the tournament in Neumünster and will have to stay out of action for six weeks.

Flensburg won both group matches, the semi-final against Danish Svendborg and the final –not against the “old northern rival”, however. Kiel, the CL-winner lost their semi-final against Lemgo and clinched third place after a 27:16 victory against Svendborg. Flensburg triumphed against Lemgo 21:15 and got the 3,000 Euro prize, that was donated to a youth-club.

Kiel unbeatable with Jicha

Kiel, with new players such as Igor Anic or Börge Lund, improved in the week to come and celebrated a tournament-victory at the Brümmerhof Cup. After a good match against Kolding (42:33), Kiel had some problems in the final against the Hungarian runner-up, Veszprém. At the end, it was a 35:33 for the team of coach Noka Serdarusic.

The fans hoping for an all-German final were disappointed: Bundesliga runner-up, HSV Hamburg, lost the semi-final against Veszprém, but finished third after winning 35:32 against Kolding.

Kiel’s new player, Filip Jicha, was voted player of the tournament, while Veszprém’s Dejan Peric the best goalkeeper. Not only the victory, the good matches of his new players and the new defensive line with Jicha and Nikolas Karabatic made Serdarusic look glad: the Austrian Viktor Szilágyi played his fist match after a knee injury that he suffered for five-months.

Gummersbach on the right track

At the same time, VfL Gummersbach have won another tournament in Germany: Alfred Gislasson’s squad celebrated a 34:27 victory in the final against the Swiss champion Kadetten Schaffhausen. In the meantime, the club that will play all home matches in the big Kölnarena next season, extend the contract with goalkeeper Goran Stojanovic, backcourt-player Momir Ilic and winger Vedran Zrnic until 2010.

„We are glad that we could sign these contracts,” said managing director Stefan Hecker. 

TEXT: Björn Pazen