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jueves, 24 de abril de 2008

THE EHF CHAMPIONS LEAGUE FINAL: THW KIEL-BALONMANO CIUDAD REAL (This article is available in English and Español)

During the next weeks, we will see the end of the different European competitions and we will see exciting events like the Final Four of the Basketball´s Euroleague or the excellent handball ´s European final between the 2 best teams of the world, a German team, THW Kiel and the Spanish team, Balonmano Ciudad Real.
The truth is that we can consider these games as an “All-star´s game” and not only as a final, because both teams have incredible squads with brilliant players in all the positions, forming strong teams with excellent results in the national leagues, since these teams are the leaders in the National league and they won the National Cups.
THW Kiel arrived to this European final after the semifinal against FC Barcelona- this eliminatory was decide in the first leg, since FC Barcelona played horrible in Kiel and it received 41 goles- where the German team showed all its virtues: a team with only one idea, to score and to “subdue” the rival, showing as a consistent team, helped by the unconditional support of the fans – it is easy to play if you have this kind of supporters-. When we said that this team has an incredible squad is because if we glance at the squad we can find excellent players in all the positions as for examples the 2 goalkeeperes, the Swedish Mattias Andersson and the French, Thierry Omeyer, who is one of the best goalkeepers of the world, being a very secure player, specially if he plays against a Spanish team, since he usually is an impassable wall when he has a Spanish team as a rival.But of course, Omeyer is not the only star of the team and we must also remark other players as the Norwegian central, Börge Lund, or one of the classical of the German National team Chiristian Zeitz, or the brilliant right back Kim Andersson-Swedish player who was designated for the Dream Team of the European Championship 07-, or the great Slovenian right winger Kavticnik Grapevine, or the Swedish pivot Marcus Ahlm, or the sensational Swedish Stefan Lövrgren-who arrived to Kiel 10 years ago and now he is the captain and the soul of the team-and of course the wonderful French player, Nikola "The Serbian" Karabatic, who is possibly the most decisive player of the world, since he is an excellent scorer and he is the undisputed leader of the team, assuming the responsibility at the complicated times of the games,showing his successful shots; he is pure talent and he is the key player of the team of Zvonimir Serdarusic-the coach-, who wants to revalidate the European Championship.
But if the THW Kiel has a formidable team, what can we say of the team of Talant Dujshebaev-an handball´s legend, who was elected the second best player of the twentieth century, behind the magnificent Swedish Magnus Wislander-because Balonmano Ciudad Real is a tremendous team that it is carrying out a spectacular season- until this moment it has won the King´s Cup, the ASOBAL Cup, the ASOBAL Supercup and it is the leader of the Spanish leaguea, who can ask for more?. The truth is that all these magnificent results are normal for a club where you can find players like:the goalkeepers Joseja Hombrados and Arpad Sterbik-who was designed the best player of the world in 2005 -, or the hard defender Didier Dinart, or the magnificent pivot Rolando Uríos – when he has the ball or he scores, or he gets a penalty or an exclusion of a rival player-, or the “gunboat” Olafur Stefansson, or the expert Ales Pajovic, Petar Metlicic and David Davis, or the great class of the key players of team, Alberto Entrerríos and Siarhei Rutenka, who is a virtuous of this sport and since last February he has the Spanish nationality (possibly this is the player that Spain needed to achieve an international title again-the truth is that Spain will have a formidable team, since we should mention that the goalkeeper Sterbik acquired the Spanish nationality too). So, we should conclude that the Balonmano Ciudad Real is an excellent team and it has many options in order to try to regain the European Title.

Who's the favorite?

It's hard to bet, because any of the 2 team can win the final, however, perhaps the fact that the Balonmano Ciudad Real play the first leg at home, can be an advantage for the Spanish team, since I do not know why, but the Spanish teams, when they play in Germany the first leg of an eliminatory, they play very bad and they get poor results. So, it is possible that the opposite occurs in this case and Balonmano Ciudad Real play the second leg with a “generous” advantage, having THW Kiel a difficult mission in the second leg ( for example this thing occurred in the semifinal between Balonmano Ciudad Real and HSV Hamburg, where the Spanish team started the game with a good advantage, although it speculated too much with the score and it had many difficulties to pass the eliminatory; in fact, it arrived to the European final thanks a good save of Sterbik in the last seconds when the French star, Bertrand Gille shoot)
So, the answers to this final we will have on the 4th of May in Ciudad Real and on the 11th on May in Kiel.
Cheers,
J&F

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