Renewed Baltic Handball League ready to kick off | Handball Planet
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Renewed Baltic Handball League ready to kick off

Another season of Baltic Handball League is about to start. This weekend will have no fewer than 11 top class matches around all three Baltic countries and in seven different cities. The league has overcome some changes compared to last season, but it also marks a new milestone with record-breaking 12 clubs starting in one league.

Strong line-up in both groups

Last season there were also 12 participants, but split into two separate leagues with Baltic Challenge League making it’s first appearance. “The difference in playing level was not that big, so we decided to bring teams together again and divide them into two groups of six,” BHL manager Urmo Sitsi explains. “By the end of February, four best teams from each group qualify to the quarter-finals. Those will be played over two legs, home and away with winners making up the Final Four of the 2015/16 season.”

The list of participants is extremely strong. Group A consists three-time winners and title-holders SKA Minsk, Lithuanian champion and last year’s inaugural BCL winner Dragunas Klaipeda, Latvian runner-up and cup-winner Celtnieks Riga, Estonian cup-winner Viljandi HC, Estonian runner-up and former BHL winner HC Kehra/Horizon Pulp&Paper. The sixth team in Group A is making its BHL debut, as Latvian club HK Ogre/Miandum is joining the league.

In Group B we have three national champions, as Serviti Põlva, Cocks Riihimäki and Tenax Dobele were drawn here. In addition, the reserve team of Belarussian champions and EHF Champions League team HC Meshkov Brest is present again, as is Lithuanian cup-finalist Granitas-Gaja-Karys Kaunas. The sixth team is HC Vityaz Minsk from Belarus, who will concentrate on BHL this season and will not even take part in the domestic championships.

Triple champion SKA ready to defend the title

Another serious novelty is the fact all matches will be played in the territory of the three Baltic States with the exception of encounters between Belarussian clubs. “It was not an easy decision,” admits Urmo Sitsi. “Most of the clubs in the Baltics were concerned about the costs of long travels and so there were difficult compromises to be made. We succeeded in making them and big applause to all the clubs for agreeing to the new system.”

With the new set-up it will mean that title-defenders SKA Minsk will have two home games in the first weekend in Estonia. The Belarussian league runner-up will start on Saturday against HC Kehra, who they beat last season three times, including in the semi-final of the Final Four. For Sunday, SKA will move to Viljandi to play the local club for the first time in BHL.

“I understand the reasons behind changes, but of course we would love to play more home games,” says SKA’s sports director Andrey Kraynov. “We have a brand new sports arena opening on 1st December with the main hall holding 2000 seats and it will be our new home. I hope we qualify and then also can host the Final Four in April.”

SKA, who dramatically lost the domestic league final after penalty throw-out in the decisive match against HC Meshkov, has already started the new season. Two wins in two league matches were accompanied by a friendly game last Sunday against Belarussian national team – consisting 9 SKA players. Club side lost to national team 27-29 with SKA’s newcomers Andrei Yurynok scoring 7 for Belarus and Aliaksandr Potsykailik 6 for the club.

The triple-champions have changed significantly between two seasons with key players like Matskevich, Kniazeu, Zaitsau, Lukyanchuk and Kaliarovich leaving the team. “We believe the replacements are definitely not weaker,” is Kraynov convinced. “Young players have developed during last year and in our team we have 11 players from the U21 national team, who finished 6th at the World Junior Championships in July.”

Cocks strengthened with BHL champions

Group B’s most interesting games are obviously the two meetings between potential group favourites Serviti and Cocks. Estonian and Finnish champions will play both matches in the opening weekend, which may well have great impact on the final standings of the group. Both teams are very consistent – both finishing in top three of BHL in last three seasons. In 2014/15, regular season matches ended 1-1, but in Final Four semi-final Cocks beat Serviti by 29-25.

Serviti’s head coach Kalmer Musting is convinced that talk Serviti v. Cocks matches are Group B’s decisive ones, is far from truth: “It’s too early to say such things. I am sure clubs like Tenax or Granitas will have their say. In general the league seems quite even and definitely strong, but as for our team we cannot set ourselves lesser target than to qualify for Final Four.”

Both teams have started well in their respective championships, but had different outcomes in Europe. Playing in EHF Cup, Serviti beat fellow BHL-participant Dragunas Klaipeda 29-26 and 24-23 to book a second round match against Pfadi Winterthur, while Cocks lost to Swiss club TSV St. Otmar 24-34 and 31-33.

Cocks have made serious changes to team line-up and strengthened their squad with no fewer than seven new players from abroad, including last season’s BHL champions Yury Lukyanchuk and Andrei Kaliarovich. Last domestic league match Cocks played on Saturday, defeating Atlas Vantaa 29-16 (Teemu Tamminen 7).

The head coach of the Finnish champions Kaj Kekki is very happy with his team’s condition. “We have been together since the end of June, have trained hard and played more than 20 games, so I would say we are in better condition than the same time last year,” said Kekki. “However we are not happy about the new league system, which prevents us to play at home and show good level international handball to our supporters.”

Dragunas aware of strong Estonian opposition

In Group A it would also be interesting to follow how last season’s Baltic Challenge League winner Dragunas Klaipeda will start. The Lithuanian champion has two home matches against two Estonian sides. Considering the club was just kicked out of EHF Cup by another Estonian club Serviti, surely Arturas Juškenas’ men are after a revenge.

Dragunas started the domestic season with a Lithuanian Supercup win over Granitas-Gaja-Karys last Saturday by 28-27 (Mindaugas Dumčius 6) and beat HC Grifas-Sporto Gimnazija-KKSC Panevežys in the opening round of the league by 33-20 (Mindaugas Meškauskas 7). Lithuanian champions lost two key players in the summer, as Jonas Truchanovičius moved to Austria and Jonas Geryba decided to quit sports. “The duo was important for us, especially in defence,” admits Dragunas’ head coach Juškenas.

“Replacements are youngsters and surely not on the same level. So in general I would say we are weaker than last season,” admits Juškenas. “However, we still set our sights of qualifying from the group and why not reaching the Final Four. To achieve this, the two matches this weekend are very important. But they will be tough to win, as I know both Estonian clubs have some players returning from abroad and are surely stronger than before.”

Dragunas’ opponents had easy games on Tuesday, as HC Kehra/Horizon Pulp&Paper beat Audentes SK by 48-24 (Kaimar Lees 10) and Viljandi HC defeated Aruküla SK 46-25 (Ott Varik 9) in the Estonian championship matches. 2011/12 BHL winners Kehra will have a new head coach for this season, as Indrek Lillsoo has taken over from long-time coach Jüri Lepp.

Elsewhere in Group A on Saturday, newcomers HK Ogre/Miandum will play just one game in their debut weekend, at home against another Latvian side Celtnieks Riga. In Group B, Latvian champion Tenax and Granitas-Gaja-Karys of Lithuania are both welcoming Belarussian teams to their “homes”, as HC Vityaz and HC Meshkov are alternating with their visits. Full calendar: http://www.baltichandball.net/calendar

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