Best WECL ever leads off the dance

Best ever Women’s European Champions League – first time with eight clubs – starts this Friday when two out of four Round 1 matches to be held, both in Group B: Zamek Tarnobrzek – Budaorsi 2i SC (September 6th, 17h00 CET, live and free on Laola1.tv), Linz,

Best ever Women’s European Champions League – first time with eight clubs – starts this Friday when two out of four Round 1 matches to be held, both in Group B: Zamek Tarnobrzek – Budaorsi 2i SC (September 6^th, 17h00 CET, live and free on Laola1.tv), Linz AG Froschberg – Tyumen. Saturday is reserved for Group A: Fenerbahce – SVS STROCK, TTC Berlin Eastside – Metz.

Istanbul`s game is in the focus of attention, because actual ETTU Cup winner and clear favorite of 2013/14 WECL, Fenerbahce expects 2011/12 WECL finalist SVS STROCK. Many great players will be involved in this encounter and STROCK`s manager Martin SOROS is looking forward to the trip to Turkey.

“Group A is definitely the strongest WECL-Group ever and I bet a lot that the WECL-winner of this season is coming out of this group – what a pity that two of these world-class-teams have to check out of Champions League after the group-matches. Our (first) goal is to ’survive’ the group-stage and we definitely do not enter WECL to miss the Semifinal. Ok, Istanbul and Berlin are the – so called – favorites in group A, but SVS STRÖCK never plays a match to lose. We don’t travel to Istanbul to be a willing victim. We have a chance there and we will fight for this chance. On the other hand we are expecting the best-ever-team in history of Women’s ECL: PAVLOVICH, SAMARA, HU Melek and CHENG I Ching – this is unbelievable to meet this excellent team in first round. Our team is in great shape and against all other teams in Europe I would expect on this 7^th of September a win for our team knowing how good they are – Istanbul vs. SVS STRÖCK: This is like Barcelona vs. Bayern Munich. Good for our sport, good for the visitors. Women’s Table Tennis in Europa is born again”!

Fenerbahce`s team manager Gürhan YALDIZ stressed that “Fenerbahce`s aim is to lift new European trophy, prestigious one, no meter how strong are its opponents”. On the other side Martin SOROS believes in STROCK`s girls, hoping that this year they will have no problems like last season.

“After our ’hell-season’ 2012/2013 with injuries, sicknesses and risk-pregnancy we had to react immediately and renewed SVS STRÖCK almost completely. We are quite sure, that this season we are far stronger: Tetyana BILENKO, LI Fen, Petra LOVAS and Daniela DODEAN are on one (very high) level and also the spirit and the atmosphere is great. We are practicing together in Werner Schlager Academy in Vienna now for long time and our Ströck-Family is getting closer and closer. Our Coaches Aya UMEMURA and Tamara BOROS bring our players up to their daily limits and – this my impression – we are getting stronger day by day”.

Two newcomers will be the guests of two champions in last two seasons. Russian Tyumen goes to Linz to fight against current WECL winner Froschberg, whilst French Metz is traveling to Germany, on the game with 2012 champion Berlin Eastside.

The 2012/13 ETTU Cup finalist, Polish champion Zamek Tarnobrzeg hosts Hungarian Budaorsi, the runner-up of previous WECL season. Zamek expects about 1,000 spectators and one of them will be, for sure, Mayor of Tarnobrzeg City Norbert MASTALERZ who believes that his team can beat the rival. “this is one of the most important matches in the group and it would be nice to start competition well”. Zamek`s players Renata STRBIKOVA says: “I’ve been missing our matches in ETTU Cup, so if coach decides to nominate me to Friday’s match I will play with great pleasure”.

WOMEN`S EUROPEAN CHAMPIONS LEAGUE ROUND 1

GROUP A: Fenerbahce – SVS STROCK (September 7^th, 13h30 CET), Berlin Eastside – Metz (September 7^th, 18h00 CET).
GROUP B: Zamek – Budaorsi 2i SC (September 6^th, 17h00 CET, live and free on Laola1.tv), Linz – Tyumen (September 6^th, 18h00 CET).