Fabian Wiede is fighting for the European crown again this season with Füchse Berlin.
Photo: imago/Christian Heilwagen
The first game immediately sounds like a big European stage. When the Füchse Berlin celebrate their long-awaited return to the Handball Champions League in the Max-Schmeling-Halle on Thursday, top club Veszprém HC will be guests. The Hungarian record champions have been considered a title contender in the premier class for years and, since this summer, they have had a coach on the sidelines in the Spaniard Xavi Pascual, who has already won the Champions League three times with FC Barcelona.
It’s the big test right from the start for the Berlin handball players, who are back in the group phase of the most important continental club competition for the first time since the 2012/13 season. Apart from the difficult duel with Veszprém, the Foxes expect six viable opponents in Group A.
On the second match day, coach Jaron Siewert’s team travels to Eurofarm Pelister. The North Macedonian club has a big home advantage in its own hall, which is known as the “Hell of Bitola”. However, Pelister still lost all 14 group games in the premier class last year. The Foxes then meet Fredericia, the surprise runner-up from Denmark, who is still a complete newcomer to the Champions League. And it’s against Dinamo Bucharest and Sporting Lisbon. Both teams know the Foxes from the main round of the last European League.
Two big names are also still waiting in Group A: Wisla Plock and Paris Saint-Germain. While the Poles were able to win the championship again last season as second-place finishers, the Parisians are in a bit of a state of upheaval following the retirement of handball legend Nikola Karabatić.
Against these opponents, the Füchse handball players will aim to be among the top two teams in the group if possible. Then, on the one hand, there are high bonuses: for every game in the premier class there is 10,000 euros, and for every victory another 10,000 euros more. In addition, the Berliners would then automatically qualify for the quarter-finals and would avoid the play-offs, in which they would have to compete against one of the teams in third to sixth place from the much stronger Group B.
In addition to the double winner from Magdeburg, the Polish record champions Kielce, Denmark’s top team Aalborg and FC Barcelona are also there. After three Champions League titles in the last four years and twelve titles in total, the Catalans in particular are once again the big favorites for the European crown this season.
In order to avoid the heavyweights from Group B at least until the quarter-finals, the Füchse will once again face world handball player Mathias Gidsel. The Olympic champion in Paris was named top scorer and most valuable player of the tournament after his 62 goals at the Olympics. In the first Bundesliga game last weekend in Eisenach, the 25-year-old Dane was once again impressively accurate with twelve goals.
It remains questionable whether backcourt ace Gidsel will eventually run out of breath after his recent successes. There were only 19 days between the Danes’ Olympic victory against Germany and the Foxes’ Supercup victory against Magdeburg. There wasn’t actually a summer break for Gidsel. Even before the start of the season, the world handball player complained about the high level of stress. And the Berliners have two more Olympic athletes in their ranks: the Dane Lasse Andersson and the Swede Max Darj.
There will be almost no break for the Foxes until Christmas due to their participation in the Champions League. Instead, there are two games on the schedule almost every week. The Berlin squad still has to prove that it can cope with this double burden at the highest level. This will also show how important the cooperation with VfL Potsdam was for the success of last season. Due to Potsdam’s promotion to the first division, the Füchse can no longer rely on the six double-play players from the partner club in the current season. In the event of an injury, replacements now have to come from the team’s own youth department.
If you manage to incorporate a few of your own talents and still remain as injury-free as possible, the return to the Champions League should still be more than just a short flying visit. And if the Foxes make it to the quarterfinals, they will only be two games away from the Final Four tournament in Cologne. Anything is possible then anyway.
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