Men’s EuroHockey Club Trophy I (Lousada, Portugal) – March 29 to April 1
The race for men’s EuroHockey Club Trophy I glory and a EHL ranking points begins on Friday in Lousada with eight teams taking on the challenge.
Those teams are divided into two groups of four with the winners of each group going for gold on Easter Monday; second place in the pools fights for third; the third place group finisher plays for fifth and the final group place club battles for seventh place.
Hosts Lousada are part of a hugely competitive Pool B that also features 2023 finalists OKS OHSVM Vinnitsa, Lisnagarvey and Grange.
Lousada are back at this level following a third place finish in 2022 in Trophy I before winning gold in Challenge I last year in Sveti Ivan Zelina. There is a wealth of experience with Carlos Almeida, Pedro Alves, Helder Goncalves, Jose Santos, Jose Marques and Ricardo Teixeira all set to play their 20th Euro club match.
Irish side Lisnagarvey were the Irish runners-up last season to earn their spot in the competition. They won the Challenge I in Copenhagen a couple of seasons ago and then picked off a big win over CA Montrouge in the Euro Hockey League in October 2022.
They have largely the same with Irish internationals Johnny Lynch, Matthew Nelson and Peter McKibbin who helped Ireland qualify for the Olympic Games in January. Indeed, nine of the panel have played internationally.
Scotland’s Grange were third place finishers last season with a strong run in Vienna, only missing out on the final at the hands of Cardiff & Met.
This year’s team has tweaks to it with six players making their debut in this kind of competition. Goalkeeper David Forrester has a wealth of background in this format as does Austrian player Clemens Rusnjak while John McCluskey will be influential.
They are top of the table in Scotland with 12 wins out of 14 to date, keeping them just above Edinburgh University.
For Vinnitsa, they have one of the highest cumulative totals of Euro club matches under their belt. Oleksandr Solomianyi scored six times a year ago in their run to the final while 42-year-old captain Oleksandr Diachenko continues to roll back the years.
Iurii Moroz is in the same mould whileYurii Dzemukh can rip home a corner, too, for a side that has played together for a long time.
Pool A features 2023 champions Cardiff & Met who won that trophy amid an historic season in which they won four titles and earned promotion to the English Premier League for the first time.
There, they have proven competitive and are a point from securing safety in that division. Captain Jack Pritchard and Owain Dolan-Gray are key men but they will be teaching the ropes to a set of seven players making their Euro debuts.
HC Olten are the Swiss representatives and they will also be looking to learn on the job with the entire side making their first appearances in Europe. This is their first entrance in this competition since 2000.
Their outdoor season has been a mixed bag thus far, winning two out of six games, with Beni Schwab topscoring with three goals. Internationals Lorenz Gassner, Cyril Roth and Laurent Rogger and Lukas Hengartner guide their challenge.
Slavia Prague will play at this level after a two-year break having finished sixth in 2022 and then becoming the first Czechia club to play in the EHL in Hamburg in October of that same year.
Their panel has internationals including 22-year-old captain Patrik Dubina, Jan Brzak, Martin Capouch and Denis Tomes along with ex-Czech players Martin and Thomas Hanus and David Vacek.
SV Arminen will meet Slavia once again having got their better of them in the EHL in 2022 in their last European outdoor outing.
They are captained by former Harvestehuder THC players Florian Steyrer and have plenty of well-heeled Austria players like Daniel Fröhlich, Sebastian Eitenberger and Robert Bele.
Max Kelner is one to watch but they will miss goalkeeper Mateusz Szymczyk who sustained an injury during the EuroHockey Indoor Championships.
** To follow all the scores, results and fixtures from Lousada, click here
Pool A: Cardiff & Met (Wales), HC Olten (Switzerland), SK Slavia Prague (Czechia), SV Arminen (Austria)
Pool B: AD Lousada (Portugal), Grange (Scotland), Lisnagarvey (Ireland), OKS-SHVSM Vinnitsa (Ukraine)
