With the Olympic qualifiers complete, the EuroHockey focus is on a massive February of indoor hockey with events taking place on four consecutive weekends.
For fans around the world, it means lots of top class action to enjoy on EuroHockeyTV with the following top level tournaments all broadcast live on a pay-per-view basis or with an already purchased EHTV pass.
- Men’s Indoor Championship (Leuven, February 1-4)
- Women’s Indoor Championship (Berlin, February 8-11)
- Men’s Indoor Club Cup (Vienna, February 15-18)
- Women’s Indoor Club Cup (Alanya, February 22-25)
Each day this week, we will preview the teams taking part in the men’s and women’s indoor championship. First off, we look at Switzerland’s men!
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Switzerland’s men will travel to Leuven with a much younger side than contested the 2022 edition with an average age of 25.9 years old, down from 28.2 last time around when they finished fourth.
The 20-year-old Loris Grandchamp is chief among them, a star of last January’s Junior Championships and has already developed a real adult style with potential of more to come. He is now based at White Star in Belgium.
Michel Morard is a strong and stable asset and was named the Most Valuable Player of the Swiss indoor season which concluded in December with his strong defensive style and great game intelligence.
At the experienced end of the spectrum, Boris Stomps (pictured) – playing for HGC in The Netherlands – Martin Greder, Lorenz Gassner and captain Fabio Marelli are the steady backbone of this team. Goalie Laurent Rogger was awarded the best goalkeeper of the tournament in Hamburg and is selected again in this squad.
Their preparation began in Hamburg in November with test matches against UHC and Harvestehuder THC while they participated in the Trinations Cup in Belgium with the Czech Republic and Belgium as opponents.
It allowed them to make some important steps forward and they close out their build-up with the Rohrmax Cup Tournament in Vienna next week
Head coach Jaïr Levie says of their plans: “We showed the indoor hockey fans last year already that Switzerland is a country which you cannot underestimate.
“Now it is time that we want to take that to the next level and show everyone that we were not a one-day-fly. With Austria, Germany, Spain and Croatia, we are in an amazingly strong group and we will use this as an extra motivation to perform at our toplevel during this Eurocup.
“Although we are small country in terms of active hockey members (less then 3.000), we are huge in passion & intensity.”
** To find out more about the tournament and buy tickets, go to the event website here: https://ehic2024.be/
