BLOG: Big stars, but no prima donnas

Next match is Kiel vs Atlético Madrid. Sometimes I wonder why I bothered flying back to Dublin on Monday last, after the Flensburg game,  just to fly back to Hamburg again on Friday and then I realise I can speak no German, so better to be on safe ground.

Speaking of being on safe ground; never say to someone from Kiel that no one outside Germany knows where it is. It is akin to saying that Irish is like English. They give you the cold-eyed, German, Baltic Sea look and refer you to “Kiel Week”; a boating and sailing extravaganza, and the fact that Kiel is one of the few cities around the world to have hosted two Olympic Games. True by the way, I checked it out because even I didn’t believe it.

I love going to Kiel. You would think that you could get lost in the big machinery of a big club, but nothing is further from the truth. In fact, they go out of their way to look after you. I have been lucky in my career to have met some big stars, and they always treat you with respect. It is the lesser known stars that act in a “prima-donna” fashion. Kiel is the “big star”

Current holders of the VELUX EHF Champions league, Kiel, and their opponents this week, Atlético Madrid have between them won six of the last seven titles in this competition. You could say that both these teams have been at the top for many years.

And ask anyone at the top, the only way you can go is down. Madrid has lost the last two finals and Kiel, didn’t even reach the Final4 as holders in 2011.

Looking at both these teams this season; you would be forgiven for thinking that they are not at their best. Kiel has lost twice in the group and Madrid has lost three times. Coaches and players alike around Europe have given reasons for many teams’ lacklustre displays.

The players didn’t get proper pre-season due to the Olympics, they must play too many matches, there are many new players on the team, training is more difficult because there is a three day cycle and because during breaks they must play international handball and so on and so forth.

All of these are very valid reasons, but yet Veszprém, Kielce and Barcelona are all unbeaten. All have had players at the Olympics, all have new players and all have a three day cycle.

I have another theory about why Kiel and Madrid have not been winning or winning comfortably. They have set the bar. They are the leading lights of handball. They, along with Barcelona, are the metre stick by which all other teams measure themselves.

No team has waited idly for these teams to get better, and their performances are raising the expectations of other clubs. Minsk lost by a goal at Barcelona, Madrid lost away to Sävehof and just beat Constanta at home by 1. Kiel lost away to Celje and defeated them narrowly the following week.

It is no longer enough for us as journalists to say that the great teams are not at their level anymore. We must acknowledge that the “smaller” teams are improving and are learning to cope better. If this becomes our rationale, then we are in for one hell of a match this weekend.

This is what we want in our handball. We want a level playing field or at least games where we cannot pick a winner. So guess what? I cannot pick a winner this weekend. All the signs point to a Kiel victory. They are at home in the “Sparkassen” with 11,000 fans. They are an awesome team with an awesome coach. They are ahead in the group. They beat Madrid at the “Vistalegre” in round 1. Madrid has also got an incredible team and an incredible coach.

But.... and it’s a big but, these two teams bring out something special in each other. It is a match like no other in terms of the percentage increases in all areas. That includes saves, goals and mistakes. Everything is magnified in this game. Forget about every game you have seen in this group from these two teams until this point.

This is “Tabula Rasa”.

Carpe Diem is the watchword and the team that seizes the time, the moment, the second will win on this day.
It is a clash of titans. The “Zebras” take on the “Mattress Makers”. The result isn’t “black and white” and you “red” it here first.

Further information
Follow the Match of the Week live streamed on ehfTV.com on Sunday 2 December, at 17.15 hrs local time here.