Europe“s elite league is commencing its 8th year in existence and simultaneously starting a new era. As of this season the European Champions League is a competition for both women and men, and the men“s league was enlarged to encompass 16 clubs, in order to gain a larger number of national organizations in the competition.
The popularity of our sport is to be strengthened hereby and coming generations may be motivated more strongly. The record title – winners of the league that was founded in 1998 are the current club world champions and Belgian champions, Royal Villette Charleroi, who were able to win the title 4 times in succession from 2001 to 2004 and finally lost last year“s 2005 final in a very dramatic and close game to the aspiring German club TTV RE-BAU Gönnern. Many of the world“s top players engage in the Champions League, such as Timo Boll, the world“s current no. 3, the world“s no. 5 Vladimir Samsonow, our league“s most successful player and so-called champion, as well as many others such as olympic champion Ryu Seung Min, ex world champion Werner Schlager, Kalinikos Kreanga, Jean Michel Saive and the master of defence, Chen Weixing. One must also not forget those aspiring young stars such as Adrian Crisan, Michael Maze and Alexei Smirnov.
The Champions League commences with the first round, being a group phase with 4 groups in which every participant plays each of the three others both at home and away, making it 6 games, until the first and second seated teams advance to the quarterfinals. These then continue in K.O. – fashion right through the semifinal and final. There are two rather clear favourites during the group phase: in group A record winner Royal Villette Charleroi and in group B the reigning champion TTV RE-BAU Gönnern. In group C it will probably come down to a duel between TTF Liebherr Ochsenhausen and Levallois SCTT, while group D is dominated by SVS Niederösterreich, who will be challenged by the so-called „Sensations-Boy-Group“, Borussia Düsseldorf.
What follows is a list of match-ups and dates for the 1st round along with probable team formations (gives each team“s top 4 players for the determined team of 3 players):
GROUP A:
Friday, 2. 9. 2005, 7:00 p.m.: LKS Odra Röben Gloska – Royal Villette Charleroi
LSK Odra Röben Gloska: Wang Zeng Yi, Marcin Kusinski, Tang Yu, Jakub Perek;
Royal Villette Charleroi: Vladimir Samsonov, Jean-Michel Saive, Alexei Smirnov, Patrick Chila;
Friday, 2. 9. 2005, 7:30 p.m.: G.V. Hennebont TT – TTC Zugbrücke Grenzau
G.V. Hennebont TT: Kalinikos Kreanga, Bai Feng Tian, Daniel Gorak, Tomislav Japec;
TTC Zugbrücke Grenzau: Cheung Yuk, Lucjan Blaszczyk, Trinko Keen, Zoltan Fejer-Konnerth;
GROUP B:
Friday, 2. 9. 2005, 7:30 p.m.: S.A.G. Cestas – STK „Vecernji List“ Zagreb
S.A.G. Cestas: Finn Tugwell, Liu Song, Eric Varin, Matthew Syed;
STK “Vecernji List” Zagreb: Tan Ruiwu, Tomislav Kolarek, Tomislav Zubcic, Zoran Primorac;
Sunday, 4. 9. 2005, 6:00 p.m.: ASTT Pieve Emanuele Milano – TTV RE-BAU Gönnern
ASTT Pieve Emanuele Milano: Massimiliano Mondello, Richard Vyborny, Chen Junji, Mihai Bobocica;
TTV RE-BAU Gönnern: Timo Boll, Jörg Rosskopf, Slobodan Grujic, Patrick Baum;
GROUP C:
Friday, 2. 9. 2005, 8:00 p.m.: Levallois SCTT – BVSC Budapest
Levallois SCTT: Peter Karlsson, Damien Eloi, Jean Philippe Gatien, Christophe Bertin;
BVSC Budapest: Adam Lindner, Zoltan Varga, Janos Jakab, Krisztian Molnar;
Sunday, 4. 9.2005, 5:00 p.m.: TTF Liebherr Ochsenhausen – Club Cajagranada Tenis Mesa
TTF Liebherr Ochsenhausen: Chuan Chih-Yuan, Adrian Crisan, Fedor Kuzmin, Pär Gerell;
Club Cajagranada Tenis Mesa: He Zhi Wen, Robert Gardos, Fan Guoliang, Daniel Torres Camacho;
GROUP D:
Friday, 2. 9. 2005, 6:00 p.m.: SVS Niederösterreich – Angers Vaillante TT
SVS Niederösterreich: Ryu Seung Min, Werner Schlager, Chen Weixing, Kostadin Lengerov;
Angers Vaillante TT: Yang Min, Chang Yen Shu, Cedric Cabestany, David Pilard;
Saturday, 3. 9. 2005, 5:00 p.m.: Start Horni Sucha – Borussia Düsseldorf
Start Horni Sucha: Peter Sereda, Marek Cihak, Radek Kostal, Jaromir Zlamal;
Borussia Düsseldorf: Michael Maze, Bastian Steger, Danny Heister, Christian Süß;
