Three Rock Rovers have been drawn in a tough group for the opening round of the Euro Hockey league, facing Spanish third place finishers Atletic Terassa (pictured in action against HGC) and Belgian champions KHC Leuven.Whilst easy draws are scarce, Three Rock may have hoped for one of the perceived weaker sides in the first pot, namely the recent opponents Azzurri Kelburne or Polish champions WKS Grunwald.
The Irish representatives will feature in group H, a group which has yet to find a venue though representatives from the EHL were in Dublin this week looking at the viability of holding groups E, F, G and H in either Grange Road or UCD.
Elsewhere, the draw – held at Brasserie Paardenburg in Ouderkerk aan de Amstel – threw up some very interesting ties.
Round 1a will take place in The Netherlands at Amsterdam H&BC, and features the teams drawn into Pools A, B, C and D.
Poland’s KS Pocztowiec Poznan have been given a tough draw in Pool A, facing Germany’s Club an der Alster and last years’ semi finalists Club Egara from Spain.
Pool B sees St Germain of France, Germany’s Dusseldorfer HC and HC Bra of Italy.
In Pool C, Amsterdam H&BC will be hoping to make home advantage count when they face Poland’s WKS Grunwald Poznan and Ukraine’s Olimpia Kolos Sekvoia, while Dutch side HC Bloemendaal will play Cannock HC (England) and Dinamo Kazan (Russia) in Pool D.
In Round 1b, 2007/08 semi finalists HC Rotterdam will play English champions Reading HC and Western Wildcats of Scotland in what looks to be an exciting Pool E.
Scotland and England come together once again in Pool F, with Azzurri Kelburne and East Grinstead aiming to qualif
y ahead of Belgium’s Waterloo Ducks.2007/08 EHL Champions UHC Hamburg – also known as Uhlenhorster – have been drawn against Spanish giants RC de Polo de Barcelona as well as Lille MHC of France.
In Round 1, each club will play the other two teams once over a three day period. The top two clubs in each Pool will progress to Round 2, which will be played 10 - 13 April 2008, at a venue yet to be decided.
The club finishing third in each pool will be eliminated from the competition. Pool winners from Round 1 will be seeded in the draw for the next round.
9 comments:
rovers galacticos will prevail!
so then next season rovers galacticos and c of i galacticos can take on europe!
Typical Rovers player, If YM had of beaten you in the tempest then they also would of been a galacticos?? Not saying C of I wont be good.
Very tough draw in my eyes, Spanish will be hard to overcome. And Belgium always produce some solid teams.
How can rovers think they will do well when they couldnt even beat Azzuri, apparently considerd an easy draw if you get them?
I'm not a Rovers player nor have anything thing to do with Rovers but I wish them the best of luck and I hope everyone realises if Rovers succeed so does Irish hockey. I also hope if Rovers qualify from round 1 they dont rub their success in others faces!
Is it true if Rovers qualify from round 1 and Pembroke win the europeans there'll be 3 places for Irish teams next year-2 for the EHL and 1 for the other european competition? If so how would the places be allocated, one for winning the EHL and one for winning the ISC and one for winning the Leinster League!!!?
the "galacticos" thing needs to stop now,its a step far for even the likes of rovers,the firsts are giving themselves and the club a rather 'ridiculous' name.
TRR member
2 finalists from the IHL would enter the EHL with ISC winners going to the European Trophy.
Currently, Irish hockey is ranked 10th in Europe. This entitles us to one place in the EHL and one place in the EuroTrophy.
The next step is for Irish hockey to progress to two places in the EHL by "upgrading" our one EuroTrophy spot.
This will only happen if Ireland's ranking moves up to 8th place. The ranking is determined by the relative performance of all the national club sides in all european competitions.
For Irish hockey to rise to a ranking of 8th we need Pembroke to emulate Glenanne's performance in the EuroTrophy last year by winning it and for Three Rock Rovers to go one step further than Pembroke in the EHL last year by qualifying for Round 2.
However, as ranking is relative, we also need the club representatives from the countries above us to underperform. i.e. Russia (9th); Scotland (8th)
Hope this clear things up!!!
go on the rovers galacticos!!!!
Monkstown member.....
Only the top 4 ranked countries (NED, ESP, ENG, GER) are entitled to enter 3 club sides in European competitions.
All other ranked countries in Europe are only entitled to enter 2 club sides in European competitions.
The country's European ranking determines how these places are allocated between EuroHockey League; EuroTrophy and EuroChallenge competitions.
Rank 1-4 = 3x EHL
Rank 5-8 = 2x EHL
Rank 9-12= 1x EHL + 1x Trophy
Rank 13-16= 1x Trophy + 1x Chall I
Rank 17-20= 1x Chall I + 1x Chall II
Rank 21-24= 1x Chall II + 1x Chall III
Rank 25-28= 1x Chall III + 1x Chall IV
Rank 29-32= 1x Chall IV + 1x Chall V
Rank 33-35= 1x Chall V
rovers galacticos??
gimme a break.
like for a start wheres the zidane??
plenty of raul bravo's tho the muppets.
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