Bad news for THW Kiel - Börge Lund and Anders Palicka injured

Börge Lund (THW Kiel) has been injured at the 31:27-victory in the Champions League game against FC Barcelona. His Achilles tendon is strained and Lund will miss possibly the next six months. He has already undergone surgery and his rehabilitation program will soon begin. But starting with Lund`s injury, the problems in Kiel`s squad worsened some days later. Andreas Palicka has a Meniscus injury and needs also surgery. A four week drop-out is expected for the Swedish keeper.

The Norwegian national player could be available again in spring 2009. The back player who delivered a very strong defensive performance in the Champions League game against Barcelona acted as a playmaker in offense when all of a sudden his foot seemed to be glued on the ground. Without influence from another player Lund plunged to the ground as if being cut by the axe, he was immediately brought into the cabin for medical treatment. "I thought someone had kicked my foot from behind," Lund told the "Kieler Nachrichten": "This is my first major injury. I probably will realize it only when I see my mates play."

Immediately after the game coach Alfred Gislason had asked for a replacement for Lund: "We need a substitute for Börge in order that none of my players has to bear a double burden. Especially in defense. Let`s see what will be possible now," said the Icelander. Since the "Zebras" have a small squad, the club now wants to explore the market for a short-term replacement. But there will be no panic reaction said manager Uwe Schwenker. "A player from the Bundesliga would have to stay in Kiel until the end of the season. A foreigner could also be borrowed only for a few months. But an alien player would only bring us forward in the running season if he has not already played in the Champions League," Schwenker told “Kieler Nachrichten”.

The other hole in the team of Alfred Gislason is left by Andreas Palicka. The 22-year-old keeper already experienced problems with the knee during the game in Mannheim against the Rhein Neckar Lions. How long the team will have to do without him is yet unpredictable. "I prefer to make a prediction after the operation. Then, I will have seen the full extent of the injury with my own eyes," THW doctor Frank Pries said in "Kieler Nachrichten."

During the match against Stralsund in the city of Neubrandenburg, the 26-year-old Florian Hossner (from Kiel Juniors’ Team) will be alongside Thierry Omeyer. As there will be no matches during next week, Kiel sees no acute distress concerning a temporary substitution of Anders Palicka. Otherwise, THW Kiel would have to look for a second substitute.

Perkovac announces squad for matches against Italy and Russia

Already on Monday, October 27th, the team will meet in St. Gallen. Perkovac anounced a squad of seventeen players. With this players the coach of the Suisse national team will have two training-sessions, at Wednesday the team will travel by bus to South Tirol. On Sonday the match against Italy will be played in Brixen, same evening the team travels back to Switzerland. In Aarau the team will prepare for the upcoming task against Russia.

	Bucher, Elio	17.01.1984	Kadetten Schaffh.	33/21	1.88/84	RM
	Engeler, Martin	12.01.1982	St. Otmar St. G.	25/84	1.97/92	RL
	Fellmann, Daniel	27.01.1984	Amicitia Zürich	69/152	1.94/92	RR
	Gautschi, Thomas	28.01.1976	Ciudad Logroño	133/416	2.02/93	RL
	Goepfert, Florian	09.07.1988	RTV 1879 Basel	0/0	1.90/83	LA
	Graubner, David	29.05.1984	Kadetten Schaffh.	34/36	1.94/85	RL
	Hüsser, Markus	22.01.1986	Amicitia Zürich	22/21	1.85/82	RA
	Kurth, Marco	12.03.1983	Pfadi Winterthur	94/243	1.88/84	RA
	Liniger, Manuel	10.09.1981	Kadetten Schaffh.	117/468	1.80/76	LA
	Merz, Andreas	24.11.1985	Suhr Aarau	21/0	1.88/75	TW
	Milosevic, Alen	24.12.1989	BSV Bern Muri	2/2	192/101	KM
	Oltmanns, Mathias	23.09.1981	Kadetten Schaffh.	36/36	1.90/95	KM
	Schmid, Andy	30.08.1983	Amicitia Zürich	75/277	1.89/81	RM
	Stauber, Pascal	12.10.1979	RTV 1879 Basel	72/0	1.91/90	TW
	Steiger, Benjamin	06.03.1984	BSV Bern Muri	19/39	192/97	RM
	Ursic, Iwan	06.12.1976	Kadetten Schaffh.	156/467	1.92/98	KM
	Vukelic, Marko	27.01.1987	Amicitia Zürich	21/24	1.81/85	RR

Wetzlar signs new goalkeeper Vladan Krasavac

German HSG Wetzlar found a substitute to long-time injured goalkeeper Zoran Djordjic. Today Yugoslavian international player Vladan Krasavac signed a contract in Wetzlar. The 37-year-old old goalkeeper comes from Swiss national Champion and Champions League participant ZMC Amicitia Zurich. He got a contract up to the end of the season.

In the last month the Serbian, born in Loznica, was not able to play for Zurich because of an operation at the groin. But during last season he was a important player of the ambitious team from Zurich which could yield national championship and the super-cup. "Vladan has cured his injury meanwhile and eagerly wants to come up to his great achievements of the off-season", betrays Rainer Dotzauer of HSG Wetzlar, who was able to get a quick playing permission for the 1.97-metre-"Goalie". Krasavac whose sporting life motto purely and simply is „win!“ is married and father of two children. The 37-year-old got hold of eight national titles with teams in Serbia, Italy and Switzerland. Besides, he played in EHF Cup and in Champions League.

"He is quite an experienced goalkeeper with outstanding reflexes. We are sure that he will form a successful goalkeeper team together with Nikolai Weber and later also Zoran Djordjic", Dotzauer said. "Beside his sporting class it was also decisive that Krasavac could change free of money. The obligation of the second goalkeepers candidate Dragan Jerkovic has failed because of that fact in the end. Zagreb wanted to have a too high transfer fee for him which we did not want to - and were not able to - afford. Therefore, we have neglected the negotiations with the player and have decided on Vladan. For us, he is an ideal supplement to our current number one Weber."

Robert Hedin new Coach for Norway

It is the ultimate a coach can achieve," says Robert Hedin, coach of Melsungen MT about his new and additional task. The 42-year-old Swede is now coach of German first division team MT Melsungen as well as the new men`s national team coach of Norway. This confirms the release by handball-world.com from September 12, which had already reported that the Norwegian association would decide between Hedin and former THW Kiel coach Serdarusic.

Hedin will succeed Norway`s national coach Gunnar Pettersen who had declared his resignation in this summer after he had not succeeded to qualify Norway for the Olympics. Norwegian officials took their time to find a new coach. As Norwegian media sources as well as handball-world.com reported one month ago, the search became a duel between Hedin and Serdarusic, but it was left open if Serdarusic was interested in the job at all. Hedin has signed a two year contract with the Norwegian Handball Association.

Both Robert Hedin and the management of MT Melsungen, a first league club located in Hessen in the center of Germany, announced that the existing contract with Melsungen will be still in existence until 06/30/2010. In doing so both sides agreed to analyze the development up to the end of the running season in order to decide whether Hedin can shoulder the twho jobs.

"To Rastislav Trtik (Robert Hedin’s predecessor at Melsungen), we had recommended to quit the coach office at the Czech Republic and to concentrate on Melsungen. But this is something you can not over-simplify but must decide in respect to the acting persons and the identified constellations. We believe that Robert Hedin can fulfil both offices," says MT Board Chairman Barbara Braun Lüdicke. With Ola Lindgren, who also runs a double office as Swedish national team coach together with his task at HSG Nordhorn, there is also an example showing that a double caoching task can work out.

Robert Hedin himself assess the situation as non-problematic: "There are only a few periods throughout the year when I will be with the Norwegian national team. These are fixed times in the international calendar and are declared as a course or tournament dates. Then half of my players in Melsungen are together with their national teams, too."

While Hedin is collecting points with MT in order to climb the first division’s table, he has now the additional task to get Norway ready for the Euro 2010 qualification. First test will be the game against Estonia on 29 October. Norway has already qualified for the World Championships 2009 under Hedin`s predecessor Gunnar Pettersen.

One of the most frequently mentioned candidates for the office as Norwegian national coach was the former coach of THW Kiel, Zvonimir "Noka" Serdarusic. But according to Norwegian media, Serdarusic never said "Yes", possibly also because of offers from the Bundesliga. Norway`s Association did not want to wait any longer and took its decision in favor of Hedin.

GF World Cup opening day: Russia defeated by Denmark

Every year in October, the female Handball elite meets at the GF World Cup in Arhus, Denmark. From October 14 to 19, Russia, Romania, France and Norway as well as Sweden, Denmark, Hungary and Germany are playing each other in order to prepare for the European Championships in Macedonia in December. Norway, France and Germany won their matches. But the World Cup already had its first surprise: World Champion Russia stumbled against host Denmark.

The opening game between France and Hungary was a bad match from both sides. Both France and Hungary are in the process of rebuilding their teams. Both have to integrate a lot of new players. Many famous names, like the goal-keepers Valérie Nicolas and Katalin Palinger, left. Amandine Leynaud and Orsolya Herr are their successors and they did a decent job. Moreover, Hungary`s Anita Görbicz had to cancel her participation at the GF World Cup because of a shoulder injury. Without its “heart” and “brain”, Hungary experienced a tough start in the match agaisnt France and it took quite a while for the Hungarians to become an equal adversary to France.

When Szabina Mayer scored 10-9 (23), Hungary was in the lead for the first time but right after the start of the second half, technical mistakes by Hungary enabled France a “run and gun” series, ending with the 12-16. Hungary fought back with a stronger defence and equalized at 17-17 by Valeria Szabo. But the team of Olivier Krumbholz kept its pace and with Hungary losing its energy, Raphaelle Tervel scored 24-20. Paule Baudouin added the final gaol, making it 29-23.