Eighteen seasons and taking part in a cumulative 88 EHL Males’s video games between them, one anomaly will lastly finish on October 3rd when Spanish giants Actual Membership de Polo meet HC Bloemendaal for the primary time within the competitors’s historical past.
For Polo’s talisman Xavi Lleonart, it is going to be a particular showdown, lining out towards the facet with whom he performed the main position in 2018 to win gold sporting the famed orange shirt.
Again with Polo, he’s hoping a few of his inside data will assist the Spanish membership give you a sport plan to unlock Bloemendaal.
“I’m fortunate as a result of I’ve been on each side,” he informed the EHL web site. “On paper, they’re the favourites – in fact, we all know that. However that is KO16 and knock-out hockey so that you all the time need to carry out and be in good condition on that day.
“If we play with our weapons, we’ve an opportunity to beat them, in fact, and we’re actually assured.Completely, we want to play towards groups like this and it means we should give our 100%!”
There stay loads of hyperlinks between Lleonart’s time within the Netherlands, not least with Michel van den Heuvel again as coach of the membership having held the reins to their 2018 success.
Jasoer Brinkman and Floris Wortelboer additionally traverse the vintages together with Yannick van der Drift following two seasons in Barcelona with Polo.
Within the ultimate, Lleonart’s blockbuster backhand shot was a vital component of their comeback win over SV Kampong.
“The reminiscences are superb,” he mirrored. “I used to be making an attempt to win the EHL for thus a few years with Polo and it was actually tough. With Bloemendaal, I knew that there was a transparent alternative to win it; the group at the moment was nearly an All-Stars [also featuring Jamie Dwyer, Florian Fuchs and Thierry Brinkman among others].
“The ultimate towards Kampong was brutal when it comes to depth and when it comes to rivalry. Now, they’ve Michel once more however they’re additionally a totally totally different group.
“I do know Michel’s model, I do know what he desires, the depth and the identification that they are going to have. It’s going to be a extremely tough sport for us. They’re actually proficient gamers with plenty of expertise, with a lot rhythm that they’ll get from the Dutch league.
“We should survive these first minutes, making an attempt to adapt to their depth or their rhythm. As soon as that first stage is completed, we should play our hockey to beat them.”
As Bloemendaal have modified, so have Polo. Lengthy-time Egara man Ramon Sala is now within the teaching position, taking up from Carlos Garcia Cuenca who’s now with the Spanish girls’s group full-time having finished each roles final season.
4 key additions have joined with a very German flavour: Teo Hinrichs from Mannheimer HC, Benedikt Schwarzhaupt from UHC Hamburg, Robert Duckscheer from HTC Uhlenhorst Mülheim together with Arnau de Bruijn from Junior FC.
On the flip facet, 9 gamers have moved on from their panel, notably Marc Reyné to Braxgata; Marc Recasens to HGC and Van Drift to Bloemendaal whereas Pablo de Abadal, Àlex Reyne, Llorenç Piera and Vicenç Ruiz have retired.
Nonetheless, they began the Spanish league on a successful notice they usually have large challenges towards Membership de Campo and Membership Egara within the coming week to set them up.
“It’s true that it’s a totally new group with a brand new employees and Ramon, we’re increase the group once more. I believe the issues are going fairly nicely. He is aware of the Spanish league in and out and helps us construct a brand new identification.
“With three new gamers from Germany, they carry utterly totally different types so they’re making an attempt to adapt to the Spanish model. We’re assured by the KO16 time, the group will probably be performing fairly nicely. That’s our fundamental objective to construct shortly so the group arrive in London with the group able to carry out.”
With Lleonart on board, they may also have a wealth of data to attract and study from, one thing which he additionally shared with the broader world this summer time throughout the Olympic Video games.
His insights X (Twitter) had been an interesting perception from a prime participant, elevating observations and questions on the important thing speaking factors, one thing he reckons he’ll give extra of if the viewers wills it.
“Actually, I obtained this query many occasions over the past month,” when requested whether or not it’s one thing he plans to develop.
“It’s true that I like to look at each single hockey sport and I attempted to provide my opinion [particularly on the Spanish performances]. I believe the Olympic Video games are a contest everyone on the earth is following, not solely the hockey followers but additionally different sports activities followers and I obtained plenty of engagement.
“That’s one thing that tells us hockey has plenty of potential. I simply thought it was actually attention-grabbing as a result of we don’t typically get so many of those type of voices type of voices.
“I believe it could be attention-grabbing to produce other gamers or different individuals from hockey giving their opinion as a result of nicely it’s a extremely necessary sport and I wish to create this group!”