On 13 November, KS Bank Spółdzielczy Orlicz 1924 Suchedniów will open their ETTU Champions League Men Round of 16 campaign with an away clash against TTC Sokah Hoboken in Belgium.
Last season’s Final 4 contenders, the Polish side enter this year’s competition as the No. 6 seed, while Hoboken advanced from the opening stage in impressive fashion, defying the odds from their 19th-seeded position to reach the knockout rounds.
Orlicz Suchedniów’s line-up features Slovenia’s Deni KOZUL (No. 22 in the European ranking), Korea’s Seungmin CHO (WR 69), Japan’s Kazuhiro YOSHIMURA (WR 109), Satoshi AIDA, and Polish representatives Mateusz ZALEWSKI and Damian WEDERLICH (ER 110 and 513), as well as Dawid STAPOR.
“We’ve had quite a few matches recently, and the team spirit is as strong as always,” said Deni KOZUL. “All players are healthy and ready. We have refreshed our squad a bit with Asian players they’re still adapting, but I believe they’ll be well prepared for the Champions League.”
Unlike the Belgian club, Orlicz Suchedniów joins the competition directly from the Round of 16.
“There are no weak teams at this stage, so we’re taking the match very seriously,” added KOZUL. “It will be a tough battle, but I believe we can win and reach the quarter-finals. The first leg is away, and I hope many fans will come from Poland to support us. Our biggest strength is our unity, we give everything, both on the table and on the bench. Hoboken is strong, so we’ll need to play at our highest level. There’s no secret formula, we’ll prepare for each opponent carefully and fight for every point.”
Last season, the Polish club produced one of the biggest surprises of the competition. Starting from the group stage, Orlicz Suchedniów went unbeaten in that phase, then defeated A.S. Pontoise-Cergy TT in the Round of 16 and KS Dekorglass Działdowo in the quarter-finals to reach their first-ever Champions League Men Final 4, where they eventually fell to hosts 1. FC Saarbrücken TT.
“We know it won’t be easy to repeat last year’s semi-final success,” said KOZUL. “But I believe in this team, with a bit of luck, we can go far again. We’re taking it match by match, ball by ball, and we’ll see how far that takes us. I also want to call on our supporters, we have the best fans, and I hope they’ll come in large numbers to help us fight for a quarter-final place.”
Domestically, Orlicz Suchedniów currently sit third in the Polish league standings.
“We’ve won six matches and lost only two, both against last year’s champions and runners-up, so I’d say the season has started well,” concluded KOZUL.
