Group A preview

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5.4.2015

Jamie Plunkett writes previews of the Aleš Hřebeský Memorial round-robin groups for Deutschland Adler sites. We agreed to publish his texts here too. Lets start with group A.

The 22nd edition of the Memorial will see a couple of changes, first off we will have a new champion as last years winners the Kahnawake Rapids will not be attending. Three new comers will be playing this year in the Istanbul Sultans, Helan Går, and Regina Heat.

Group A of the Aleš Hřebeský Memorial is made up of Turku Titans (FIN), Tel Aviv Lacrosse (ISR), and Bundeswehr Lacrosse (GER). This group has very close ties to the Adler, as all three teams have players who have suited up for the Adler in the past. This should be a very interesting group as all three teams roster will be very similar to their respective national team roster. Perhaps this will be the group the most parity.

The highest ranked team in the group is Turku Titans. The Titans will be making their 7th appearance at the Memorial. Players to watch on this years Titans roster is Deutschland Adler and ELL Champs Markus Mattila who is tenacious on D and Jarno Aaltonen the hard shooting lanky lefty. The success of the Titans will perhaps fall on Lauri Uusitalo shoulders as he needs to stand on his head in the net if the Titans hope to advance as the number 1 team in Group A. 2015 Results: 8th.

Next up in Group A is Tel Aviv Lacrosse from Israel. Tel Aviv is making their 3rd appearance. The second year has a complete squad. Year one they were a split team with Lille from France. Tel Aviv finds themselves in a tough group, and with the most important game most likely coming against Turku. Tel Aviv will look to make a statement in this tournament as they will have a large majority of Team Israel players fighting for spots on their national team. As with Turku they have a couple of Adler on their Roster; Matt Flapan, and Seth Mahler both suited up at the Mayor’s Lax Cup last January in Prague. 2015 Results: 10th.

The lowest ranked Group A team coming into the tournament is Bundeswehr Lacrosse from Germany. Bundeswehr is the official team of the German Army, who will be making their 3rd appearance at this years memorial. Bundeswehr will have a unique roster this year. Team Germany will be holding their tryouts for the World Indoor Lacrosse Championships at the Memorial, and have their roster split between two teams. Bundeswehr will be in tough from the get go but are very capable of advancing from group play with the 1st or 2nd seed, but will need Wolfgang Grießl, Philipp Broz to lead the troops early for the team to be successful, and need to score goals. 2014 Results: 14th.

Do you want to see Jamie’s prediction of the group order? Check it here.

Author: Ondřej Mika | Section: 2015 | Print | Send article to friend