BOTTROP - The new Turkish top team Gaziantespor with its lead player Frédéric Caudron and the Turks Tayfun Tasdemir, Murat Naci Coklu and Can Capak will play the preliminary rounds of the European Cup for teams in the Portuguese group. The opponents are Sporting Club Portugal, Bergisch Gladbacher (with Martin Horn), Op de Meir, Sociedat Coral Colon (Sergio Jimenez, Jose Maria Mas and Xavier Yeste), making this group undoubtedly the strongest of the five preliminary round groups.
Gaziantespor is the absolute Turkish contender to win gold in the European Cup after the Bahcelievler team has stopped. The heats with four groups of four teams and one of five will be played on April 30 and May 1 in Vienna (Austria), Lausanne (Switzerland), Grøndal (Denmark), Lisbon (Portugal) and The Hague (Netherlands). The 21 teams are vying for six places in the final round: the five group winners and the best runner-up from five groups are qualified. The final is in Porto from 2 to 5 June. Two teams are automatically qualified: Dallinga.com, the title holder and FC Porto, the organizer.
Dallinga is no longer playing with its last year's winning team in Europe (Caudron, Jaspers, Merckx and De Bruijn). Only De Bruijn will play in Porto, probably with Steven van Acker, Bart Ceulemans and Patrick Vasseur.
The group format for the preliminaries looks very interesting:
Group A (WBA in Vienna): Madrid Escuela with Ruben Legazpi, Javier Palazon and David Martinez is the favorite to win. The German champion Ravensburger, that lost his Turkish players Tasdemir and Coklu this year, shows up amongst others with Murat Gökmen. Arnim Kahofer is the leader in the WBA team, Torsten Danielsson in the team of Billard Club Zurich.
Group B: Marco Zanetti wants to fire up the Lausanne team of Diane Wild in a group with not too well-known players. De Goeie Queue, champion in Belgium with Caudron, Merckx, Jaspers and De Bruijn, sends a second team in the arena, led by Roger Roefs. Leca FC and Fredericia Billardklub from Denmark are the outside tapes in this field.
Eddy Merckx, the lead player in the team CetSi Morangis
Group C: CetSi Morangis, the France champion with Eddy Merckx, Eddy Leppens, Richard Bitalis and Jean Reverchon, is the main candidate for the group win. ,,The Danes are very dangerous, we should not underestimate'', Leppens said when he saw the draw. BK Grøndal, in the final last year, plays with Dion Nelin, Tonny Carlsen, Brian Knudsen and Lars Dunch. Also in this group: BC Elite Vienna and Scuola Billardo la Biglia.
Group D: the strongest group with Gaziantespor as the undisputed favorite. Societat Coral Colon may fledged opposition concerns with three Spanish top players (Jimenez, Mas, Yeste) Bergisch Gladbacher only Martin Horn from the champion team. The Meir is playing without his regular league players Leppens and Barry Beers. Jorge Theriaga's location in Lisbon is the organizer.
Group E: The Hague billiard cafe Jorissen is host to the fifth group. The home team itself plays in the strongest line-up with Glenn Hoffman, the team world champion Jean van Erp, Jeffrey Jorissen and Herman van Daalen. The big favorite for the group win is definitely Andernos, the French champion with Roland Forthomme, Filippos Kasidokostas, Jérôme Barbeillon and Francis Connesson. The other two teams are Mecidiyköy Kulübü and Smile Club from Italy.
The group format:
Group A: WBA Wien (Kahofer) Billard Club Zurich (Danielsson), Madrid Escuela (Ruben Legazpi) Ravensburger (Murat Gokmen).
Group B: Academy Lausannoise (Zanetti), Leca FC Escudeiro), De Goeie Queue (Roefs) Ferericia Billard Club (Clausen).
Group C: BK Grondal (Nelin, Carlsen, Knudsen), BC Elite Wien (Schmied), Scuela Billardo (Papa) CetSi Morangis (Merckx, Leppens, Bitalis, Reverchon).
Group D: SC Portugal (Theriaga), Bergisch Gladbacher (Horn), Op de Meir (Stitschinsky), Gaziantespor (Caudron, Tasdemir, Coklu, Capak Salman), Coral Colon (Jimenez, Mas, Yeste).
Group E: Buffalo.nl (Hofman, Van Erp) Andernos (Forthomme, Kasidokostas) Mecidiyekoy Spor (Uymaz, Bayatli), Smile Club (Sciacca).