Ales Hrebsky Previews: Group B

vienna

Group B is one of the more foreign groups in the tournament. Their teams derive from Austria, the Czech Republic, and Germany. All of these teams are rather young an inexperienced, but they have some talent that the tournament hasn’t seen before.

Vienna Monarchs

The Monarchs were a surprise club at last year’s tournament when they finished in third out of the last 16 teams and they were rewarded this year as the top team in their group. Led by Klaus Hauer, a star in the European Lacrosse League, the Monarchs are projected to blow past this round of the tournament. They have more experience than anyone else in this group and might have a chance at the 6th place they won last year.

TJ Malesice

This team has plenty of Deutschland Adler products, and that’s always a good thing. They finished in 15th last season and are hoping they can contend with Vienna this year. Jakob Kos from the ELL is their top scorer, and they will be riding him if they want to win some games.

Helan Gar

One of the consequences of no Deutschland Adler this season is there are a whole bunch of German teams, and Helan Gar is one of them. The new team is led by goaltender Curt Kinney and Mattias Eklund who plays for team Germany’s national indoor team. They’re a new team but they have more experience than they’ll get credit for and they should contend in games.