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Bicanic and Bertrand Gille back for the away team

Cesson had financial problems, but their budget was approved. They lst key players, and did not buy many new ones. Chambery also did not shop this season, but they still beat PSG and Dunquerque to win Supercup, the first trophy in 11 years

Cesson, a Rennes club, was in financial dire straits this summer, and only recently did the Comission approve their budget. They were surprisingly good last season, ending up 7th , undefeated in the last four rounds, and even beat Chambery in a away match 30-29 in the second part of the season

They lost their first center Romain Ternel (to Tremblay), left backcourt Boultif (to Dubai), pivot Hernandez Pola, and Ben Amor. They brought in only three players, the left handed Derbier, who is the right wingman but due to having a single right backcourt Benjamin Briffe, Derbier will probably take up that position as well. Dusko Celica came from Quatar, he is a great defender, a left backcourt that scores.  To replace Ternel, from Metalurg they bought Damir Batinovic, his first experience outside of the Balkans, and it will be interesting to see how he manages in such a strong league.

So in the season onset we will see the Briffe brothers as backcourts, Jérémy Suty as center, Igor Anic as pivot, and Genty as goalie, possibly the most important part of the team. A lot depends on him. The players that stayed in the club are -the  left wingman Hochet, the pivot Lafranchi, right wingman Le Boulaire, and the center Benoît Dore. They lack many options, due to the mentioned financial distress, but they are a homogenous team and know each other well.

- Our goal is to stay in the division, second or third worst if possible. The championship is even tougher than last year - the coach David Christman quoted.

- The players did well in the preparations and have shown good handball. A lot of them stayed on the team and that made my job easier. We won the matches we planned to win, and worked hard on the others, so I’m happy.

Last preparatory match they beat Nantes 31-28, before that Billére 26-24 and Sélestat 26-23. Before the Chambery game coach Christmann said:

- We are outsiders from the bottom of the ranking table. To achieve anything we need both good individual and collective performance. There were a lot of injuries during the preps, but I think most of the boys will recuperate.

Chambery bought the least of all the teams this year. Only the wingman Marrouxa form second division team Valence, and young Feutriera from the clubs handball academy. On the other hand they sold Nocar, Busselier, Grahovac, Palma and Capella. Therefore the team relies on last seasons´  A team like Gille brothers, Bicanic, N'Guessan, Nyokas, Basic, Detrez, Dumoulin, Paty and Paturel. At least they didn’t waste their time on organizing the team, and last week they have shown much improvement over the last season.

They beat PSG and Dunkerque in Super cup finals in Tunisia. The trophy may not be very important, but it is the first they won in 11 years. And they beat the champion and the runner up without Bertrand, Guillaume Gille, Bicanic or N'Guessan, essentialy just with Nyokas and Basic. An beginning made in heaven. Today’s match is very important because in the second round they are on an away match against PSG and would like to win some games in the season onset. 

Also worth mentioning are several younger players the goalie Diot, wingmen Traoré and Blanc, backcourt Tritta, pivot Marescot...

- There are two reasons - firstly our finances, and secondly their quality, they already can play in D1 - club chairman Laurent Munier said

They ended up fourth last season their worst ranking in last 8 seasons.

- We are satisfied because we have qualified for European matches in the last few rounds, but we are also disappointed for losing so many points in match finishes. In spite of injuries if we managed to improve on that we’d play in Championship League.

The news of the season is that the older brother Gille is now an assistant coach to Cavalli, alongside being a player. We won’t see him today, due to injured calf, which might heal in time for PSG match. N'Guessan is also out until the end of September. Good news are that  Bertrand Gille and Bicanic are back. Gille will strengthen the defences along with, Benjamin Gille and Paturel, while Bicanic, Basic and Nyokas will make up the outer line. Chambery, full of confidence go for their first points...

I was impressed with the game Chambery played against the champions (PSG) and runner-ups Dunkerque. They played 28-28 against PSG and won the game on penalty shootout, while they beat Dunkerque 23-21. They've won the Supercup without the Gille brothers, Bicanic and N'Guessan. In addition, their defense was great. This was their first title in 11 years and will be a massive confidence boost for them. Bicanic and Bertrand Gille were announced to return today, which means better offense and a stronger defense, and this defense was already great in the two games mentioned above. Cesson lost their middle back and brought no quality reinforcements, they also lost their left back and had some financial difficulties. Chambery have an awax game against PSG in round two, and they need a good game here. They conceded 23 goals at Rennes and I don't see them going over 25 today. The defense, lead by the goalkeeper Dumoulin can leave any opponent in lower figures. At the same time, Cesson also has a good defense, and they've shown that many times last season when they had low-scoring games. This team hasn't changed much since and I don't expect many drastic changes, which can be seen in the games against Billére and Sélestat. They had 31-28 against Nantes, but Nantes were missing several players and their performance was lacking .Today's game is round 1, the pressure will be higher and Chambery will come pretty motivated.