(by Steve Hopkins)

From the beginning of the year, the European Table Tennis Union Men’s Champions League was really a story of two teams – Borussia Dusseldorf and Neu-Ulm.  The Dusseldorf squad had been at the top of the pecking order in both German League play and the Euro League matches for a decade – and even as Timo Boll has faded a little, they have Dang Qiu and Anton Kallberg on the rise (and the young Kay Stumper lined up to step in).  On the opposite end of the spectrum was Neu Ulm – who saw an opportunity a year ago to claim a number of players from the closed Russian League and who managed to put an Allstar team together with Ovtcharov, Moregard, Yun-Ju, and Harimoto – but who were seldom able to get all of their team together at one time due to each having National Team and ITTF/WTT responsibilities as well.  Neu Ulm’s exciting year stole the headlines from the other teams – in case anyone has forgotten that Saarbrucken and Muhlhausen both had deep runs a year ago in the Champions League too.

So this year, when the Semifinal matchups of the Champions League ended up with Dusseldorf facing off against Neu Ulm, most expected the higher ranked Neu Ulm team to win.  That did not happen.  In fact, Neu Ulm won a tight opening match, but then ended up facing Dusseldorf in a packed stadium at a time when a WTT event was also going on in Dusseldorf.  And when the local team rode that emotion to victory, the tie breaker was held immediately after (with the same players, on the same day, in the same packed stadium).  Dusseldorf managed the upset win – and advanced to the finals as strong favorites.

Being a favorite doesn’t mean you win – That’s why we play the games.

In the first match-up in Saarbrucken, Dusseldorf won.  Giving them the 1-0 lead – and they took that lead home to their own stadium.  A week later, the top seed was unable to close.

Dang Qiu started things off in Dusseldorf’s favor with a relatively easy 3-1 win over Saarbrucken’s Darko Jorgic.  But Franziska put Saarbrucken on the board with a 3-2 win over Anton Kallberg.  Kay Stumper then stepped in for Dusseldorf and won over Takuya Jin 3-0.  Franziska pulled the 3-2 upset over Dang Qiu to even the score, and Darko Jorgic pulled out the team win by defeating Anton Kallberg.

This then set up a Golden Match for the Champions League Title.  The Golden Match is the tie breaker where each of your players play one game and the first to two wins is crowned champion.

Dang Qiu started things off for Dusseldorf with an 11-7 win over Takuya Jin.

Franziska then dominated Anton Kallberg 11-6.

And in the tight final game – it was Darko Jorgic to finished off Kay Stumper 11-9 to give Saarbrucken their first ever Champions League Title.

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Borussia Düsseldorf versus FC Saarbrücken TT 2:3

QIU  – JORGIC 3:1 (9:11, 11:9, 11:7, 11:7)

KÄLLBERG – FRANZISKA 2:3 (11:8, 11:9, 7:11, 8:11, 5:6)

STUMPER – JIN 3:0 (11:6, 11:9, 11:9)

QIU – FRANZISKA 2:3 (9:11, 8:11, 11:8, 12:10, 5:6)

KÄLLBERG – JORGIC 1:3 (9:11, 6:11, 11:6, 11:13)

Golden match

Borussia Düsseldorf versus FC Saarbrücken TT 1:2

QIU – JIN 11:7

KÄLLBERG – FRANZISKA 6:11

STUMPER – JORGIC 9:11