(by Steve Hopkins)
SV Werder Bremen remains one of the surprises of the German League. They are currently in first place (though they are in action this evening and need a win to stay solely in first). Mattias Falck, Kirill Gerassimenko, Marcelo Aguirre, and Irvin Bertrand are all having consistently good seasons – giving them a deep roster. Earlier this week, Bremen defeated RhonSprudel Fulda-Maberzell 3-1, and that RhonSprudel squad has Dimitrij Ovtcharov, Ruwen Filus, and Fan Bo Meng. Bremen seems to rise to the occasion. As to whether that consistent approach works in the playoff matched up against teams with more talented squads is a question to be answered over the next few weeks.
The other two teams at the top are Saarbrucken and Dusseldorf – both legitimate super teams. The two teams faced off today with Saarbrucken winning in the final doubles stage, a 3-2 win. Fan Zhendong won the opening match over Borgar Haug 3-0 to give Saarbrucken the lead. USA’s Kanak Jha then defeated Patrick Franziska 3-2 to even the score. Anton Kallberg defeated Cedric Meissner 3-2 to give Dusseldorf a 2-1 lead. Kanak Jha then played a solid match against Fan Zhendong, but it was a losing effort as we fell 3-1. That pushed the match to the deciding doubles phase where Patrick Franziska and Cedric Meissner battled Anton Kallberg and Yongyin Li in four games decided by only 2 points – Saarbrucken won 3 of those games, winning the doubles match 3-1 and winning the team match 3-2.
At the end of the season, the goal is to be in the final four for the playoffs. All three of these teams are in good shape to reach that stage. Ochsenhausen is currently in the fourth position but with only a narrow lead over Schwalbe Bergneustadt. Lots of great play is on the horizon as these teams fight through the final quarter of the season.
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