Radio Romania International Sports Club

The international handball competition season has been resumed. Two Romanian teams will prove their mettle in major European competitions. Dinamo Bucharest play in the men's version of the Champions League, while CSM Bucharest play in the women's version of the same competition.

In the ongoing edition of the Champions League, Dinamo Bucharest have had an auspicious start, since last week, Romanian title holders grabbed a 32-29 home win against Polish opponents Kielce. The fixture counted towards the first round as part of the League's Group B. Dinamo's Brazilian player, Raul Nantes Campos, scored no less than 11 goals and was the most efficient man on court. Dinamo's Octavian Bizău followed suit, with 7 goals on his record sheet. Dinamo's goalie, the Iranian Saeid Heidarirad, was also going strong, with his successful deflection of Kielce's seven shots on goal. The match against Kielce was Dinamo's first confrontation with the new head-coach at the helm, the Spaniard Xavi Pascual, arguably one of Europe's top flight technicians and a three-time winner of the Champions League. In their next scheduled fixture, CS Dinamo this coming Thursday travel to France to play Paris Saint-Germain.

In women's handball, CSM Bucharest just as yet have failed to fall into step with the Champions League. As part of Group A, Adrian Vasile's trainees sustained defeats in both regular fixtures. In the first match, away from home CSM Bucharest conceded a nail-biting 21-22 defeat to Danish opponents Esbjerg. Four minutes before time, CSM had a 21 to 18 lead, but their Danish adversaries came from behind and scored four goals in a row. Also, Esbjerg were so efficient in blocking CSM star, Cristina Neagu, who only scored two goals. In CSM's second fixture, the home match against Rostov Don, the latter team won, 30 to 27, but the defeat could have been worse, since in the second half's first part, Rostov-Don were even 12 goals clear from CSM. Rostov slowed it down for the final part of the game, which enabled CSM to brace up and contain the proportions of their defeat. CSM Bucharest's next scheduled fixture is the away match against Croatia's Podravka Koprivnica, on September 25.

(Translation by Eugen Nasta)