Cav's Place

After what may be seen as yesterday’s normal results, CSM losing to Metz and Gyor defeating Brest, today came with quite a shock in the EHF Women’s Champions’ League, in the form of Metz defeating Gyor to win the title. But what I was interested in was the third place match, where CSM defeated Brest, which may be seen as something of a surprise as well, albeit an incomparably lesser one, especially since CSM had trashed Brest back in the group phase, albeit only at home. And it did seem like CSM desired this victory more, Brest perhaps not being quite that interested in third place. But a victory in the Final Four, and a podium place, isn’t something to scoff at, so while others seem to keep berating them no matter what, I for one am quite pleased with what CSM achieved in the Champions’ League this season.
On the other hand, their youth team did even better, being the only non-Hungarian team to reach the Final Four of the Youth Club Trophy and going through two matches that required extra time and ended with the same score, 41-39… But unfortunately reversed in case of the final, since they defeated Gyor after being no less than eight goals behind at half time, then ending up leading, being equalized in the final seconds, but pushing through it and coming up ahead after extra time, but then they lost to Debrecen after managing to come back from three goals behind with a minute and 13 seconds to go, pushing the match into extra time, but then falling behind again right away and not managing another recovery. But, however disappointing and frustrating this outcome may be, what they managed until then is nothing short of amazing. And it seems to indicate that CSM Bucharest has a bright future ahead… Though the senior team has very few Romanian players in general, not to mention players actually raised at the club, so whether the youth team’s players will be promoted and actually play regularly in the senior team over the next few years remains to be seen.