The Spanish women’s league begins with a bang with the meeting of Junior FC and Club de Campo de Madrid in Sant Cugat on Sunday morning.
The hosts face the challenge of overcoming some important absences in their team such as Anna Serrahima, Carlota Petchamé, Julia Strapatto and Gigi Oliva.
To do so, they have reinforced themselves with, among others, one of the most talented players in world hockey, the Argentinean lioness Maria José Granatto.
Facing them are the perennial contenders from Madrid who – coached by Pablo Usoz – have added the two Amundson sisters, Coti and Flor, from Real Club de Polo, the reigning champions.
Other arrivals include Ana Bousquet from RS Tenis and goalkeeper Carlota Alvarez from Albor – she helped win a silver medal in the EuroHockey Under-21 Championships this summer.
Polo will begin their title defence against Sardinero having broken the Junior-Campo duopoly in the spring.
On the men’s side, EHL KO16-bound Real Club de Polo have seen a significant turnover of players during the summer with the big arrival being Teo Hinrchs from Mannheimer HC.
He is among a trio of Germans to move to Barcelona along with , Benedikt Schwarzhaupt from UHC Hamburg and Robert Duckscheer from HTC Uhlenhorst Mülheim. Arnau de Bruijn arrives from Junior FC, too.
On the debit side, Marc Reyné has gone to Braxgata, Marc Recasens to Rotterdam and Yannick van der Drift returned to Bloemendaal after a couple of seasons.
Pablo de Abadal, Àlex Reyne, Llorenç Piera and Vicenç Ruiz have all retired and so they will look to the likes of Xavi Lleonart and Luis Calzado for major inspiration this season with Ramon Sala taking the coaching lead. Their first league game is against UD Taburiente.
Campo are the reigning national champions but they have a number of changes in their line-up. Cesar Curiel and Manuel Muesmann join from Sanse Complutense while Belgian player Romain Delavignette arrives from Racing Club de Bruxelles and Daniel Scheillinger joins from Munich SC.
Moving abroad are José Maria Basterra who has gone to Royal Léopold, Borja Lacalle to Oranje-Rood and Pelle Vos who returns to the Netherlands.
Their first league game this weekend is a derby against city rivals Sanse Complutense.
