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The Berlin-based team are weaker, while Duvnjak wants his first title with Kiel

Kiel have lost the Supercup game last year in Bremen. They were defeat to Flensburg then. Today in Stuttgart, they want to make up for that, and to end the two-game losing run (defeated to BSV and PSG in pre-season games)

The German champions Kiel and Cup winner Fuchse are meeting in Stuttgart today to officially open the new season. It starts quite early this year since the German league now has 19 instead of 18 clubs. First matches are taking place this Saturday, but let's focus on the season opener, which is according to the tradition the Supercup game. Last year, Kiel lost that game to Flensburg in Bremen. This will be 10th consecutive Supercup game for Kiel. They won five of them.

Quite a lot has changed on the team since last summer. New signings Duvnjak, Weinhols, and Canellas will give them extra quality, which will not be diminished by the fact Sigurdsson, Zeitz, and Jallouz left. Coach Gislason has been given top quality players to work with, and Kiel will once against be one of the toughest opponents across the continent. The offense was their biggest problem last year. Jallouz proved they can't count on him, Lauge was injured throughout the season, Palmarsson struggled a lot, which left Jicha and Vujin with all the responsability in offense. 

Duvnjak and Canellas will change that, and Weinhold will help with the right back position. That was a problem last year since Vujin doesn't play defense and is not good at it, even though Gislason insisted he tries. That is no longer an issue since Kiel don't have to wait for changes in offense-defense transition anymore. That means they can keep the top pace up, especially because Duvnjak does brilliantly both in offense and defense. 

The pre-season games proved that he won't be important for Kiel's offense like he was for Hamburg's and that is no surprise since Kiel have so many other top offense players. 

The last test they had ahead of this game was a meeting with PSG home. Almost 10,500 fans came to support them in that game. They lost in the end 31-28. Gislason couldn't count on Palmarsson and Lauge, who were injured. The Dane will be out for a while, but Palmarsson is expected to be ready for the championship opener next weekend. Wiencek is back following a head injury.

They lost another pre-season game last week. It was a meeting with BSV in Denmark (34-32), but they couldn't count on those three injured players and Jicha hasn't spent any time in the game.

Kiel will definitely do better today since this is an official game. 

While Kiel singed on quite a few new players this summer, only one new signing joined Fuchse. It's Nenadic who joined from Wisla, and that probably wouldn't have happened if Jaszka didn't get injured. On top of that, Denis Spoljaric got injured as well, which means that coach Sigurdsson has to start the season without his key offense and key defense man. Both will be extremely difficult to replace and Fuchse are in for great challenges this season, especially because club's policy is to put more emphasis on right back Wiede and left back Drux, the two players who were on the team that won the U20 European championship this summer.

Christophersen left for Hannover, which means Horak and Drux will be in charge of the left back position. Nenadic and Romero are middle backs. The latter already announced that he's retiring, but then decided to stay and help Fuchse until Jaszka gets back.

Lineman Nielsen will be replacing Spoljaric in defense.

While Spoljaric was still on the team, they beat Kielce (36:34) and Kolding (28:25), lost to Wetzlar (27:24), played a draw with Zagreb (29:29), and lost to Veszprem (34:29) in the preparation period. Their defense will have it tough this season, but that might make their games more efficient, especially if they put more emphasis on the young players.

Their chances when it comes to meetings with Kiel are slim. In the last 10 head-to-head games, Fuchse recorded 9 defeats and a draw (26-26). And all of that happened when their team was better, and Kiel were not as good last season as they are now.

- We are taking this very seriously, it's the first trophy we're fighting for - sporting director Zerbe said. They want to do good because they lost to Kiel by 14 goal in the last round game last season, which had a direct effect on the outcome of the championship battle.

- We're not in a good place right not - when it comes to attempts to win titles, but we'll do everything to win this one regardless - goal keeper Heinvetter said.

By signing Weinhold, Duvnjak, and Canellas, Kiel are once again capable of an uninterrupted offense-defense transition. That was a bit more difficult with Vujin on the team last year, and Kiel were not fast enough last year since there weren't many options for the back positions in the line up. This season, they got players that can be used more, and everyone agrees that they are a much better team than they were last year. They should be able to win today since Fuchse can't count on Spoljaric and Jaszke and the team are a bit younger than last year. They are using their two young players Drux and Wiede a lot, and the team efficiency in the pre-season games was good. They score 29 against Veszprem, 29 against Zagreb, 36 against Kielce, and since they're playing such a powerful team today, this game could end with a total of more 60 goals. 6 out of their last 8 head-to-head matches were overs. Fuchse's defense is not as good as last season, and on top of that, the youth on the team suggest there will be mistakes that Kiel won't have problems taking advantage of.