GOG confident while facing the task of rebuilding

While many teams would have been left in disarray, GOG found another opportunity to keep evolving. “Last summer, everyone was talking about Gidsel leaving and we ended up being a little bit afraid of what would happen. Four weeks into preparation, what was a cause for stress ended up not being a problem anymore, as Emil Madsen was definitely ready to play on another level,” smiled team captain Anders Zachariassen.

The Danish line player, who played for Flensburg-Handewitt for six seasons, moved to GOG in 2020 and has been a perfect witness to the club’s ability to bring forward new players every year. “I don’t know if there is a secret, but every player in Scandinavia knew that coming to GOG meant having your chance playing at the highest level if you were good enough,” explained Zachariassen. “Simon Pytlick and Mathias Gidsel had a chance here that maybe they would not have had so early in other clubs.”

So here are GOG again. Over the summer, they lost their prolific scorers Simon Pytlick and Lukas Jørgensen, as the left back and the line player moved to Flensburg-Handewitt, along with coach Nikolej Krickau. The playing pair contributed a combined 177 goals in the EHF Champions League last season, but their former captain is confident that his team will be able to make up for their departure: “Sure, we lost a lot of goals scored, as Jerry Tollbring also left, but the players who joined us have got a lot of experience, like Alexander Blonz or Aaron Mensing. We will maybe play a little bit differently - we have a lot of work ahead of us, but I’m confident we will be able to achieve our goals.”

And those goals are pretty high, after a 2022/23 season that Anders Zachariassen describes as “very top”. Not only did GOG win the Danish League and the Danish Cup, beating Aalborg in each final, but the club from Gudme also reached the EHF Champions League quarter-finals before being eliminated by Barça. Quite a performance, as GOG had only played the competition once since 2008.

“We began hoping to fight for sixth place with teams like Zagreb and Porto, but it quickly appeared to us we were able to do better than that. The confidence kept growing when we saw we were able to win away against those teams or against Magdeburg at home,” said the 31 years-old.

If GOG maybe took everyone by surprise last season, as no one expected the Danish side to do so well so quickly, that will not be the case anymore. “Maybe we won’t be able to punish every turnover with a fastbreak this time again, as everyone expects that now” laughs the captain, still pushing away the idea that his team would have more pressure this time around.

“There is always some, because we want to deliver. But we have the same goals as last season, which means going out of the group phase onto the play-offs. There are some very tough games ahead, we will play against some of the best teams in the world. I’m sure we can do a good job this season again.”