EUCF Open - Teams to Watch

Previewing the contenders for the Open Division

Also check out my previews for mixed and womens divisions

Knockout ultimate is great. Last season Clapham, Mooncatchers and La Fotta came into EUCF as the 3rd, 4th and 5th best teams in the world and all were knocked out by 22nd placed Ranelagh.

This season we have a red-hot Mooncatchers team that have won everything they have entered. They are everyone’s overwhelming favourites for good reason - but knockout ultimate can always spring a surprise.

The Favourites

Mooncatchers are out on their own as the team to beat this year. Winners of Elite Invite, Windmill and boasting a large contingent of the Belgium team that won EUC, as well as an all-star collection of talent from further afield. All indications are that this is Mooncatchers’ tournament to lose. However, they’ve been heavily tipped the past two EUCFs and have yet to progress past the quarter-finals - will we see them get upset again?

Inner Circle Contenders

The teams most likely to challenge Mooncatchers for gold

Clapham

It hasn’t been a vintage 12 months for Clapham. Losing the EUCF final to Ranelagh, shipping their heaviest defeat ever in the Elite Invite final, losing to France at Windmill and finally their 20+ year streak as UK champions came to an end. Despite all this they still have the majority of the squad that finished 3rd at WUCC just last summer. They can still produce the big performances as they showed beating Mooncatchers during the Swiss draw phase of Windmill. I wouldn’t count them out.

BFD La Fotta

You never know what you will get from La Fotta. Every moment of a big game they are involved with is tense - they are consistently on the edge of doing something amazing or something terrible. There is absolutely no doubt that they can beat anyone in Europe on their day. David Barzasi was the breakout star of the summer for me, brilliant for both Italy U-24 and integral to Italy Mixed surprising everyone by reaching the EUC final - when he’s on fire it seems there’s no slowing him down. But he’s only one of many fantastic players on this team - we’ve seen top class performances this year from the likes of Rossi, Gasperini, Pavan, Tognetti, Laffi, Zanni, Coffi…too many to name really.

Dark Horses

These are teams without the form or history to signify they’ll definitely be up there with the three above, however at least one of these has to make to make the semi-final at least. And if you’re in the semi final you’re only one good performance away from the final. And if you’re in the final..

Ranelagh

The reigning champions have had a lot of roster turnover from the team that won last season, and haven’t had the greatest regular season results either. But as we saw last year, this team can flick the switch when the games matter most. Getting the disc off their offence line is always going to be a nightmare - the question will be can they find the right defensive lines to generate winning opportunities in the big games.

Chevron

It would be rude to not include the team that ended Clapham’s UK champions last month. We haven’t seen much of Chevron on the European stage in recent seasons but they are bearing the fruits of developing young talent to put together a deep squad. However, they start with a tough road after drawing Gentle in their group. Beat Gentle and they could be setup for a deep run.

Gentle

Belgium’s second team should not be forgotten about. The top talent on this side - led by the Decreane brothers, Benjamin Vereecken and PJ de Meulenaere - is capable of matching up with anyone else over the course of a single game, as they showed losing on universe to Mooncatchers at Belgium nationals earlier this month. Whether they have the depth to go far in this division remains to be seen. Winning their pool and avoiding the crossover will be key. I’m hoping to see them lean into creating variance in their games - if their big throws on offence and big bids on defence work then their momentum is so difficult to stop,

3SB

Forgive me if you’ve heard this one before, but there’s a lot of talent in Czech ultimate and if they can put it together they are a tough matchup for anyone. This has been the word on FUJ/3SB/Czech open for a while. They haven’t put it together - I’m hoping to see some more variation in their approach because they always seem to struggle when it comes time to make adjustments to their Plan A. However, notable absences from their roster is David Novak - one of the fastest and most explosive cutters in Europe - and Michal Marek who is playing for Mooncatchers after being the key player for Czech Open at EUC.

Wall City

You can read the 3SB notes above and apply a lot of them here. Another team with obvious top talent that has struggled to maintain their best level of performance in tight games at EUCF. With Conrad Schlor they have maybe the best defender at the tournament, so if their offence can hold enough to keep them in games you always feel they can generate a break or two when needed.

KFK

A club that’s been solidly hanging around the quarter finals of EUCF for a while, this year they have the intriguing addition of 7 US players from Carleton who are studying abroad in Copenhagen. A full line of US pickups that have chemistry already? I’m very interested to see how that works and if that can lift KFK up to challenging the medal positions. KFK’s weakness has long been it’s depth - once their key players are tired there has been no way back for them - so they’ll benefit more from this than most teams would.

Alba

Alba a really streaky team, but when they get their tails up and go on a break run they can overwhelm with energy. Like a lot of the dark horses, the question is can they hold enough on offence against better teams when they come under real pressure. So far this hasn’t happened for them but it only has to click once or twice to find them deep in the bracket. They’ve also added some players from newly crowned Irish champions XVI which will add some welcome depth to the squad - including Jack McNamara, one of the key pieces for Ranelagh last year. Along with coach Leo Micklem that’s an infusion of know-how in those late stage knockout games that could help the squad put it’s undoubted talent together.

Snubs

Let me know who I have overlooked - give me your top tips for the division in the comments below or on my discord!.