Catalan and Spanish Super Cup champions Barça Lassa bgen their Asobal League season this Friday with a victory over Helvetia Anaitasuna. The win comes just before the squad head off to Qatar to play in the Super Globe tournament and just two days after Xavi Pascual’s side were pushed hard by Granollers in Zaragoza. The demands of the fixture list meant the Barça coach gave a debut to new signing Filip Jícha and to Daniel Dujshebaev, one of the stars of the youth teams.
Two other new signings, Kopljar and Syprzak were in the starting line and scored the opening two goals of the contest. Barça began strongly and after 12 minutes the blaugranes were 9-3 ahead and half way into the first half the difference between the side increased to eight goals.
New boy Jícha appeared with 20 minutes gone as part of Xavi Pascual’s rotations and he did not take long to show his quality. In goal Daniel Saric did the same. At half time Barça lead by 19-9 with the result seemingly not in doubt. In the second half Lazarov continued the onslaught as the Palau Blaugrana enjoyed a home side who dominated in every facet of the game.
Opponents Helvetia Anaitasuna tried the tactic of sacrificing their goalkeeper but it had little effect. With the victory assured, coach Pascual had the luxury of resting some of his players given the challenges to come in the near future (Rutenka and Victor Tomás were not even in the squad). Djushebaev made his debut in the second half and did not look out of place as he made his contribution to a comprehensive 38-23 win.
