UHC Hamburg won their second EuroHockey League title here in Amsterdam this afternoon. The match was like a good Dutch cheese, which improved with age after a disappointing opening few minutes.
A sizeable contingent from Hamburg cheered their side to the rafters, when Marco Miltkau lit the fuse seconds before half-time with a well taken goal in open play. They had a short wait after the second half had started until Patrick Breitenstein slammed home a penalty corner to make the score 2-0. Rotterdam were quick to assert that they were not yet beaten Rotterdam's Phil Burrows replied from a corner three minutes later.
Right up until the final seconds the match could have gone either way, but it was Hamburg who were to have the last word. A video umpire appeal resulted in Breitenstein stepping up to take a penalty stroke from which he scored his second.
Hamburg looked a lively outfit than they did yesterday, possibly due to the return of Carlos Nevado, who had missed the match against Barcelona due to injury, but overall it was a second half fitting of this superb competition, with Hamburg eventually taking the EuroHockey League Trophy 3-1.
As an aside, two umpires who described themselves to me as the 'NPUA Front', Andy Mair and Hamish Jamson were in charge of this match and umpired superbly, whilst England Hockey vice president, Sue Bodycomb was the appointed judge.
Earlier the bronze medal match between RC Polo de Barcelona and Amsterdam had gone to a shoot-out decider after the match ended 2-2 after extra time. Polo's Borja Zurita missed his attempt, which just left Robert Tigges and Jan Buissant to beat Oriol Fabregas and take the bronze for Amsterdam.
This morning we had had the first ever final of the women's EuroHockey Clubs Champions Cup, which as a spectacle benefitted from the fact that Hamburg were represented and had their large cohort of supporters with them. Despite some enterprising play, their opponents were just too good for them and 's Hertogenbosch won their astonishing 11th consecutive European club title, winning the match 3-0.
Photographs from the EuroHockey League will appear on our www.hockeyimages.co.uk web site tomorrow (Monday), with a full report in our on-line magazine, HockeyTalk, available from www.talkhockeyradio.co.uk from Thursday.
