With the English interest eliminated,
today’s action allowed the remaining Brits in Eindhoven to relax and enjoy the
hockey. However, although we have yet to
do the maths, there are still ranking points to consider and the possibility
that England could be relegated to two entries in next season’s Euro Hockey
League.
England’s interests would be best served by
the Spanish not progressing any further, and the first match of the day
involved Club de Campo playing Harvestehuder. The Germans look one of the potential
Champions playing this week, and did a reasonably comprehensive job on Club de
Campo. But it was the comic way in which
the match ended that makes the match memorable.
We are grateful to Ross Bone of ‘Top of the D’ fame for being close to the incident and being able to pass on his observations. Harvestehuder were leading 1-3 when they were awarded an overtime penalty corner. Tobias Hauke was seen saying something to Xavi Trenchs in the Club de Campo goal, which we believe was to tell him that the shot would be a soft one. However, clearly nobody told Michael Korper, who slammed the ball home against a surprised and somewhat casual defence. Trenches expressed his anger very visibly against Hauke, who thankfully managed to calm things down. Final score: 1-4 to Harvestehuder.
We are grateful to Ross Bone of ‘Top of the D’ fame for being close to the incident and being able to pass on his observations. Harvestehuder were leading 1-3 when they were awarded an overtime penalty corner. Tobias Hauke was seen saying something to Xavi Trenchs in the Club de Campo goal, which we believe was to tell him that the shot would be a soft one. However, clearly nobody told Michael Korper, who slammed the ball home against a surprised and somewhat casual defence. Trenches expressed his anger very visibly against Hauke, who thankfully managed to calm things down. Final score: 1-4 to Harvestehuder.
The second match of the day was the
all-Belgian meeting between Waterloo Ducks and Racing Club de Bruxelles. The Belgians have had a really outstanding
tournament here, with all three of their clubs reaching the last eight. The Brussels club dominated the match, with
the Duck’s goals both coming from penalty strokes. Final score: 2-4 to Racing Club.
Harvestehuder and Racing Club Bruxelles
meet each other in the first Semi-final on Sunday. Tomorrow is a rest day.
The day’s third match turned into a
cracker, despite the two sides being divided by the match’s only goal. Captain
Felix Denayer’s goal just before half-time in the game against Rotterdam, means
that KHC Dragons are the second Belgian side to reach this season’s Semi-finals.
Dragons will meet the hosts, Oranje Zwart,
who beat the second Spanish club, Real Club de Polo de Barcelona, on a shoot
out after the match ended goalless at the end of normal time.
Meanwhile, in ‘s-Hertogenbosch, Reading’s
women were taking part in the Club Champions Cup. There they met Germany’s
Uhlenhorster. Reading were able to take a 58th minute lead, thanks
to a goal from Susie Gilbert, but the Germans managed to take the match to
shoot-out after Vivian Tahal converted a penalty corner in the final
seconds. Reading went on to lose the
shoot-out 3-2.
Under the new format, the winner of that
match goes straight to a Semi-final, which is due to be played on Sunday. Uhlenhorster will play Amsterdam, who beat
Atasport 9-0 earlier in the day.
The other Semi-final will be between Real
Sociedad of Spain and the hosts, Den Bosch. Real Sociedad beat Berliner 0-1,
whilst Den Bosch beat Railway Union 0-7.
On Saturday Atasport play Reading, and
Berliner play Railway Union. This is for
ranking points only.
