For the third time in its short history, the Euro Hockey League was held at HC Rotterdam. This year the club hosted the KO 16 and KO 8 events. The top 16 teams from across Europe played in a knock out tournament to find 4 teams to progress through to the semi-finals and final in May.
England was represented by Beeston, Reading and East Grinstead - however they all lost in the first round of matches to KHC Leuven (Belgium), RC Polo Barcelona (Spain), and Amsterdam H&BC (Netherlands) respectively.
The other teams who progressed to the KO 8 stage were Rot-Weiss Köln (Germany), Atlètic Terrassa (Spain), HC Rotterdam (the "home" team) and the two we thought were the best teams on show - HC Bloemendaal and UHC Hamburg.
Many well known world class players were playing including three times World Hockey Player of the year, Jamie Dwyer and the amazing Teun de Nooijer - both from Bloemendaal, Carlos Nevada, Philip Witte and Moritz Fürste from Hamburg, the Zeller brothers from Köln and penalty corner specialist, Taeke Taekema (Amsterdam) - to name but a few!
RC Polo & Reading
0-0 at the end of the first quarter - one of the innovations in this league. Other rule changes included that an "own goal" could be scored if a shot by an attacker from outside the D goes into the goal off a defender who is in the D. We did see a couple of goalie own goals.
Penalty stroke to RC Polo
sends the goalie the wrong way
RC Polo penalty corner
... and it's a goal
Now it's Reading's "turn"
... and it's a goal
Before we saw the mighty Bloemendaal, there was a hail storm which delayed proceedings for 15 minutes
A full hockey stadium with thousands of supporters - very impressive
Der Club an der Alster (Germany) were no match for the explosive speed and skills of the Dutch team
... and Bloemendaal won 6-2
The luck of the draw had put what we regarded as the two best teams on show against each other in the KO 8 stage - Hamburg against Bloemendaal - and only one of them would progress to the semi-finals
This game lived up to expectations with chances and goals at both ends
just wide this time
de Nooijer on the ball again
Dwyer just missed with this one
Carlos Nevada - an amazing player - alongside super Aussie Dwyer
de Nooijer - the best player I have ever watched. His pace and skill are exceptional
over the bar
3-3 at the end of extra time and it went to a penalty shoot out. Starting at the 23m line, the attacker has 8 seconds to score a goal. Hamburg won the best of three shoot outs by 2-0
The four semi finalists are Amsterdam, RC Polo, Rotterdam & Hamburg. Matches to be played on 22 & 23 May at a venue to be decided.
Great action shots. Have you got a new camera?
ReplyDelete