Women’s EuroHockey Indoor Club Cup (Swarzędz, Poland)
Final: Waterloo Ducks 2 HC ’s-Hertogenbosch 2, Waterloo win shoot-out 2-1
Waterloo Ducks are women’s European champions for the first time in their club’s history as they won a final shoot-out over HC ’s-Hertogenbosch, also becoming the first Belgian women’s team to win the EuroHockey Indoor Club Cup.
It followed a titanic battle which ended – for the second successive year – 2-2 in normal time – leading to a shoot-out where Viviane De Jonghe made two vital saves in a 2-1 success.
“It’s an amazing feeling” said the WatDucks Lia Hubin. “We came here and wanted to have fun and we did but, European champions… what can I say? We worked hard, having fun and it is just amazing.
“We were ready mentally and physically and we were prepared! And we just have the best goalkeeper who did great!”
The Belgian side took the lead just 58 seconds into the decider, France de Mot slipping the ball under her arm to Daphné Gose who finished off her 14th goal of the tournament.
Den Bosch stormed back and won six penalty corners in the first quarter, almost inevitably getting level through Josephine Bekkers from the sixth of them.
From there, it was the Dutch side who made most of the play with the WatDucks lying deep and existing on the counter-attack. Teuntje de Wit went centimetres from giving her side the lead while Laurette Abelen had to be alert to keep the Ducks at bay.
As such, it was all square going into the latter stages of Q3 until Gose’s second attempt from a flowing move hit a body on the line. De Mot stepped up to flick high into the net and a 2-1 lead, albeit one which lasted only 20 seconds as Den Bosch won another corner which Bekkers once again flicked home.
In Q4, the defining moment was when De Mot got another chance from the penalty stroke line with three minutes left; this time, Laurette Abelen brilliantly saved and Den Bosch could not snatch a winner in the closing stages.
It led to the shoot-out in which De Mot – from another stroke – and Babs Reijnen scored in round one and then Gose calmly finished hers. That gave Waterloo a 2-1 lead and that was how it stayed as the goalkeepers took over, De Jonghe crucially saving twice to start the Ducks celebrations.
Bronze match: East Grinstead 6 Mannheimer 2
Biba Mills’ five goals saw East Grinstead end England’s 27-year wait for a European indoor Club Cup medal as they defeated Mannheimer HC 6-2 in the bronze match.
For coach Theo Dowse, he said he was “ecstatic” as his side produced a superb performance from start to finish.
“We came here, we wanted to make history, and we’re so proud to have done it,” he said. “We had a clear plan, studied our opponent with great respect, a wonderful club, coaching team and players. And we managed to execute it.
“We spoke about wanting to be ‘giants’ for the next generation to stand on our shoulders and we are so happy to be the giants today.”
They led from the eighth minute when Biba Mills scored from a corner, the only goal of the first half. The second saw them race away with Carlota Gomez making it two before another Mills corner and then a sublime team move from front to back saw the 17-year-old striker score once more.
Mills added a stroke for 5-0 before Clara Roth snuck in one from the baseline to get Mannheim on the scoreboard. Mills, however, forced her 13th goal of the tournament over the line to ensure there were no late jitters.
Pool C round-up
MSC Sumchanka took fifth spot overall with a 3-2 win over SK Slavia Prague; Karyna Leonova and Nikol Babická shared early goals before the game was won in the 30th minute with Leonova and Kateryna Popova scoring twice within 30 seconds of each other.
Club de Campo ended in seventh place as they won 7-1 over UKS Swarek Swarzędz, a result which saw the Polish hosts finish eighth in what was their country’s first representation at this level.
Player of the tournament: France De Mot (Waterloo Ducks)
Goalkeeper of the tournament: Matilda Woodhead (East Grinstead)
Top goalscorer: Daphné Gose (Waterloo Ducks) – 14 goals
Final rankings
- Waterloo Ducks (BEL)
- HC ’s-Hertogenbosch (NED)
- East Grinstead (ENG)
- Mannheimer HC (GER)
- MSC Sumchanka (UKR)
- Slavia Prague (CZE)
- Club de Campo de Madrid (ESP)
- UKS Swarek Swarzędz (POL)
