Semifinal time in the German floorball playoffs: after I already took you to the first women quarterfinal match between Bonn and Wernigerode, the four best ladies teams battled for the two contestants for the finals. In Game 2 of the best-of-three series, the Dümptener Füchse from Mülheim in the Ruhrgebiet hosted the ETV Piranhhas Hamburg on 14th April 2023. The first match in Hamburg was a close battle, won by Dümpten by just one goal difference. Another close match had to be expected.
This posting comes with a section of 493 major size pictures in the sports galleries.
Dümptener Füchse – ETV Lady Piranhhas Hamburg
– Match Report
Both teams started rather agile. You felt that Hamburg wanted to be aggressive, especially in defense, doing harm to the game play of the favorite hosts. The first minutes just had very few scoring opportunities on both side of the rink, but Anna-Lena Best cheered up the crowd, when she just went for a central mid-range shot, which did not feel to be too dangerous, but passed Leonie Korth (7th). This felt like a shock to the Hamburg game, who more or less spent the next roughly six minutes all in defense. Dümpten dominated and thus deserved to raise the score in the 17th minute. Again, it was Anna-Lena Best who made the DJ play the party tunes, after she did a fabulous run along the right wing, putting the ball right next to the Hamburg netminder.
Hamburg felt to be more agile in the last minutes of the period again, but Laura Göbel stabbed the Northern Germans through the heart with seven seconds left on the clock. Theresa Beppler-Alt, who was the best Dümpten player on that afternoon to me, gave a nice assist to seal that 3-0 intermission score. Finally, the high lead felt absolutely deserved at that time, Hamburg just had not been in the game so far.
Dümpten felt to be on an easy Ride to the Finals…
You now had to expect that Hamburg is doing something in the second period. It was a Do or die match for the Lady Pirannhas, but you just did not feel their energy, even after the break. The only statistical impact they initially had was a goalie substitution with Mieke Flathmann trying to be more lucky than Leonie Korth – which overall worked out. The guests also tried to increase the physical play. The refs allowed a lot of physical and tactical offenses in the whole match – there hasn’t been a single bench penalty in Mülheim that day. Nonetheless, it just was not enough to really get back and make the locals at the Sporthalle Holstraße doubt that they will see their team in the finals.
You have to say that Hamburg was also very unlucky in some situations. For example, in the 29th minute, Katharina Meyer had a great opportunity to score, but she failed from short distance. Just some half a minute later, Beppler-Alt just tried to snipe from midfield range – and did it. Dümpten felt very comfortable now with that 4-0 lead. A Dümpten midfield shot some ten seconds before the buzzer felt to be in the net and bouncing out again, but the protests were very limited, so that Hamburg went to the second tea time trailing by four goals.
And Then, it was a Match…
Sports is so mental, and you did not really feel that Hamburg wanted to have a night in Mülheim, playing the decider on Sunday so far. But then, there was Annika Drews. Her goal after 71 seconds in the third period felt to make Hamburg starting to believe that they might have a chance in this game. And when Talissa Sarah Sommer, who assisted the first one, added a second goal to the scoreboard in the 45th minute, the Piranhhas were on fire. The game was very hectic with quite a lot of tackling, but Hamburg was back and even urged Kevin Buckermann to call a time-out for Dümpten in the 48th minute. Julia Diesener had just scored the third one for Hamburg from short distance. The guests’ bench was also now cheering and pushing their team.
The pressuring play by Hamburg gave the hosts too many scoring opportunities. Marisol Varona Beitz wasted one of them in the 51st minute, but Best could still make use of the situation and raised the count for her team again. Just fifteen seconds later, Anne Scheunemann even could increase to 6-3. If Hamburg would have converted one of their chances before to tie the match, there would have likely been a Sunday shown-down, but now, with nine minutes left on the game clock, Dümpten felt to be save again.
Dramatic Final Minutes – Refs in Focus
However, the match was a real battle now. Hamburg pulled their goalie in the final minutes again and again, but the burden of trailing by three goals felt heavy. On top of that, they were unlucky, too. With exactly three minutes left on the clock, the ball was in Lena Baccus’ net. Obviously, the refs even had not seen the ball crossing the line, as there had not been a whistle at all. They discussed for several minutes (a spectator said, that was longer than a VAR at Soccer Bundesliga…) and then decided not to award the goal. The situation was tricky, as Hanna Petersen intentionally played the ball lying on the ground, but the reason she fell was that she was trapped by Lena Baccus. If you don’t see an offense as a ref and are sure that the ball crossed the line, you have to award the goal, I feel. The other options would have been a lying play penalty or a penalty shot against the Dümpten goalie in my point of view.
Sommer even managed to close-up the score with 100 seconds left to play, but twenty seconds later, captain Best denied any Hamburg hopes by her fourth goal of the afternoon, sealing an overall deserved 7-4 victory and the tickets to the German women playoff finals.
Dümptener Füchse – ETV Lady Piranhhas Hamburg – My View of the Match
For two periods, it looked to me as if Hamburg just wanted to avoid the Sunday traffic at the end of school holidays and go for the quick route home. They proofed me wrong with a great fight in the last twenty minutes – which was just too late to come back. Anna-Lena Best and Theresa Beppler-Alt (who even had a short collapse after the match) lead their team as experienced players and did not leave any doubt that they want to go for gold. On the other side, the big names like Ina Jensen or the fighting, but unlucky Randi Kleerbaum could not take up that role. The semifinal also showed how much sports is about psychology. One goal boosted Hamburg’s performance to a very different level. And Dümpten lost their concentration at the same time. You should not be that dependent on it, but you see that sometimes you simply are.
Last, but not least, Dümpten had an amazing crowd and a nice atmosphere in the narrow Sporthalle Holzstraße. Having seen two women playoff matches this season, unfortunately, the umpiring is not at the level these ladies deserve. It’s not about individual decisions, it’s about positioning, communication, sharing duties in the rink. If you do that well, you will have less bad decisions as well. Even major floorball countries struggle to have a referee squad which is in line with the match quality. The sports should invest more in their umpires.
Dümptener Füchse – ETV Lady Piranhhas Hamburg – Lineups
Dümptener Füchse: 11 Lena Baccus, 72 Miriam Rustemeier, 1 Daniela Strüngmann – 2 Dimitra Schöpp, 3 Marisol Varona Beitz, 4 Laura Göbel, 5 Riana Mena König, 6 Theresa Beppler-Alt, 7 Anna-Lena Best, 8 Lea Hübel, 9 Winona Jürgens, 10 Jana Baccus, 12 Marie Hu, 15 Lena Göbel, 16 Jana Bornemann, 18 Franziska Kallweit, 20 Shawnee Jürgens, 23 Anne Scheunemann, 26 Nuria Guerbouj, 47 Janika Willingmann
ETV Piranhhas Hamburg: 31 Leonie Korth, 1 Mieke Flathmann (from 20:00) – 2 Finja Nene Bartel, 3 Randi Kleerbaum, 5 Shari von Kroge, 7 Juliane Schwinck, 9 Imke Gittek, 11 Katharina Meyer, 12 Lara Nethe, 13 Lena Rathje, 14 Clara Lipp, 16 Talissa Sarah Sommer, 17 Annika Drews, 18 Julia Diesener, 19 Maria Kapteina, 21 Ina Jensen, 25 Jessica Schulz, 28 Hanna Petersen, 37 Annika Ebeling
Dümptener Füchse – ETV Lady Piranhhas Hamburg
In the sports gallery, there is a designated major size picture gallery with 493 pictures of this match at
Ruhrgebiet
From Duisburg to Hamm – here are all postings related to the Ruhrgebiet in Germany:
2023 Postings with Gallery
Here are all my postings with a major size picture gallery published in 2023: