21. February 2025
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Unihockey Igels Dresden – UHC Sparkasse Weißenfels 3-10 (0-6, 1-2, 2-2)

Florian Buechtingby Florian Buechting

As Floorball Deutschland typically releases the match schedules for the German Bundesliga rather late (even significantly later than the clubs do), I typically struggle with organizing floorball trips in Germany early in the season. The weekends are simply blocked already. The more, I was happy that I could make use of a decline of an accreditation for another sports event and was able to visit my first ever match in Dresden on 31st August 2024. At their home opened, the Unihockey Igels Dresden hosted UHC Sparkasse Weißenfels. Here is my match report.

This posting comes with a section of 383 major size pictures in the sports galleries. 

 

Unihockey Igels Dresden – UHC Weißenfels – Match Report

In front of (officially) 68 spectators, both teams initially went for a slow start of the new season. The first five minute did not have too many highlights. However, Weißenfels was a bit like the wolf in sheep’s clothing. In the seventh minute, Daniel Peterson initiated a fast break for the guests and Max Gäbler successful finished this beautiful attack, scoring Weißenfels’ first goal of the season. In the 2023-24 season, Dresden was an amazing team in defense and goaltending – but the following part of the first period did not reflect it at all. Within 93 seconds, Weißenfels added three more goals to the score sheet. Thereby, all three scorers, Florian Böttcher, Ferdinand Ondruschka and Jekabs Keiss, profited from defensive mistakes you just would not expect from a German Bundesliga team.

On the other side, Dresden also did not act consequently. Just some 25 seconds after Keiss’ goal, Niklas Kunath ran a fast break, beaiting the guest’s defense – but finally getting stopped by Weißenfels’ good netminder Erik Schnecke. Even though Dresden felt a bit better after some ten minutes, you did not really feel the right energy to turn the match in the remaining match time. This was maybe also a factor that they did not create too many good scoring opportunity. On top of that, they were lucky. With two minutes left on the clock, an Igels defender stumbled and thereby moved towards the goal. The solid referees awarded a penalty shot, which was converted. However, Ondruschka moved the ball a lot to the left and right, so that the attempt looked a bit odd. One single goal did not feel right for the guests, so that Gäbler added another just half a minute thereafter. 0-6 after 20 minutes, this season opener must have felt rather like a horror movie than a simple nightmare.

 

Dresden already Crucified before the Second Period

While the Igels felt to have produced an excellent live stream (unfortunately at Twitch, so that you cannot review it), the service in the arena was poor. No line-ups, no starting six, no goal or penalty announcements and no music in the interruptions. There was just music in the intermissions – and right when the hosts came back from the locker room, the DJ chose to play Crucified by Army of Lovers. A suitable choice after the first period, but maybe not too uplifting. Additionally, they had issues with the match clock several times – Dresden felt not well prepared, on and off the court.

Weißenfels had much better tactics and paths, especially in the attack, on that day. And they spotted the gaps in Dresden’s defense well. For example, Sami Mikkonen did so after a Sascha Herlt pass in the 25th minute. It simply looked way too easy how they got this seventh goal. However, when Jonas Pohl was sent to the sin-bin, Dresden’s captain Maarten Mittmann sniped a shot right next to the post and scored for his team. Weißenfels did not need to do that much to keep the Igel’s hopes down. And finally, there were just too many lacks of concentration in the host’s match. The referees had their arm up for quite a long time before Theo Genesener faced a bench penalty. Hitting the ball of the face-off spot, it took Kristers Babris and his team just four second to convert the power-play, scoring without any defensive block from the mid-range.

 

An Easy Weißenfels Cruise to a Double-Digit One

Both teams had double-headers on that weekend, so that especially Weißenfels could save some energy for their Sunday match against DJK Holzbüttgen. This also gave Dresden more chances in the third period. However, Schnecke did what a goalie has to do – and thus, there was not too much hope for optimism at the Elbe River. On the other side, Roberts Blumbergs felt to tick off the experience of his worst performance of the season already in the first match – F. Böttcher’s goal in the 49th minute was definitely not a dangerous snipe. Sascha Herlt added the tenth goal for the guests four minutes later, so that the match was in the double digits.

Dresden had their best time of the match in the third period – and at least, they finished this bad experience with some positive memories. After a bench penalty against Jan Berbig, Gabriel Bonifacio scored in the power play in the 56th minute. Captain Mittmann added the third goal for Dresden a minute thereafter, so that the final score of 3-10 did not look as bad as the first period suggested.

 

 

Unihockey Igels Dresden – UHC Weißenfels – My View of the Match

Finally, it felt like Weißenfels was ready for the season – while the Unihockey Igels somehow were in pre-season mode. This regards the game as well as some organizational lacks. A Bundesliga match simply needs a speaker. I personally don’t like that teams put so much effort in their online appearance for the sake of neglecting the in-arena experience. Regarding the first period, you have to put Dresden to the list of top candidates for relegation. However, the remaining match also gave hope for a better faith. Once the Igels are really into the season, they will definitely play a more competitive role and much better matches.

Weißenfels did what a big team has to do: identifying mistakes of the opponent and being crucial in turning them into their advantage. From that perspective, the match felt really promising for the guests, who will, however, during the season run into much harder challenges. This likely includes the re-match of these teams in Weißenfels in early November 2024.

 

Unihockey Igels Dresden – UHC Weißenfels – Lineups

Unihockey Igels Dresden: 1 Roberts Blumbergs, 75 Lars Richter – 3 Martin Gladigau, 4 Niklas Kunath, 5 Viet Nam Anh Ho, 13 Cornelius King, 15 Gabriel Bonifacio, 19 Leopold Neugebauer, 22 Patrik Rozkovec, 24 Florian Schreiber, 29 Daniel Hulic, 32 Tim Trebal, 35 Maarten Mittmann, 38 Vincent Bonifacio, 49 Til Robert Franke, 51 Michael Schulze, 68 Theo Genesener, 74 Max Kottke, 76 Daniel Hot, 91 Philip Schramm

UHC Sparkasse Weißenfels: 31 Erik Schnecke, 99 Pascal Reichert – 2 Ferdinand Ondruschka, 4 Florian Böttcher, 8 Jonas Pohl, 10 Jan Berbig, 11 Max Gäbler, 15 Tim Böttcher, 16 Henry Stenfors, 18 Sami Mikkonen, 19 Sascha Herlt, 24 Tizian Jäger, 27 Niklas Janne Blanke, 28 Stephan Kostrhun, 62 Kristers Babris, 55 Jonas Henschler, 58 Jekabs Keiss, 65 Phillip Weigelt, 78 Daniel Peterson

 

Unihockey Igels Dresden – UHC Weißenfels – Gallery

In the sports gallery, there is a designated major size picture gallery with 383 pictures of this match at

 

World Floorball Championships (Floorball WFC)

Here are all my postings related to the World Floorball Championships (all categories):

 

Dresden on Flyctory.com

Here are all my posts related to the German city Dresden:

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