14. July 2025
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Swiss Cup Finals 2025 (Men): Zug United – HC Rychenberg Winterthur 2-7 (0-1, 0-3, 2-3)

Florian Buechtingby Florian Buechting

It was already dark outside when Sporthalle Wankdorf in Bern hosted the last match of the Swiss Cupfinal day. On the men’s side, Zug United and HC Rychenberg Winterthur competed for the Mobiliar Unihockey Cup. With their outstanding star lineup and coming to Bern as the L-UPL leader, Zug was the favorite team. However, Rychenberg as the currently third-placed team in the Swiss top league, definitely was a worthy opponent. Apart from that, they came with German national team players Michel Wöcke and Niklas Rutz, which lead to a German appearance in both of the “major” finals. I was really looking forward to this floorball match on 22nd February 2025.

This posting comes with a section of 412 major size pictures in the sports galleries. 

 

Zug United – HC Rychenberg Winterthur – Match Report

The packed 2,306 spectator arena gave a great atmosphere for the men’s final. Especially the yellow Rychenberg fan block pushed their team – and had the first reason to party. After a very controlled and disciplined beginning from both teams, Manuel Matt scored in the 9th minute. Tim Aeschimann got the ball from behind his own goal line and stormed through the Zug defense on the left wing, giving his teammate a precise pass towards the long post. Rychenberg had a good touch of the match. A key stats of the first period was that out of 12 shot attempts by Zug, only two made it to the direction of the goal. The HCR defense acted smart and their offensive line felt being more efficient and dangerous on that Saturday.

 

Rychenberg with a four Goal Lead after 40 Minutes

You could expect that the star player ensemble from Zug would push to turn the score in the second period. Indeed, they did, but Rychenberg acted very smart and also were good in controlling the ball. There was not too much thrilling happening in the first ten minutes, but in the 31st minute, Rychenberg took a big step towards the victory. Nico Mutter raised the lead, profiting from a turnover and pass into the slot by Johan Larsson. Just 22nd later, the Rychenberg fans got wild. Zug’s goalie Nils Schälin could only block a shot by Claudio Mutter and Nils Conrad converted the second attempt. To make things even worse for the favorite, C. Mutter scored by himself in the 38th minute. Zug’s defense completely lost track of Noah Püntener, who could run towards the goal from the left wing, passing to his unmarked teammate.

 

Zug started scoring too late

You could expect that Zug United, traveling to Bern with players like Albin Sjögren, Miko Kailala and Robin Nisberth, could easily relief themselves from this four-goal burden after 40 minutes. However, HC Rychenberg was bloody effective and all-time ready to score on this Saturday night match. No goal illustrates that better than Manuel Maurer’s goal to increase the lead to five goals. In the very first attack of the third period, just after ten seconds, he thrusted the ball underneath Schälin from very short distance, without any defensive resistance – you just cannot do so with the top scorer of your competitor.

However, Zug now closed up the score and made the Rychenberg fans slightly nervous. Sjögren sniped from the left wing in the 43rd minute for Zug’s first goal. When Tobias Gustafsson converted the power play with Nicola Bischofberger on the sin bin five minutes later, hope came back to the blue and white team and their fans. With two massive saves from Schälin, the match felt to turn. However, Zug just could not convert against the agile Rychenberg defense. They decreased the pressure on their goal steadily and also profited from Zug having to play with six field players. Püntener (58th) and Bischofberger (60th) went for empty netters, sealing a final and surprising 7-2 victory for their team.

 

Zug United – HC Rychenberg Winterthur – Lineups

Zug United: 62 Nils Schälin, 21 Jari Portmann – 6 Linus Hedlund, 7 Tobias Gustafsson, 9 Tobias Flütsch, 11 Linus Arnold, 12 Tim Mock, 14 Raphael Neidhart, 17 Adrian Uhr, 19 Severin Nigg, 22 Albin Sjögren, 31 Maurus Christen, 37 Robin Eggimann, 38 Jonas Nigg, 40 Joel Stocker, 48 Jonas Stettler, 68 Andrin Christen, 72 Dario Bürgler, 77 Sami Johansson, 87 Miko Kailala, 97 Robin Nisberth

HC Rychenberg Winterthur: 54 Nicolas Schüpbach, 35 Eric Kunz – 2 Nicola Bischofberger, 3 Almiro Stüdeli, 4 Nils Conrad, 5 Johan Larsson, 7 Levin Conrad, 8 Flavio Graf, 9 Kimo Oesch, 10 Markus Lindgjerdet, 11 Manuel Maurer, 13 Claudio Mutter, 15 Manuel Matt, 19 Noah Püntener, 21 Niklas Rutz, 22 Michel Wöcke, 23 Tobias Studer,  56 Damian Hocevar, 61 Nico Mutter, 71 Marco Eyer, 77 Nicola Hocevar, 81 Tim Aeschimann

 

Zug United – HC Rychenberg Winterthur – Gallery

In the sports gallery, there is a designated major size picture gallery with 412 pictures of this match at

 

Zug United – HC Rychenberg Winterthur – My View of the Match

The final match of the day had quite some similarities with the Women’s Mobiliar Unihockey Cup Final 2025. The nominal underdog chose the right tactic to go for the upset. Zug struggled quite a lot with the story of the match, also discussing with the referees quite a lot towards the end of this catching battle. The big names on the Zug side, disappointed. Nisberth, Kailala, Gustaffsson, Sjögren – they call came out of this match with a plus/minus stat of -3 or worse. That’s just not what you expect from them in a match like this one.

And: there was another similarity with the ladies. This year, you needed to have German players in your squad to raise the cup with golden confetti falling from the Sporthalle Wankdorf. Something which you won’t have too often in the future again. So I am happy to celebrate this fun fact with a smile.

 

Postings with Gallery 2025

Here are postings coming with a major size photo gallery published in 2025:

 

Flyctory & Floorball Deutschland

Here are all postings about the German Floorball Association and their National Teams

 

 

 

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