2. April 2025
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SSF Dragons Bonn – MFBC Leipzig 2-5 (1-1, 0-0, 1-4)

Florian Buechtingby Florian Buechting

Super-crunch time in the German Men Floorball Bundesliga at the end of March 2025. While the ladies’ play-off semifinals came with straight decisions about which teams go for the finals, the men’s went for full series. Floor Fighters Chemnitz and UHC Weißenfels as well as SSF Dragons Bonn and MFBC Leipzig both went into the fifth and deciding play-off match, played on 29th March 2025. I went to my birth town Bonn to watch one of these (hopefully) floorball thriller at 18:00 floorball prime time at Sportpark Nord. The series had two sudden-death overtime and one shoot-out decision so far. Thus, this trip felt really promising.

This posting comes with a section of 413 major size pictures in the sports galleries. 

 

SSF Dragons Bonn – MFBC Leipzig – Match Report

The match started in a great atmosphere of some 430 people (the match report states 787, which is a bit too aggressive, I feel). That included a decent support for the away team, who were especially at the beginning of the match rather present. You would have expected a slow start with a lot of focus on not committing mistakes. However, Janos Bröker did not feel like that and gave Bonn the lead after just two minutes. Roope Hvönen launched the left wing attack, completed by the local grown player.

However, the match then turned more and more into a strategic do-or-die battle. Bonn was very good in avoiding passes in their defensive zone, but they felt slightly weaker in avoiding MFBC chances once those here and there broke the first barrier. On the other side, Bonn struggled with the Leipzig defense. You could especially see that throughout the whole match as quite a lot of Bonn shots were blocked from short distance – which overall lead to too many turnaround and fast attack opportunities. Leipzig felt a bit better prepared and thus, they absolutely deserved to tie the score after 13 minutes. Marco Gühlke took profit of a lovely pass by Radim Kühnel right into the slot – no chance for Bonn’s Kristaps Novikocs to catch that one. The time ticked down quickly – and even though there were a few better chances towards the end of the period, the score stayed at 1-1 after twenty minutes.

 

No Goals in the Second Period

It was not a match of many scoring chances, but the situation and the close score drove that thriller. However, it were the guests again, who felt slightly better in finding the scattered gaps in the Dragons’ defense. Both netminders had good games, with Novikovs a bit more present than Jannis Michaelis on the Leipzig side. Towards the end of the period, the match felt to become a bit more nervous. Leipzig got warned a few times as they interacted too closely with the opponent’s goalie, but overall, time was ticking down and everybody knew that the decision on that semifinal would get closer and closer.

A Different Third Period

One part of the game in which I liked Leipzig more was their creativity. Bonn felt to be extremely solid and disciplined, but also predictable in their game. There were small, but striking surprises which Leipzig added to their game, like forechecking in the first few minutes of the third period. This did not change the score, but sent a message to Bonn and their supporters. Bonn had a few nice chances at the beginning of the third period as well, but Michaelis acted rock solid.

Finally, the match was decided within 2:28 minutes. Paul Kretzschmar let his team cheer in the 52nd minute. Bonn did run into turnovers and fast breaks before – and that time, a poor pass by Bonn’s top scorer Florian Weißkirchen made it too easy for MFBC. Bonn felt to get back the momentum as just about a minute later, Adrian Stein added the second goal for the hosts. Weißkirchen gave a lovely pass to the far post. However, Bonn acted too nervous right thereafter and ran into another Leipzig goal just 24 seconds later. The story of that goal – a long, precise pass from Mark-Oliver Bothe to Svensson Hoppe, who had an easy task tapping the ball into the net from the far post – felt quite similar to the goal before.

The hosts troubled to adjust to that situation and the enthusiastic crowd could not change that. Bothe himself scored the fourth goal in the 54th minute, the Bonn defense simply made it too easy. The Dragons even had the chance to come back when Jonas Damm nailed Bröker over the rink after a right wing attack in the 55th minute, but neither that power play or the later pulling of Novikocs changed the score for the hosts. With four seconds left to play, Iven Teßmann went for the empty netter and closed the storybook of that semifinal series.

 

SSF Dragons Bonn – MFBC Leipzig – Lineups

SSF Dragons Bonn: 80 Kristaps Novikovs, 93 Mats Wendtland – 3 Till Braun, 5 Lutz Ackermann, 7 Florian Weißkirchen, 8 Niklas Berens, 9 Adrian Stein, 10 Janos Bröker, 12 Boran Jäger, 15 Lukas Lüke, 19 Elias Rensing, 20 Veit Bammel, 22 Jonathan Böhlendorf, 23 Lars Wombacher, 27 Aaron Niketta, 29 Jan Zwak, 61 Roope Hyvönen, 69 Anto Magunia, 77 Justin Obojiagbe, 92 Antton Lukka

MFBC Leipzig: 41 Jannis Michaelis, 72 Pavel Lubentsov – 3 Paul Kretzschmar, 5 Jonas Damm, 8 Svensson Hoppe, 11 Björn Hoppe, 13 Timon Kern, 19 Marco Gühlke, 22 Radim Kühnel, 25 Samuli Kolho, 29 Arian Trützschler, 30 Antti Koistinen, 37 Julian Kreuz, 38 Felix Linke, 44 Mark-Oliver Bothe, 52 Luca Winter, 71 Luca Kunkel, 79 Iven Teßmann, 85 Julius Dörner, 91 Atte Värsänen

 

SSF Dragons Bonn – MFBC Leipzig – Gallery

In the sports gallery, there is a designated major size picture gallery with 413 pictures of this match at

 

SSF Dragons Bonn – MFBC Leipzig – My View of the Match

SSF Dragons Bonn failed to gain the biggest success of the club’s history, making it to the German Floorball Final Series for the first time. You could see the signs for that already too early in the game. Leipzig was more clever, also just more experienced in that kind of situation. In the third period, minor deviations in Bonn’s playbook finally made their hopes fade. While the Dragons have built a team of some amazing individuals and great discipline over the last years, they lacked creativity and surprising moments in that decider. Thus, MFBC finally won a very memorable semifinal series with an absolutely deserved victory on the road.

 

Floorball – 2024/25 Season

Here are all my floorball-related postings released between July 2024 and June 2025:

 

Travel – Cologne Region Top Pick!s

Here are all travel postings of the Rheinland region around Cologne, which received a Top Pick! rating:

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