Korfball Europa Cup Day 1
The 2008 Edition of the Europa Cup for European Champion
Clubs is being held in Carcavelos, near Lisbon (POR) from
10-12 January.
Day 1
The first two matches were in Pool A. The tournament opened
with Mitcham (ENG) against Szentendre (HUN) with the English
team looking to gain revenge for their defeat in last year’s
competition. The first half was quite close with Mitcham holding
a narrow 2-goal lead at half time (7-5). In the opening minutes
of the second half the game was level again but with the Hungarians
standing off a little too often and allowing the Mitcham girls
to shoot freely from inside 5 m and either score or have a
team mate convert the rebound, the English team gradually
opened a 4 goal buffer and dominated the last quarter of the
match to win 16 – 12.
Boeckenberg (BEL), playing in the modern version of the Europa
Cup for the first time (having last competed over 30 years
ago in the 12-a-side outdoor version of the event), were the
next in action against the hosts NC Benfica (POR). The opening
quarter of the game was very close with the teams sharing
the lead and the opponents equalising but eventually the more
experienced Belgians opened out a match winning lead to go
in winning 12-6 at half time. In the second half this lead
was extended to 9 goals leaving the final score 19-10.
The next match was the first of two matches in pool B and
saw the reigning champions Dos’46 (NED) take on SK Prievidza
(SVK). The Dutch champions hardly got out of first gear and
dominated the match throughout. At half time they led 13-4
and really turned the screw in the second half to emerge 33-7
winners.
The other game in the pool saw two former bronze winners
– Ceske Budejovice (CZE) and Adler Rauxel (GER) –
pitted against each other. In the first half the Czechs proved
to be slightly the stronger during the second quarter of the
match, opening out a 4-goal lead whilst the Germans remained
scoreless for 17 minutes and went in at half time leading
8-4. However, German teams, in no matter what sport, are renowned
not to give in easily and bit by bit they turned the match
round to go ahead with 7 minutes left, only to be pegged back.
Adler then took the lead again with 3 minutes left and had
to resist strong pressure from the Czechs but hung on for
a 13-12 victory.
The fifth match of the day saw a return to group A with Boeckenberg
taking on Mitcham. Unlike many of the contests between an
‘A’ country club and a club from a lower ranked
country, Mitcham played with a strong team and tried to match
the Belgians with their physical style of play. Unfortunately,
the Belgians had a little too much experience, took up better
positions in both attack and defence and shot more accurately
than the English team. The result was that after a bruising,
and in some individual cases a confrontational, first half
Boeckenberg led 10-3. Although the second half was not as
intense as in the first period, both teams kept up a good
tempo. Boeckenberg continued to be better at turnovers, by
means of interceptions and rebounding, and with a greater
accuracy in their shots finished up 18-5 winners.
Following the official opening ceremony the final game of
the day saw hosts NC Benfica play the Hungarians from Szentendre.
The Portuguese were on top until shortly before the end of
the half when they relaxed rather too much and allowed the
Hungarians to close the gap to 1 goal. However, two goals
in the final 90 seconds restored Benfica’s lead to 3
goals at half time (9-6). In the second half Szentendre slowly
fought back to level the game with 15 minutes left. Twice
more Benfica took the lead and with less than a minute were
holding on but they gave the ball away and Szentendre equalised
with 26 seconds left. The Hungarians even had chances to win
in the final seconds but in the end, at 15-15, golden goal
extra time had to be played. Szentendre won the toss to start
the golden goal period but their shot on goal missed, Benfica
gathered the rebound and then scored the deciding goal with
their only attack.
Standings at the end of day 1
Pool A
Boeckenberg 6 pts
Mitcham 3 pts
NC Benfica 2 pts
Szentendre 1 pt
Pool B
Dos’46 3 pts
Adler Rauxel 3 pts
Ceske Budejovice 0 pts
Prievidza 0 pts
Korfball Europa Cup Day 2
On Friday January 10th teams in pool B each played twice.
With DOS'46 looking good to reach the final, the game between
Adler and Prievidza was to decide whether the Germans could
win though to the bronze medal game. In pool A, Boeckenberg
reached their first ever Europa Cup final by easily beating
Szentendre (HUN). Mitcham (ENG) and hosts NC Benfica fought
out a winner-takes-all match to determine who will play for
the bronze and Mitcham won through by a golden goal, after
twice coming back from 4 goals behind.
The day’s first game was between Dutch Champions DOS’46
and Adler Rauxel (GER). DOS started scoring very early in
the match and after 15 minutes already held a 6-goal lead
an advantage they held until half time (11-5). In the second
period they maintained their superiority and won the match
22-8.
The second game in pool B saw the game between Eastern European
rivals Ceske Budejovice (CZE) and SKK Prievidza (SVK). With
only 1 goal in the opening 10 minutes the game was slow to
warm up but with 3 quick goals the Czechs gained the initiative
which, apart from a couple of times when the Slovaks drew
level, they held for the rest of the match. The half time
score was 6-5 and although at one time the Czechs led by 4,
at the end the score was 13-11.
Boeckenberg clinched their place in their first ever Europa
Cup final with an emphatic win over Szentendre (HUN). In their
previous two appearances in the Europa Cup (when it was a
3-division outdoor event) earned them a 3rd and a 4th place
so they are guaranteed to go better whatever the result in
tomorrow’s final. At half time the score was 11-3. At
the end of the match the result was 25-8.
In the vital match to determine who would be 2nd in pool
A, hosts NC Benfica were faster in thought and movement and
shot more accurately than Mitcham (ENG) in the first half.
Mitcham, who missed two penalties were rather fortunate to
go in at half time only 2 down (6-8) after being 4 down with
only a few minutes left in the half. In the opening moments
of the second half Mitcham played a lot better and equalised.
The Portuguese called a time out and this seemed to settle
them as they went ahead again and stretched the lead to 4
goals by midway through the half. Mitcham were not finished
though and with 4 minutes left they drew level. No further
goals were scored so the match was decided by a golden goal.
Mitcham attacked first and played very patiently with the
task of shooting being given to a male player whilst former
PKC player David Synott controlled the post. In the end after
more than 3 minutes and almost ten missed shots, a girl chose
to shoot instead and scored. An early interception in Benfica’s
reply attack saw the end of the game with Mitcham winning
13-12, the only t6ime they led at any time in the match.
In the penultimate pool match Dos’46 gained a resounding
win against the Czech Ceske Budejovice team. From a 13-2 score
at half time the Dutch finished the game with exactly 4 times
their opponent’s score (32-8).
In the last pool match of the tournament Adler Rauxel (GER)
played SKK Prievdiza (SVK). With their corresponding results
against the Czechs being so close (only 1 or 2 goals difference)
one expected a very tight match. As it turned out the Germans
started strongly and rather dominated the first half to lead
14-11 at half time, although at one stage the difference was
more. We also had the latest possible goal in a half of this
year’s event with Prievidza scoring with just 1 second
left on the clock. In the second half the Germans rather imploded
upon themselves and let the Slovaks back into the game. With
14 minutes left Prievidza were not only level but leading
after Adler missed a penalty and Prievidza went straight to
the other end and scored one. They even extended their lead
to three goals at one stage before the Germans started one
of their famous come backs. With just a few minutes left a
Slovakian player went down with cramp and this really unsettled
the team. They lost concentration and the Germans hit back
to win 21-19 and go through to the bronze medal match against
Mitcham.
Picture – Dutch champions DOS 46 (in white) pressurise
German champions Adler Rauxel
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