Mannheim Seven Clear at the Top as Women’s Bundesliga Hits the Winter Break
Mannheimer HC aren’t just top of the women’s Bundesliga. They’re seven points clear of everyone, and the winter break has locked that lead in for four months.
Mannheim took five of six points on the final weekend to stretch the gap. They beat Rot-Weiss Köln 3-0 on Saturday, then drew 0-0 at Bremer HC on Sunday and won the shootout 2-1, with Stine Kurz and Juana Castallaro Morello scoring. That leaves them seven clear of a three-way tie behind them: Rot-Weiss Köln, Bremer HC and Düsseldorfer HC are all on 22 points after 11 games.
Seven points at the halfway stage is a big lead in a league this tight. Three teams are bunched on 22, all chasing the same side, and none of them could land a blow on the final weekend. Köln lost 3-0 to the leaders themselves. Bremer held Mannheim to a goalless draw and still lost the shootout bonus. That’s how you build a seven-point gap: win the big games, and don’t lose the ones you draw.
The scoring charts tell the same story. Mannheim’s Alice Arnott leads the league with eight goals, one ahead of Bremer’s Lena Frerichs on seven. When your top scorer is also the league’s top scorer, and your defence has carried you through the tight games, the table usually looks like this.
For our money, the chasing pack’s problem isn’t just the gap. It’s that Mannheim look comfortable in every kind of game. They win 3-0 when they dominate, and they win shootouts when they don’t. That’s a hard combination to catch over a second half.
The league is on hiatus until March 20, 2027. Before then, Mannheim and Düsseldorf both play in the EHL finals in Eindhoven, with Mannheim facing Dragons in the FINAL12 on March 24. The winter break might pause the Bundesliga, but Mannheim’s season is far from over.
