The Champions Are Winless: Rotterdam’s Rotten Start Headlines a Huge European Weekend
Three games in, and the Dutch champions haven’t won a single one.
Rotterdam lifted the Hoofdklasse title in May, beating Amsterdam on aggregate in the final. This season? Played three, lost three, zero points, and a trip nowhere gets easier because SCHC visit Hazelaarweg on Sunday. It’s the storyline of the European weekend, but it’s not the only one. Germany’s Bundesliga squeezes two full rounds into three days, and Ireland’s EY League serves up a stack of unbeaten-versus-unbeaten clashes on Saturday.
The Netherlands: Round 4 on Sunday
Amsterdam are setting the pace in the men’s Hoofdklasse, three wins from three and top with nine points. Bloemendaal sit second on seven after hammering Schaerweijde 9-1 last weekend, the biggest win of the season so far.
Sunday’s men’s fixtures, 18 October:
- Oranje-Rood v Klein Zwitserland (Eindhoven)
- Rotterdam v SCHC
- HDM v Bloemendaal
- Pinoké v Den Bosch (Amsterdamse Bos)
- Schaerweijde v Amsterdam
- Tilburg v Kampong
Two scoring races worth watching. HDM’s Fabian Verzuu leads the men’s chart with six goals, every single one from open play. Right behind him is Den Bosch drag-flicker Timo Boers on five, every single one from penalty corners. Field goals versus corners, take your pick.
At the bottom it’s grim reading. Tilburg haven’t scored a goal yet this season. Schaerweijde have conceded 15 in three games. And Rotterdam, the champions, are stuck on zero alongside them.
The women’s table is a two-team arm wrestle. Den Bosch and SCHC are both perfect after four rounds, Den Bosch ahead on goal difference with 17 scored and one conceded. Frédérique Matla has nine goals already. SCHC’s Yibbi Jansen has eight, six of them penalty corners and two strokes. When those two meet later this season, clear your diary.
Germany: two rounds, three days, no mercy
The Bundesliga doesn’t do gentle weekends. The men’s league plays a full round on Saturday and another on Sunday, with Uhlenhorst Mülheim and Crefelder HTC opening things on Friday, 16 October.
Saturday’s pairings include UHC Hamburg v Münchner SC, Harvestehuder v Berliner HC, Club an der Alster v Mannheimer HC, DSD Düsseldorf v Rot-Weiss Köln and Hamburger Polo Club v TSV Mannheim. Then everybody turns around and goes again on Sunday: UHC Hamburg v Berliner HC, Crefelder v Rot-Weiss Köln, Hamburger Polo v Mannheimer HC, Harvestehuder v Münchner SC, Alster v TSV Mannheim and Mülheim v DSD Düsseldorf.
Double-header weekends sort squads out. The deep benches cope, the thin ones get found out by Sunday afternoon.
Ireland: Saturday’s EY League card
Hockey Ireland’s round on Saturday, 17 October, is stacked with unbeaten sides running into each other.
Women’s highlights: leaders Railway Union, still perfect, host rivals Loreto at Park Avenue at 1:40 pm local time. Pembroke Wanderers, flying so far, host Queen’s University at 2:00 pm, and Pegasus are still hunting a first win as they travel to UCD for 3:00 pm, live on Hockey Ireland TV.
Men’s: Lisnagarvey are the team of the moment. They’ve just come back from Eindhoven with a Euro Hockey League Final 12 place in the bag, beating Swiss champions Rotweiss Wettingen 5-2 and French side CAM92 6-0, and their perfect league start is on the line at home to unbeaten Avoca at Comber Road, 2:30 pm, also live on Hockey Ireland TV. Pembroke Wanderers v Banbridge at 4:00 pm puts two more unbeaten records head to head, and the promoted sides, Portrane and Cork Harlequins, meet in Donabate in an early survival scrap.
For our money, Lisnagarvey v Avoca is the pick of the whole European weekend outside the Netherlands. A side buzzing from Europe against a side that hasn’t dropped a point. One of them blinks first.
