Bundesliga Weekend Preview: Polo v Mannheim Is a German Final Rematch, and the Hamburg Derby Opens It
Two rounds, one weekend, and a final rematch tucked into Sunday afternoon. The Bundesliga doesn’t do quiet weekends.
Saturday: a derby and a warning from Crefeld
Round 10 opens with UHC Hamburg against Crefelder HTC (14:00 CEST), and nobody in Hamburg will be taking Crefeld lightly. Crefeld have been creeping up on the big names all season, the kind of side that turns a routine home game into a problem. The day’s other early game is Rot-Weiss Köln v Uhlenhorst Mülheim (14:00), before the city takes over: Harvestehuder THC against Club an der Alster at 16:30 is the Hamburg derby, and derbies in this league rarely care about the table.
Münchner SC v Berliner HC (16:00) closes Saturday’s men’s card.
Sunday: the final, played again
Round 11 is where the weekend peaks. Hamburger Polo host Mannheimer HC at 14:30 CEST on Sunday, a straight rematch of last season’s championship final, which Polo won. Mannheim don’t need a team talk for this one. Champions hosting the side they beat for the title, with both clubs also carrying EHL ambitions this season, is as good as German club hockey gets outside the play-offs.
Around it: TSV Mannheim v UHC Hamburg (12:00), Crefelder v Harvestehuder (13:00), Uhlenhorst Mülheim v Münchner SC (14:00) and Berliner HC v Rot-Weiss Köln (16:00). Two games in two days for everyone, which is why Bundesliga weekends in October tend to scramble the table by Sunday night. Depth wins these.
The women: UHC can go top
The women’s Round 9 is all Saturday, and the game is in Hamburg: UHC Hamburg v Großflottbeker THGC (16:00 CEST). Großflottbek arrive as one of the form sides of the season, and a win for UHC would put them top of the pile. That’s not a mid-table fixture, that’s a statement game.
Also Saturday: Düsseldorfer HC v Mannheimer (13:00), Club an der Alster v Münchner SC (14:00), Harvestehuder v Berliner HC (14:00), Zehlendorfer Wespen v Bremer HC (14:30) and Rot-Weiss Köln v Uhlenhorst Mülheim (16:30).
Our take: watch Polo on Sunday, but watch Crefeld on Saturday too. The final rematch decides the headlines. Crefeld’s season decides whether the old order is actually under threat.
More German hockey: last round’s Hamburg derby preview, the EHL opening round in Eindhoven, and the Leagues hub.
