A busy period of top class European club hockey is approaching, with the men’s Euro Hockey League FINAL 4 and the women’s EuroHockey Club Cup both in action. You can find brief summaries of the two events below as well as details of how you can keep up to speed with both of these amazing events.
Euro Hockey League FINAL4
The Euro Hockey League's tenth season reaches it grand finale next weekend with KHC Dragons hosting the FINAL4 in Brasschaat, Belgium for the first time on June 3 and 4. They will take on Rot-Weiss Köln on Saturday while Wimbledon are bidding to become the first English club to reach the GRAND FINAL when they take on Dutch giants HC Orange-Rood. It promises to be another sparkling edition of the world's best club hockey competition as they battle it out for the Alain Danet Trophy.
The hosts were recently crowned the Belgian champions for a third successive season and feature an array of international stars including Olympic silver medalists Felix Denayer, Florent van Aubel and FIH Rising Star for 2016 Arthur van Doren. They beat Racing Club de Bruxelles and Racing Club de France to reach this stage of the competition where they will hope to win the title for the first time following a silver medal and two bronze finishes in the past.
Their semi-final opponents are Germany’s Rot-Weiss, a side Dragons have beaten in both of their previous meetings, including a famous 4-4 FINAL4 encounter in 2013. The Rot-Weiss line-up includes two of the EHL’s all-time top goalscorers in their ranks in Marco Miltkau and Christopher Zeller, adding to a side that also features the brilliance of Christopher Rühr, Mats Grambusch and Timur Oruz who returns from injury. They topped the regular season in Germany and only lost their national final 3-2 last Sunday in a dramatic tie against Mannheimer HC.
The second semi-final sees HC Oranje-Rood meet England’s Wimbledon. For the Dutch side, it is their first season since an amalgamation between Oranje-Zwart and EMHC, coming together to make a super club in Eindhoven that played host to the KO16 in April. They are a team of superstars with former FIH Player of the Year Robert van der Horst joined by Bob de Voogd, Jelle Galema and ace drag-flicker Mink van der Weerden who all won the EHL under the former name in 2015. They did have a setback in the Dutch Hoofdklasse this season, their reign as national champs coming to an end as eventual champions SV Kampong beat them to a playoff place.
Oranje-Rood face a new challenge in Wimbledon, the English side who are competing only in their second season of the EHL but became the first club from the country to reach the FINAL4 since Reading in 2011. The Londoners defeated UHC Hamburg – the EHL’s most decorated side in the KO16 – before beating another German side in Mannheimer HC in the KO8 to show their quality.
Following the event
Event website: http://ehlhockey.tv/
Match schedule: http://ehlhockey.tv/season/20162017/
Social media
Twitter: @ehlhockeytv
Facebook: Euro Hockey League
Instagram: ehlhockeytv
Hashtags: #EHL #FINAL4
Live stream: all games will be streamed live on http://ehlhockey.tv/. In Belgium, the Eleven Sports Network will live stream games which may lead to a geo-block if in this area.
Near-live highlights: goal clips will be posted to the EHL website; there will also be video clips pushed through to the EHL’s social media channels
Tickets: for ticket sales, this is main link http://ehlhockey.tv/tickets/
EuroHockey Club Cup
The EuroHockey Club Cup comes to ‘s Hertogenbosch this year on 2nd – 5th June, the home of the current holders.
England’s Surbiton take on Spanish Champions CH SPV Complutense in the opening match, which takes place at 13.15 (CET) on 2nd June. Next up is Germany’s UHC Hamburg who face England’s Canterbury at 15.30. The third game of the day sees the Russian’s CSP Krylatskoye face a strong AH&BC Amsterdam at 17.45 and finally at 20.00 in front of what promises to be a large and partisan crowd, the hosts ‘s Hertogenbosch face the Irish champions Hermes-Monkstown.
The hosts were crowned Dutch champions last weekend, with the legendary Maartje Paumen indicating that it will be her final playing season. With 11 Dutch titles, 338 games for ‘Den Bosch’, 404 goals (328 of them from pcs) it seems a fitting end to her illustrious career to play in the EHCC on home soil.
“Den Bosch’s” Margot van Geffen, spoke about the excitement of being in front of their home crowd, adding “It would be great to make it to the finals again and even better if we could win in our own stadium and in front of our own crowd.”
In addition to the EHCC, the European Hockey Federation (EHF) revealed that they are launching the first ever Junior EHCC. Mirrored on the very successful Junior EHL, the JEHCC will take place on Sunday 4th June.
The teams who have entered are ‘s-Hertogenbosch (NED), AHBC Amsterdam (NED), Surbiton HC (ENG), Canterbury HC (ENG), CSP Krylatskoye (RUS).
“This great new event will give our Under 14 girls from the clubs participating in the EHCC a wonderful opportunity to compete against other European teams in a competitive environment as well as enjoy the festival of the EHCC”, said EHF President Marijke Fleuren.
Following the event
When: 2nd – 5th June 2017
Where: Hockey Complex Oosterplas', 's-Hertogenbosch
Match schedule: https://eurohockey.altiusrt.com/competitions/79
Social Media
Twitter: @eurohockeyorg
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/EuroHockeyorg/
Instagram: eurohockeyorg
Hashtags: #EHCC #JuniorEHCC #EHClub2017
Official Website: http://www.hcdenbosch.nl/site/default.asp?Option=8&menu=8
Live stream: via www.eurohockey.org
Near-live highlights: Video clips pushed through to the EHF’s social media channels
Tickets: for ticket sales, click here.
