Bloemendaal and Den Bosch hold the aces going into Saturday’s second leg of the best of three Dutch finals series following away wins on Thursday.
On the men’s side, Bloemendaal came from a goal down to earn a shoot-out – courtesy of Arthur van Doren’s penalty corner slap with eight minutes to go – and went on to win in sudden death.
Kampong had led 2-1 courtesy of penalty corner goals from Jip Jansen and Martijn Havenga prior to van Doren’s equaliser. In the shoot-out, despite an injury to David Harte, Kampong had led 3-2 at one stage but ultimately succumbed 4-3.
It means Bloemendaal need to win either on Saturday or on Sunday at home to secure the national title once more. For Kampong, they must win both games but they will have to do it without the services of Sander de Wijn for the first game due to a suspension in the wake of his third yellow card of the season which he picked up on Thursday.
The equation is similar in the women’s competition after Frédérique Matla got the only goal of the first game at the Wagener Stadium. She struck on her backhand in the first half for 1-0 and they held on to that result until the end.
The two sides meet again at Oosterplas on Saturday – and potentially Sunday – with Amsterdam needing to win both while Den Bosch need one win to be crowned champions once again.