Rot-Weiss Köln defended the German men’s title as they beat first time finalists Hamburger Polo Club with a single Florian Adrians goal.

It was the same scoreline that saw them prevail a year ago against Uhlenhorst Mülheim and helped them land their ninth title.

Rot-Weiss came through their semi-final on Saturday in Bonn with three second half goals seeing them comeback to defeat Harvestehuder THC 3-1. Polo, meanwhile, won their semi-final 3-0 against Mannheimer HC.

In the final, Rot-Weiss started the brighter before Polo got a foothold with Constantin Staib and Kane Russell causing problems.

Paul Smith also went close with Vincent Vanasch saving well to keep it scoreless in the first half.

Into the third quarter, the best chance fell to Christopher Rühr but Niklas Garst was alert to the danger. Several Köln corners were repelled, sending the game down to the wire.

The vital moment came when Polo earned their second corner but Timur Oruz charged it down and initiated a counter-attack. Mats Grambusch whipped it on to Adrian who was able to fire home on his backhand for the only goal in the 54th minute.

“If the other guys didn’t want to, someone had to do it!” Adrians said of his goal. “I didn’t think much about it, I just banged the thing in.” 

Harvestehuder THC won the third place playoff with a 4-2 success against Mannheim.