Final: HC Bloemendaal – Rot-Weiss Koln

Match report

Bloemendaal became the first ever EHL Men’s club to win the title for three times in succession as they got the better of Rot-Weiss Köln for a second successive season in the GRAND FINAL.

Just Teun Beins’ 21st minute penalty corner stood between the sides at a drenched Wagener Stadium, a big tussle between two top club sides.

Bloemendaal made most of the play in the first half and could have been more than a single goal up but for the genius of Vincent Vanasch.

As it was, the only goal came after a barrage of penalty corners. From the sixth of them, Tim Swaen flipped the ball behind his back to Teun Beins who whizzed a low shot into the bottom right of the backboard.

Vanasch pulled off a true wonder-save to deny Tom Hiebendaal as the Dutch side attempted to put more daylight between the sides but it remained 1-0.

Rot-Weiss’s first major chance in Q3 when Antheus Barry’s skidding ball across the goal and Maurits Visser did well to react with a diving stick in front of him.

But, as the rain teemed down, it became hard for either side to build up a head of steam with the game becoming a big battle between the 23-metre lines.

As time wore on, Rot-Weiss pushed on harder and harder but the Bloemendaal defence was immaculate, not conceding a single corner in the contest and limiting the Germans only to half-chances.

So Bloemendaal continue their remarkable run of three successive titles – a sixth in total – and an unbeaten run that goes back to 2015 in games they have played in the EHL. For Rot-Weiss, it is a third final defeat in the past four editions.