Mönchengladbach: German hockey women lose EM final against the Netherlands – Sport

Fanny Rinne was included in the Hall of Fame of the European Hockey Association on Saturday. For this purpose, the 45-year-old was given a medal and a shirt on the sidelines of the European Championship in Mönchengladbach. Rinne had been the playmaker when German hockey women won against the Netherlands on August 25, 2007 in Manchester at one of the three major tournaments (Olympic Games, World Cup and European Championship).

18 years ago, Germany became European champion through a 2-0 final victory against Oranje. The coach was called Michael Behrmann, double scorer in the final was Janine Beermann. Since then, German hockey women had lost twelve times against the Netherlands at the big tournaments, four of them in an EM final (2009, 2019, 2019, 2021)-and this negative series remained on Sunday evening.

Because at the home European Championships in Mönchengladbach, the women’s national team lost an important game against the Netherlands for the 13th time. This time, however, the game ended extremely narrowly with 1: 2 (0: 2). However, the German team under the new Dutch national coach Janneke Schopman was already evaluated as a success for the German team. “The team can be proud. We were close to it and Haber fought great. We are a bit sad,” said trainer Schopman.

The Dutch hockey women are considered rather invincible. Among other things, this is due to the fact that they train centrally in the national team and not, like the national players of the competing countries, primarily in clubs. Of the 17 EM tournaments since 1984, the Dutch have won 13. Only Germany (2007, 2013) and England (1991, 2015) could collapse twice into their Phalanx. The last time became German women in the Belgian boom in 2013 – at that time without having to play against the Netherlands.

In the end, the German women are close to equalization, but miss it narrowly

At this year’s edition of the European Championship in Mönchengladbach, they even played against Oranje twice. They had lost 1: 5 in the group phase. That hurt them, and the better they would have been reorganizing themselves in the final. It was scarce, but the Netherlands was ultimately too stable. Yibbi Jansen, 25, is currently the best player in the world. In 2022 she became world champion, 2023 European champion and 2024 Olympic champion. She is also the reigning world hockey player. The Netherlands got four of the last five Olympic titles, four of the last five World Cup titles and all five last European Championship titles.

In the 1: 5 defeat in the group game, the German team was 0: 3 behind after 13 minutes. This time, in the final, only one goal in the first quarter (Pien Dickness, 5th) and in the second quarter one (Luna Fokke, 18th). Five minutes after the change of sides, Lisa Nolte shortened to 1: 2 (35th). Sara Strauss then received a ten-minute penalty because of an unfortunate foul, but even this outnumbered the team survived without conceding a goal.

In the end, the German players were even close to the balance. But without the necessary luck they missed the hits that they would have brought them into the penalty shootout. “It was a big fight from us from the start to finish,” said Selin Oruz: “I am a great team on our young team. This defeat is all the more bitter.”