Montag, 22. September 2008

WE112II: By bike to a cycle ball tournament - Witnessing one of the greatest surprises in World Cup cycle ball ever

Cycle Ball Clubs World Cup Tournament in Mücheln

Saturday, 20th September 2008 - kick-off time 12.00, last final whistle blown: 22.20
International Tournament
Winner: RV Gärtringen
Venue: Sporthalle am Eptinger Rain (cap. 150; 110 seated)
Attendance: 15 at the 1st, 50 at the last main round match and 100 at the final matches
Overall match quality: 8.5/10 (really great)

Ground No. 249 (not a new ground; this season: 19)
Sporting event No. 662 (this season: 29)
Kilometres that day: 45 (by bike)
Km this season: 7,200 (4,810 car, 1,520 public transport, 870 bike)
Number of weeks since the last week without any sporting event (Aug 1st-6th 2006): 112

Results as listed below:
Main round:
Eberstadt 4:2 Kolárova (SVK)
Gärtringen 9:3 Bucureşti (ROM)
Winterthur (SUI) 5:4 Höchst III (A)
Dornbirn (A) 5:4 Svítavka (CZ)
Brno (CZ) 6:1 Kolárova (SVK)
Mücheln 10:4 Bucureşti (ROM)
Eberstadt 5:1 Höchst III (A)
Gärtringen 7:3 Svítavka (CZ)
Winterthur 9:2 Brno (CZ)
Dornbirn (A) 1:8 Mücheln
Höchst III (A) 5:4 Kolárova (SVK)
Svítavka (CZ) 2:1 Bucureşti (ROM)
Brno (CZ) 2:7 Eberstadt
Gärtringen 4:2 Mücheln
Winterthur (SUI) 8:4 Kolárova (SVK)
Dornbirn (A) 9:2 Bucureşti (ROM)
Brno (CZ) 3:3 Höchst (A)
Svítavka (CZ) 3:3 Mücheln
Eberstadt 2:4 Winterthur (SUI)
Gärtringen 6:3 Dornbirn
Final round:
9th place; Kolárova (SVK) 5:2 Bucureşti (ROM)
Semi final; Winterthur (SUI) 3:4 Mücheln
Semi final; Eberstadt 3:5 Gärtingen (3:3; 0:2 on penalties)
7th place; Brno (CZ) 4:1 Svítavka (CZ)
5th place; Höchst III (A) 0:2 Dornbirn (A)
3rd place: Winterthur 4:5 Eberstadt
Final: Mücheln 8:11 Gärtringen (6:6, 2:2 extra time, 0:3 penalties)

Commented final table of that tournament:
1. RV Gärtringen (Bodensee) - as skilled as expected
2. VfH Mücheln - an unbelievable surprise!
3. SV Darmstadt-Eberstadt - as skilled as expected
4. RV Winterthur (Switzerland) - mainly as skilled as expected
5. RV Dornbirn (Austria) - I expected less
6. RC Höchst III (Austria) - average; as expected
7. Favorít Brno (Czech Republic) - nothing in comparison to former tournaments; their career must come to an end in the near future!
8. MO Svítavka (Czech Republic) - extremely disappointing result!
9. SKC Kolárova (Slovakia) - as weak as always
10. CSO Bucureşti (Romania) - I did not expect more of that team

To sum it up:
10 hours and 20 minutes of cycle ball - only one longer break of an hour in between and two five minutes breaks for artistic biking performances. Not everybody can stand this; despite the players, officials, my dad and me, only 13 other fans. So there were 15 visitors at the first match of the main round, but about 100 at the first match of the final round.
Because it is too difficult to describe how cycle ball works - you should witness it on your own! - I’ll only point out the things that caught my attention:
1. There was one great surprise that started step by step: the hosting team VfH Mücheln. They won their first main round match clearly - the only two-digit result - 10:4, but that was nothing special when having a look at the opponent. But after that, they beat a team that was said to be stronger ever cleaner: 8:1. The third match was a respectable draw and in the fourth match the lost by two goals only against the favourite of the tournament. They reached the semi-final which was a great success for that team, because they were the only 2nd division team starting. All the other teams were from the top divisions. But the semi-final wasn’t enough. They even made their way to the final match and Gärtringen needed a lot of luck to beat Mücheln on penalties - not 11m, but 4m.
2. It was not nice to see how weak the once great Czech teams were that day. Especially Brno suffers from the high age of their top-player. Svítavka simply had a bad day - otherwise they would not be the table-topper.
3. As usual in cycle ball tournaments, some things were shot with the ball or rammed to the ground by the bikers. This time several bottles, both the goals, some parts of the pitch’s barrier, some chairs - one even with a fan sitting on it - the logo sign of Mücheln and an artificial tree in a heavy flower pot. The last three things by one nice elbow-shot of an Eberstadt player against his opponent from Höchst who ran into the fans with his bike causing that scene.
4. The most spectacular foul play of the day was Mücheln’s Herbert Pischl’s check against a Dornbirn player, who flew under the judges’ table because of that.
5. The catering was excellent as always in Mücheln; Bratwurst, Bockwurst, steak, noodle salad, potato salad, two different kinds of soup, eight different kinds of cakes and five kinds of drinks. Everything had a good quality.
6. All in all it was the greatest cycle ball tournament I ever saw - and the best result of a duo from Mücheln on that international basis.

For more photos see:
http://s181.photobucket.com/albums/x68/fchmksfkcb/080920%20Radball-Weltpokal%20in%20Muecheln/

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