hockey players SCHC against Amsterdam in semi-finals

NOS Sports•today, 5:47 PM•Amended today, 9:40 PM

The semi-finals of the Euro Hockey League will feature a top Dutch match for women. The hockey players from Amsterdam and SCHC will compete against each other on Sunday with the aim of a final place in the EHL. The other semi-final is between the German Mannheimer and Junior from Spain.

In the quarter-finals, the Amsterdam team defeated East Grinsead from England 3-1, an economical reflection of the balance of power.

Earlier in the evening, SCHC from Bilthoven won 2-1 against the Belgian Gantoise HC. Yibbi Jansen scored both goals for SCHC.

View the summaries of both quarter-finals here:

In the match between Amsterdam and East Grinstead, the relationships quickly became clear. Amsterdam dominated, the English opponent fully focused on defending.

Hits were a matter of time. The first came at the end of the first quarter. Sabine Plönissen cleverly played the ball out of reach of the goalkeeper at a penalty corner, leaving the keeper without a chance.

Furthermore, no goals were scored until half-time, which meant that coach Teun de Nooijer could not sit back and relax. To his dismay, East Grinstead had a huge chance just after half-time.

It was a warning that Amsterdam needed. Not much later it became 2-0 via Felice Albers.

In the fourth quarter, East Grinstead, which missed two penalty corners, still reduced the margin. Sophie Bray played Plönissen and finished beautifully. The English sensed their chance, especially when Albers had to be taken off for two minutes after a foul.

In the final phase, Amsterdam found a liberating third goal from a penalty corner variant, with prosecutor Freeke Moes ultimately completing the goal himself.

It was certainly not easy for coach Lucas Judge’s SCHC against Gantoise. The hockey players from Ghent, national champions of Belgium three times in a row, put up a brave fight and remained entrenched around the circle.

Playing hockey through that was “very difficult”, Mette Winter said afterwards. “You saw it at the beginning of the second half that we lost the ball because we wanted it so badly. But in the end we stayed calm and looked for the right passes.”

SCHC continued to have the upper hand, but it did not lead to many real opportunities. “We had a lot of penetrations into the circle and only two goals. We can get more out of that. We have to be hungrier in front of goal, with more communication,” was Winter’s analysis.

Thanks to Jansen, SCHC took a convincing lead after twelve minutes of play in the first quarter after scoring a penalty. The driven Ghent hockey players were not afraid of the leaders from the Dutch Premier League and got back into the game early in the second quarter.

The experienced Alix Gerniers reacted alertly on the rebound of a penalty corner and made it 1-1 with a tip-in.

SCHC did not give away much more space afterwards, chasing the winner. They came out of the dressing room with enthusiasm and three minutes after the break it was already a goal. Jansen made her second, from a penalty corner, with some help from the line defender who let the ball pass under the stick.

With the win, SCHC has progressed further in the EHL than they did last year. Then they lost to Den Bosch in the quarter-finals. The semi-final against Amsterdam will be a repeat of the battle for the national title in 2023, when Amsterdam became champions via shootouts after the diptych.

It was not a successful day for the Belgian hockey players, because after the women, the men of Gantoise HC were also defeated later on Friday by the men of Kampong.