M1 Headed To EHL FINAL8 After 3-2 Win Over Wimbledon
By Colin Pike
Surbiton Men are headed to the EHL FINAL8 at Easter after a thrilling 3-2 win over local rivals Wimbledon in KO8 on Sunday evening.
Surbiton will join pre-qualified Gantoise of Belgium, SV Kampong of the Netherlands, English champions Old Georgians and Spaniards Club de Campo de Madrid.
Dutch club Bloemendaal and Belgians, Royal Leopold qualified at Sugden Road on Friday and Rotterdam became the third Dutch club to qualify on Sunday. The line-up will not include any German clubs.
After three days of superb weather in Elmbridge, Sunday was overcast with the final match of the weekend played in wet conditions in front of a bumper crowd. Surbiton made the perfect start when Luke Taylor opened the scoring from their first penalty corner in the eighth minute.
With just 26.5 seconds left in the first quarter, Struan Walker found himself in a one on one situation with Wimbledon goalkeeper Ore Ogunlana, who was playing against his former club. Walker calmly found the backboard to give the hosts a two goal advantage going into the second quarter.
Matches between the two clubs have always been competitive and this KO8 meeting was no exception, Sam Hooper halving the deficit from Wimbledon's fourth penalty corner a minute before half time.
Surbiton's penalty corner routine in the third quarter was erratic with a mis-trapped injection from their third award in the 43rd minute, but a minute later, Walker converted Surbiton's fourth award to restore their two goal lead.
Wimbledon were still not out of FINAL8 contention, Fred Newbold beating James Mazarelo with a perfectly timed poke home from a cross from the right with ten minutes remaining.
Both teams lost their right to video referral in the fourth quarter before Wimbledon made their last throw of the dice by sacrificing Ogunlana for an eleventh outfield player, but Surbiton held on to become the eighth and final team to qualify for the FINAL8.
Surbiton's David Goodfield was the Player of the Match.
Rotterdam needed a shootout before overcoming German club Hamburger Polo Club 4-3 after equalising with just 2.3 seconds to play to draw 3-3 and force the shootout.
Rotterdam took the lead in the sixth minute through Matthijs van der Wielen before Hamburger stormed into a 3-1 lead thanks to a brace from Kane Russell after an equaliser from Tom Craig.
Guus Jansen pulled a goal back in the 49th minute before Jeroen Hertzberger's last gasp leveller.
Hamburger also led 3-1 in the shootout before Rotterdam levelled at 3-3 to force sudden death. With the order of teams reversed, Hertzberger scored his second goal of the shootout and Rotterdam's qualification was confirmed when Tim Brand's effort was saved by Derk Meijer in the Rotterdam goal.
There was also late drama in the first ranking match of the day with TJ Pizen-Litice of Czechia and SV Arminen of Austria seemingly destined for a shootout after a goalless game. However with just ten seconds left on the clock, Florian Steyrer converted a penalty corner to give Arminen the 1-0 win.
Scottish club Western Wildcats gave a good account of themselves and with a bit more luck could have come away with more than a narrow 2-1 defeat to Belgium's Waterloo Ducks.
Waterloo Ducks had to wait until the 19th minute before Charlie Langendries opened the scoring, although an umpire referral for a possible backstick offence delayed confirmation of the goal.
Western Wildcats were unlucky that they were unable to time their dives to deflect the ball home perfectly as they managed to penetrate the Waterloo Ducks defence, but they managed to equalise from their second penalty corner, Nikki Homfray putting away a rebound off Simon Vandenbroucke's pads.
Tomas Domene, who had scored a consolation goal in their 4-2 KO16 defeat to hosts Surbiton, won the match for Waterloo Ducks from their fifth penalty corner to earn what could be important ranking points when the coefficient table is recalculated in 2025.
Rotterdam's Hertzberger was the top scorer with seven goals, one more than Royal Leopold's Tom Boon.
More information about the tournament can be found at the EuroHockey Altius website here