A hough start to the season against DOT

Last Saturday, the first league match of the season was on the schedule: Débaldérin 1 – DOT 3. Although DOT was a familiar opponent, we were still expecting a tough match. Last season, Débaldérin 1 played against DOT 5 and had to put in plenty of effort to secure the win.

Anyway, the posts were set up and, after a good warm-up, the match got underway. Reinier, Deen, Nathalie and Willemijn started in attack, while Tom, Kamiel, Lara and Marieke started in defence. Sara, Bart and supersub Ella started on the bench.

The slight breeze meant everyone needed a little time to calibrate their shots, so the first few attacks did not result in a goal. Eventually, Reinier managed to open the scoring with a shot: 1-0. Unfortunately, Tom then conceded a shot, bringing the score level again. The men then conceded two running-in shots, making it 1-3. After conceding a close-range chance from a rebound and a second goal from Reinier, the score was 2-4. A cheeky turnaround shot against Deen and a close-range chance from Tom brought the score to 3-5. After shots conceded by Reinier and Deen, another against Tom, a goal from Tom, another against Deen and finally a shot against Willemijn, the score had reached 3-9.

At this point, the team of Reinier, Deen, Willemijn and Nathalie managed to win a free pass, which Nathalie stepped up to take. She converted it, reducing the gap to five goals. Unfortunately, the other team then conceded a free pass themselves, which DOT also converted: 4-10.

Marieke had finally woken up and managed to score twice in a row. After that, Tom, Reinier and Willemijn took turns adding to the score. Around half-time, the score stood at 8-13.

During the break, Bart and Sara came on for Kamiel and Lara. Unfortunately, Bart conceded a shot fairly quickly at the start of the second half, as did Willemijn. Luckily, they both made up for it by scoring a close-range chance and a shot respectively: 10-15. How DOT scored the 10-16 will forever remain a mystery, as the bench did not keep track of it properly. (Inge had been doing this for almost the entire match, but Kamiel took over for five minutes and apparently wasn’t quite as focused on the job yet.)

Unfortunately, Nathalie conceded another shot, but even worse, Willemijn – only just recovered from Nitra – was knocked to the ground and ended up with some pain in her head and neck. Thankfully, it eventually seemed to be nothing too serious, although she was unable to continue playing. Since Lara was unfortunately not fit enough to return to the pitch either, supersub Ella had to go and get changed. To keep the game going in the meantime, Kamiel temporarily entered the pitch as a lady.

This took some getting used to. He managed to defend DOT’s first attack quite well, but during their second attack he briefly lost track of his lady. Out of habit, he blindly ran towards where he would normally expect his male opponent to be, but his lady took advantage with a nice veering shot and finished it with a goal: 10-18. Luckily, Ella had returned from the changing room by then, allowing Kamiel to retreat to the bench with his tail between his legs.

In the final ten minutes, Deen and Nathalie both managed to score a shot, bringing the score to 12-18. Unfortunately, Ella then conceded another shot, and Reinier also let one through right as the final whistle sounded, resulting in a final score of 12-20.

Débaldérin 1 still has a tough competition ahead, but that also means plenty of opportunities for fun and valuable matches. To be continued.

Goals: Bart, Deen, Marieke 2x, Nathalie 2x, Reinier 3x, Tom 2x, Willemijn

Written by Kamiel