Last Saturday, we played our final match of the season against RDZ (in Zeist). The previous match ended in a 23-8 victory, so there was confidence that Débaldérin would win this one as well. Some supporters even traveled to cheer on Débaldérin 1! Unfortunately, Kamiel had picked up a new injury and couldn’t play, but he was there to coach.
The match started off smoothly with a goal from Marieke (who started in attack alongside Tom, Reinier, and Nathalie). Shortly after, RDZ equalized. Then, the other attack formation—Deen, Matthijs, Lara, and Willemijn—got their turn. Unfortunately, we lost Willemijn to an ankle injury just four minutes in, and we had to continue without her. Luckily, Tine was ready to step in. After two goals for us, the teams switched roles again, allowing the other attack to take over. After conceding another goal but scoring one ourselves, another switch followed. The rest of the first half saw us score regularly, adding eight more goals while keeping the opposition from scoring. This led to a halftime score of 2-12 in our favor.
Halftime substitutions:
(Bart → Reinier, Tirza → Nathalie)
After halftime (and honestly, even before that), the game started to slow down and became a bit dull. Still, goals kept coming, and we conceded two more. Marieke scored a penalty (to the loud disappointment of the crowd—no bitterballen for that one!). Or maybe there were? Tom’s penalty just missed, and the one I caused luckily bounced off the front of the post. After a final beauty from Tine, the match ended 4-19.
With these two points, we are now at the top of the table with 22 points, making it impossible for our not-so-good friends from DKOD to catch us—they currently have 19 points with just one match left. To celebrate the championship, there was champagne (alcoholic or non-alcoholic—Tirza), cake, and beautifully engraved medals for all team members (as I said, there was confidence!). After celebrating under the warm sun, three cars continued on to Groningen for more partying, while the rest went their own way.
Marieke (5x), Lara (3x), Matthijs (3x), Nathalie (2x), Tine (2x), Tom (2x), Deen (1x), Reinier (1x)