After a short Christmas break the indoor season 2013/2014 continued in Steffisburg, where the first tournament was held and where we faced Basel HC and HC Olten. Today’s target was to bring home two successful wins and to slowly set our mind towards the final tournament in three weeks.

The game against Basler HC started off quite well, 30 seconds into the game the first opportunity to score through a short corner arose. Basel’s good individual players were able to defend their goal through out the first have but as we played in a swift manner, included some good combinational tactics and game constructions, one could feel that Basel’s stamina and endurance began to wear off. As a result they received a total of seven goals scored by our skilled players. Where as they used two turn overs to score. The end result was 7:2.

The second game was against HC Olten, a team that is always a challenging opponent. Olten managed to score the first goal within the first ten minutes, whereas we used good offensive tactics towards their goal but they either defended it or we failed to hit the desired target. Through hard work we could achieve our first goal and the score was 1:1. In the second half Olten scored a remarkably quick 2:1, unfortunately luck was not on our side that day. Our attempts to hit the desired target consistently failed. As the time ran out we lost confidence and failed to play in a clean, logical and rational manner. The final minutes approached and we attempted scoring a tie. Thirty seconds before the game finished we gathered our efforts and scored a 2:2 through a short corner.

All in all we are on the right track to winning the finals, but we still have room to improve. However, confidence and will is a big issue that will need to be focused. We must be at the best possible athletic level for the first and second February, where the final round in Basel Rankof is held.

Nicholas Boehnlein