Haag 88 to Prague 2024

The Prague Wheel Open is the highlight of our wheelchair hockey season. This European club tournament for floorball is the chance to compete at the highest level. As Dutch champions, we from Haag 88 naturally belong on this European stage.

To participate, we had to find sponsors and train hard, preferably on a wooden floor like in Prague. After weeks of preparation, videos and updates, we loaded our sports wheelchairs into a Volkswagen Transporter and began our journey to Prague.

Once there, after an early practice and team building, we started the real work: the tournament. Our coach had analyzed all our opponents and with this knowledge we went into battle. We won the first group match convincingly 3-0, but in the second match, we narrowly lost 1-0 to FBC Stiri, which reduced our chances of first place in the group. After a win over Plzen, we finished second, which meant a quarterfinal against Dutch club “Doing”. Despite their strong defense, our strikers were sharper and we won 2-0.

The semifinal against Nacka HI, the Swedish champion and defending champion, was a nerve-wracking battle. We took the lead, but Nacka equalized just before time. The match had to be decided by shoot-outs, a nerve-wracking process, especially for me as a goalkeeper. We shot the first ball and I managed to stop all three of Nacka’s shoot-outs. We were in the finals!

In the final awaited us the formidable opponents of Stiri, who had previously beaten us in the group phase and last year in the semifinals, time for revenge. It became a blistering match with many goals (always difficult as a goalkeeper). After a 2-0 lead, we lost control for 1 minute and it was tied again, but recovered and ran out to 4-2. Stiri remained dangerous, but with 5-4, we won the coveted European title.

We were European club champions! To make matters worse, three of our players were also named best players of the tournament. This was really something to be proud of!