- News release
Joosje Burg’s late winner sends Den Bosch to Final
Den Bosch women have qualified for the final of the playoffs for the sixth time in a row and for the 27th (!) time in the last 28 seasons. On their own pitch at the Oosterplas, the reigning national champion was too strong for Kampong in the second semi-final 3-2. In a hectic last quarter, the nerve-racking match seemed to end in shoot-outs, but in the end Joosje Burg dealt the final blow to the Utrechters.
It was Kampong that gave the home team two huge scares in the first quarter. In the seventh minute, Bente van der Veldt gratefully took advantage of a through ball from the right side: her backhand shot ended up against the board behind goalkeeper Laurette Abelen, but she appeared to have hit the ball with the convex side. Not much later, Van der Veldt fired another flaming shot at Abelen, who saved superbly and worked the ball over the bar. That life-size chance was preceded by sloppy ball loss by Imme van der Hoek.
A minute before half-time, Luna Fokke scored Kampong's first penalty corner. Charlotte Hoctin Boes dragged hard on Abelen, after which the ball suddenly came in front of Iris de Kemp's stick: she tapped the ball high against the ropes and caused a shockwave at Oosterplas: 0-1.
What followed after half-time was a second half in which both teams played hockey under high tension. There were chances for De Wit and Burg (whose shot was cataclysmically saved by Backers) and finally, in the 39th minute, it was Matla who cashed in on the fifth Bossche penalty corner with a devastating strike: 1-1. The way the goalgetter celebrated her equaliser showed a mix of frustration, joy and fanaticism.
Matla then embellished a series of penalty corners while dribbling on her own and from that a penalty stroke resulted in the 53rd minute after a ball on the body of line stop Noor de Baat. Matla did not let that outside chance go unused: 2-1 and a huge blow for the hard-working Kampong.
In the closing stages, Kampong supporters clapped their hands before their eyes after an equally dazzling and surprising outburst from striker Iris de Kemp. Her shot splashed onto the crossbar via Abelen. Not much later, Matla clumsily slashed at Charlotte Hoctin Boes' stick: penalty corner for Kampong. As in the first half, Hoctin Boes dragged hard on Abelen, who could not handle the ball properly and it will roll over the goal line behind her: an equaliser that made the box of Kampong fans explode.
In a frantic final phase, everyone at Oosterplas was already at a shoot-out series, when a high ball in the Kampong circle via Lieve Wijckmans suddenly came in front of the stick of Joosje Burg. The latter eagerly tapped in and put Den Bosch ahead 3-2 in extremis. A lead that at that moment nobody had really reckoned with, not even the players of the home club themselves.
