Fun facts from the women's first half of the competition

Sosha Benninga's Klapperboom fears

Striker Sosha Benninga contributed to Kampong's good performance this season with five goals. The Utrecht side are in fifth place in the league table and still have plenty of chances to qualify for the play-offs for the national title. The special thing about Benninga's five goals is that they all fell in away games. At Kampong's home ground De Klapperboom, the goalscorer is still at the hateful zero.

Looking further back than this first half of the competition, we see that Benninga has been suffering from Klapperboom-fear for some time: since her transfer from Amsterdam to Kampong, she has never scored in a home game. Her 14 league goals since the 2023-2024 season all fell outside Utrecht.

'If anyone can tell me why it is that I don't score at home, I'd be delighted,' Benninga says in response to the equally striking and curious statistic. 'It doesn't confuse me, because fortunately I do score my goals. But it still gnaws at me. After all, I get plenty of chances in home games. I was also unlucky that a goal in the home game with SCHC was disallowed. Somehow it's harder for us to score at home than away.'

Slowstarter Gorzelany

With eleven goals, Agustina Gorzelany did not leave herself indifferent in the first half of the competition. Of all players in the Hoofdklasse, only Den Bosch icon Frédérique Matla scored more goals (thirteen) than Amsterdam's Argentine penalty corner specialist.

As with Benninga, there is something remarkable about Gorzelany's goals: she has only scored in the second half of all her games so far: six goals in the third quarter and five in the last quarter. With 11 goals, Gorzelany can call herself major league top scorer after halftime.

Fay-nomenal lightning start

Amsterdam attacker Fay van der Elst shot up like a comet this season. The Dutch international scored seven goals in the first half of the season. She had already reached that number after the first six rounds: she scored twice against Tilburg (0-7), twice against HDM (5-1) and once against Hurley (1-2 win), HGC (5-2 win) and Rotterdam (0-3).

What is also striking about Amsterdam's goalie: she often scores her goals in the first quarter. No fewer than five of her seven goals fell in the first 15 minutes of a game. Twice the 26-year-old striker even scored within the first two minutes. With that, she can call herself the lightning starter of the Hoofdklasse for the time being.