3RD PLACE x REDEMPTION x VIDEO HIGHLIGHTS

Hi All!

The last time I wrote was just before the semi final of the Hoofdklasse with OZ. We had to play HGC, the team of Vogels, Jackson, Middleton, Garza,…. The first game we played was at home and we won 4-3. The day after we played the second game at HGC where we lost 3-1. I remember that Vogels was in good shape that game and stopped us from scoring and they scored their chances. The following Wednesday we played the third and final game against HGC that we also lost 3-1. I guess the better team won but we were really dissapointed because everybody was allready dreaming of the final.

After that it was hard to still be motivated to play the 3rd-4th place match. We had one more week of training ahead and then the last games of the season! Last year we also had to play the 3rd-4th play-off and we lost from Rotterdam in 2 games. We missed the final and a spot in the EHL so we came up empty handed. The team didn’t want to make that mistake again. Training for a full year and being left with nothing! We played the first game at Laren. We lost on golden goal just 2 minutes before the end. It was very hard and frustrating to lose like that after almost 90 minutes of hockey! After that game we had another week of training, I can tell you, at that moment the season seemed very long! We played the second match at home on saturday and we won 3-2. Of course we were very happy but we knew we had still one hard match to go. That day Bloemendaal became champions for the 5th year in a row!! That made our third and final game on sunday the last game of the season! The next day we won 4-3 at home against Laren in the final match of the season! Our youngest player Jelle Galema scored the 4-2 and that made him the match winner in the end!

It was truly a great feeling after training hard the whole year. We acheived it together, we got ups and downs throughout the season but we could end on a very positive note. It was also the last game of our coaches Roger Van Gent and Toon Siepman and also of our LEGENDARY manager Bart Gielen. So we were very happy we could end like this. We had a good party after but I will spare you guys the details! I personally was also happy with my form in the play offs scoring 4 goals out of 6 matches which was my best performance in the 2 seasons I played for OZ. I hope it will only will get better! Next year the team stays the same only the young Belgian talent Simon Gougnard will be joining us. I played with him in the national team and he is a really skillfull player, he is only 19 years old and he will learn a lot playing for OZ. It will be interesting to see him grow as a player. And of course he is a really good guy off the pitch as well so that will be fun!

After the last game on the 13th of June I had 1 week off and then I started my fitness training for the national team. We started our full time period on 26th of June. We train from 4pm until 8 pm with one free day a week. And we play 10 practice matches. As I am writing we allready played 8 practice games. The last 2 days we played New Zealand, we won the first game 5-3 and lost the second 1-0. Our last 2 games of the period we play Australia. One tomorrow and the last game on monday. After that the full time period will be over and it is time for a vacation!!!! It has been a very long season, I had my downs with 3 injuries throughout the season but I had some really great moments also and that was worth all the hard work! Nevertheless I am happy it is almost over and I can relax for 2 or 3 weeks before starting the preparation with OZ again! I am going with my girlfriend Jolien to France by car. Paris, Nice, Saint-tropez,…. Should be really good and I am looking forward to it!

You can watch the highlights of out semi finals series below, however our 3rd place series was not recorded by NOS.

Enjoy watching the champions trophy and good luck to all the G-team members who are playing the tournament and also good luck to the G-team members who play the European cup U21!

Take care,

Thomas

SEMI FINAL GAME 1

SEMI FINAL GAME 2

SEMI FINAL GAME 3