To religious followers of the 2. Bundesliga West (I know you’re out there!), it’s clear that SGMGK is a second-half team. During the entire season, there was only one game in which our girls in blue and green didn’t score as many or – more commonly – more goals in the second half, sometimes even recovering from a losing first half. While such a game is certainly exciting for spectators, it’s pretty nerve-wracking on the field. The pattern is simple: step on the field pumped up and ready to go, fail to mesh quite as planned, use a couple timeouts and halftime to discuss what went wrong, then rally in the second half. Nothing was different last Sunday in Dortmund.
On an unusually warm day, the players of the Spielgemeinschaft came together in Dortmund via bus, train, tram, and car from North Rhine-Westphalia, Lower Saxony, and Hessen. It would be their final game of the season and they were looking forward to working on their team chemistry one last time before being tested against teams from the 1. Bundesliga West in relegation (May 20th). After witnessing Dortmund lose 7:16 against Paderborn, the girls of SGMGK might have taken the field with a little too much confidence. Though Göttingen’s Beyer was quick to put one in the back of the net (assisted by Kaiser) before the first minute was up, Dortmund answered less than a minute later with an assisted goal of their own. Soon after, it became clear to the captains that the team wasn’t playing to the best of their ability; both timeouts were taken to motivate the team and adjust their tactics to better match the opponent’s strengths and weaknesses. However, the brief timeouts and alternating goals from Garcia (Göttingen) and Kaiser (Kassel) were unfortunately not enough to keep up with Dortmund, and the first half ended with SGMGK trailing 5:6.
Halftime is where the magic happens. With a full 10 minutes to collect their thoughts and discuss, the team was able to solidify their strategy. Mama-to-be Kathrin (Kassel) offered particularly helpful insights from her outside viewpoint, and the lineup was adjusted slightly to give the defenders a break. SGMGK headed into the second half motivated and ready to change the course of the game – a turnaround that happened within the first two minutes through consecutive goals by Garcia. Although a Dortmund goal followed soon after, solid teamwork helped SGMGK build up a substantial lead. With goals from Hund (Marburg), Schmidtmann (Göttingen), Kaiser, und Quebbemann (Marburg) – assisted by Kaiser and Carle (Göttingen) – SGMGK was able to secure the win 13:9.
The girls headed back their separate ways, exhausted, happy, sunburnt, and excited for relegation!
Roster (goals|assists): Ackermann, Beyer (1), Breuer, Caspers, Carle (0|2), Garcia (4), Holzer, Hund (2), Kaiser (3|3), Loos, Mandel, Maslennykova, Quebbemann (1), Rinne, Schmidtmann (2), Sommerkorn
