On Saturday at 5:30 p.m., the women of the ASKÖ UHC Linz will play against the Vienna floorball club in front of their home crowd for the championship title. Game 1 in Vienna ended with a 3:1 away win for the Linz/Rum syndicate, who can now win the final series (best-of-three) with a second win at home.
Moment! What is floorball actually? To put it simply, floorball or floorball is ice hockey in the gym. The sport, which was developed in Scandinavia in the 1970s as summer training for ice hockey players, is played with sticks and a perforated plastic ball, but without protective gear. The rules, the playing field and the course of the game are based on those of skating on the ice.
ASKÖ FSG Linz/Rum could win their third title in four years on Saturday: after the first Bundesliga triumph in the 2018/2019 season, the game community was crowned champion after the playoffs were canceled due to the pandemic. In the previous season, the Linz women failed in the final at Zell am See. Now Linz wants to celebrate the title in front of their own audience. And one player more than all the others: Captain Katharina Prinz is getting married on the day when the decisive game 3 in Vienna would have been scheduled. A win on Saturday would turn the championship title into a kind of wedding gift.
Goalkeeper Olga Rüffler and defender Lena Rachlinger spoke to the OÖ Nachrichten in the icebreaker podcast about what could be the decisive game on Saturday:
OÖN: How excited are you for the second final game?
Rachlingen: That’s when your heart melts. The whole family will be there, friends will come, it will be a very special atmosphere. I’m really looking forward to it.
ruffler: I can only agree. We’ve seen it before and we know what’s in store for us. It will be a special feeling.
With the experience of two titles: What role does nervousness play before a game like this?
Rachlingen: I’m nervous before every game, the adrenaline kicks in as soon as I get there. And then in the finale, it goes even higher. You’re even more tense. It’s about everything and we know that we have to give even more than before.
How bad are the hours before the game?
Rachlingen: Really bad. As soon as you get up you wonder why it’s taking so long.
ruffler: Watching TV, going for a walk or drinking coffee – you need something to do during the day because your mind is already on the game. Three hours before kick-off we go into the hall. Then it will be better.
What will matter?
Rachlingen: We know the Viennese and the Viennese know us. You know how your opponent is playing. And that’s why you have to dig deep into your bag of tricks in this game.
ruffler: We must be ready. We can do everything else anyway.
What significance would this title have for the floorball location Linz?
Rachlingen: I think that the sport and the club only benefit when attention increases. Maybe we can use that for the younger generation too.
Listen to the full podcast conversation here:
Source: Nachrichten
