Karlsruhe fistball team wins adh-Open in Düsseldorf!

In addition to the title, the second team managed to achieve a good fifth place, which rounded off the positive results of the Karlsruhe team.

An important point for the sport of fistball was that each team must have at least two non-active players on the field in order to also introduce new students to the sport.
With almost 100 participants from a total of 15 university cities, the organizers succeeded in organizing the largest university championship in fistball to date.

In the group phase, the first team from Karlsruhe secured third place in Group A. This qualified them for the quarterfinals against the runner-up in Group B from Mittweida in Saxony. But against the powerful attacking strokes of the Saxon attacker in the second half, the Karlsruhe defense struggled and the team did not get into the important build-up play well. Despite the defeat, the players were looking forward to the final placement match for fifth place. In this match, team captain Matthias Hufnagel did everything he could to end the tournament day with a victory. Highly motivated, the team went up against the fistballers from the University of Bochum, with whom they had already competed vigorously the night before. After a good start, the Karlsruhe team did not let them take the lead and thus secured fifth place. "I am totally satisfied with the great weekend and the good fifth place!" fistball rookie Raphael Kasprzik was happy after the match.

Group B was even more successful for the second Karlsruhe team. With full steam the team around the two Bundesliga players Kai and Thilo Braun secured the group victory and qualified directly for the semi-finals. In the Baden duel against the friendly fistballers from Heidelberg for a place in the final, the team from the fan city got off to a weak start. Due to avoidable attacking errors and coordination problems with the dangerously short balls played by the Heidelberg team, they quickly found themselves trailing 6:1. It was only after a tactical change that the team finally got a grip on the balls and a long chase ensued. "In the exciting semi-final, we were only able to pull away shortly before the end, so it's even nicer that it still worked out!" announced defender Niklas Kirchenbauer, who had taken part in a fistball tournament for the first time. In the final, the team had the Leipzig team safely under control, especially due to an excellent defensive performance by all players, and thus won the German university championship undefeated!

Team manager Matthias Hufnagel and Kai Braun were delighted with the great results of both teams: "We trained the whole semester for our season highlight and especially prepared our fistball rookies for this tournament. That paid off for us in the end. All in all, it was a great weekend in Düsseldorf, where the activities off the field were not neglected either ;-)!" The victory in the mixed tournament was secured by the University of Lüneburg.

In action were: Raphael Kasprzik, Amareth Sivongsa, Michael Maier, Markus Heimann, Niklas Kirchenbauer, Kai Braun, Thilo Braun, Dominik Schneider and Matthias Hufnagel.

In the next summer semester, there will again be a fistball beginners' course for all those interested. Perhaps several teams can be inspired for this event again and thus make an attractive course possible.