Switzerland and defending champion Germany have advanced to the final of the IFA 2018 Fistball Women’s World Championship. In two exciting semi-final matches over five sets, the Swiss squad beat host Austria 3:2, and defending champion Germany won against Brazil.

Switzerland Beats Austria in Semi-Final Thriller

In front of their home crowd, host Austria aimed to reach the World Championship final for the third time in their semi-final match against Switzerland. The spectators witnessed a highly exciting game in which the Swiss team took the lead in sets twice. The game stayed open until mid of the fifth set when the Swiss team pulled ahead and sealed the deal with an 11:6 set win. Switzerland has thus qualified for tomorrow’s final, it is their third participation in a final after 1998 and 2002, respectively. “The atmosphere here is simply fantastic. It goes without saying that the majority of the audience rooted for Austria, but here are, however, many Swiss fans who came especially for us. Their cheering helped us a lot. The matches are tough and we are over the moon right now”, said Swiss defender Katrin Lüchinger. Austria’s Jana Pinsker analyzed the loss of her team, “We fought our way back numerous times, but made many unforced mistakes. We didn’t manage to be as consequent as we usually are.”

Result Austria – Switzerland 2:3 (09:11, 11:07, 07:11, 11:03, 06:11)

Germany Wins Re-Match of 2016 Final

In a re-match of the 2016 final, defending champion Germany and Brazil played for the second final spot in the 2018 Women’s World Championship. The fans in the ÖBV arena, on TV and livestream witnessed again a fantastic fistball match at the highest level with long rallies and great saves. Both teams were evenly matched with Germany taking the lead in sets twice. Each time Brazil bounced back and equalized. The game thus went into the fifth set in which the German team eventually narrowly kept the upper hand. “It was an unbelievable game and we are very happy to have again qualified for the final. We now need to regenerate so that we can go fully fit into the final against Switzerland”, said German attacker Stephanie Dannecker after the game. “We discussed tactics beforehand, but could not stick to it for the entire match. I am really proud of my defense, they played really good. Our key player was, of course, Tatiane [Schneider], who, unfortunately, did not have her best day. That happens. We are looking forward to tomorrow. Congratulations to Germany”, said Sergio Muller, Brazil’s assistant coach. His team will play for the Bronze medal in tomorrow’s match against host Austria.

Result Germany – Brazil 3:2 (12:10, 05:11, 12:10, 08:11, 11:07)

In addition to the two semi-final games, we also witnessed the match for the seventh place in the tournament between Italy and Serbia. While the newcomers from Serbia kept in reach in all three sets, the more experienced Italian side kept the upper hand and took the seventh place. In the last set, the Serbian team was on the brink of winning the set, and thus demonstrated again their potential for the future.

Argentina and Poland lost their quarter-final matches against Switzerland and Brazil, respectively. They are thus playing for the fifth place in the tournament tomorrow.

Furthermore, three matches of the President’s Cup took place featuring the teams of the Czech Republic, Belgium and New Zealand who all played against each other in a round-robin format. The Czech Republic won both its games and thus faces New Zealand, who won against Belgium, again in tomorrow’s final of the President’s Cup.

The final-day matches start tomorrow at 1 pm (CEST). The final between Germany and Switzerland will be played at 6 pm. ORF Sport + will already broadcast from 3:50 pm the Bronze medal match between Austria and Brazil.

Host team Austria has qualified for the semi-final following an exciting match against the Brazilian squad. After the Austrians pulled ahead with a 2:0 lead, the Seleção bounced back and took the third set. The fourth set was a tight affair until the very last point: at 14:14 the Brazilian team is not able to defend a perfectly played ball by Austria’s attacker Ines Mayer. The hosts thus secured a 3:1 victory in sets, and now face the winner of the match Argentina versus Switzerland in the semi-final. “Before this game today we analyzed the Brazilian team and adjusted our line-up. We found a way to get control of the attacks. Our heads were in the game for the entire match and we played extremely concentrated. Everything worked out great for us and we are just so incredibly happy right now”, said Austria’s Teresa Pichler after the game.

Defending champion Germany has also advanced to the round of the last four by winning against Switzerland with 3:0. “This win against the Swiss team was very, very important for us so we can save our strength tomorrow. It was also important for our self-esteem, because it was the first team who put up a good fight”, said Germany’s defender Annika Bösch. The German team now faces the winner of the game Poland versus Brazil in the semi-final.

The surprise of the day was newcomer Poland who beat the experienced Italian side in a nail-biter and thus secured at least the sixth place in the tournament. The Argentinian team also advanced with a win over Serbia. The losers of these two matches – Italy and Serbia – now play against each other for the seventh place in the tournament.

As a novelty, this year’s World Championship features the President’s Cup. The two losing teams of the qualifiers for the double elimination – Belgium and New Zealand – and the Czech Republic who had finished sixth in Group B at the preliminary round will all play each other in a round-robin format. The two winners of these duels will then face each other again in the final of the President’s Cup – the winner of that match will both win the President’s Cup trophy and take the ninth place in the tournament.

The IFA 2018 Fistball Women’s World Championship continues tomorrow with eight games.

The two top contenders for the title, Brazil and Germany, have emerged as winners of their respective groups in the preliminary round of the IFA Fistball Women’s World Championship in Linz.

Brazil scored a 2:0 victory over the Swiss team to secure winning their group in an impressive manner. So far, the Seleção has not lost a single set in the tournament. The second place in the group went to the Swiss team who beat hosts Austria in the last match of the day. New Zealand finished the group stage on place four, ahead of their fellow newcomers from Belgium. In their direct duel, the New Zealanders prevailed against the Belgian team, scoring their first win in a World Championship. “It’s very exciting to have won our first match and we got a lot of good combos which is exciting. It was such a good opportunity and we are looking forward to the next though competition”, said New Zealand’s Melanie Vannoort after the match.

Defending champion Germany did not lose a set either, winning their group after a showdown against the Argentinian team who had won its first four matches in the group. Italy finished third, and the newcomers from Serbia and Poland on the fourth and fifth places, respectively. The Polish team won against the Czech Republic and thus scored their first victory at a World Championship. “We started really nervous in the first set and made many mistakes. I’d say it was our worst performance in this tournament. Fortunately, we eventually won the first set and managed to make quick points in the second set. We won 11:4 and it was a great game. We are really looking forward to tomorrow”, said Polish attacker Dominika Frydrych.

The IFA Fistball Women’s World Championship continues tomorrow with ten games, featuring the double elimination matches as well as the first two quarter finals.

The title contenders have started strongly into the tournament at the IFA 2018 Women’s World Championship in Linz, winning their respective matches.

Defending champion Germany showed excellent performances in its two games in Group B against the Czech Republic and Italy, respectively, losing altogether only eight points. The Argentinian team also drove home two victories against the Czech Republic and Serbia, respectively – the Argentinians are thus currently on the second place in the group.
Switzerland is ahead in Group A, winning its two matches confidently against the newcomers from Belgium and New Zealand. Tomorrow the Swiss squad will face both Brazil and Austria who already met today – in an exciting match the Brazilians eventually kept the upper hand over the host team. “It was a great match and we really showed our strength in the first set”, said Katharina Lackinger from Austrian team. “It was close and both attackers kept the defense rather busy. In the end the spark was missing and, unfortunately, we lost the game. A loss in the preliminary round is not so bad. If we play against Brazil again, we will beat them.”

The newcomers from Serbia, Poland and New Zealand impressed with strong matches. New Zealand’s defense delivered a strong performance against 2016 vice world champion Brazil, preventing several Brazilian points in a spectacular manner. Poland came out well of the starting block, winning a set against Italy. In particular impressive was the Serbian team – the team of coach Ivan Milenkovic was able to win a set against the experienced Argentinian team. In their match against Poland, the Serbian squad scored its first victory in an international tournament. The other newcomers – Poland, New Zealand and Belgium – will try to emulate the Serbian success tomorrow when the tournament continues with 14 matches, starting at 1 pm.

[wr_row width=”boxed” background=”none” solid_color_value=”#FFFFFF” solid_color_color=”#ffffff” gradient_color=”0% #FFFFFF,100% #000000″ gradient_direction=”vertical” repeat=”full” img_repeat=”full” autoplay=”yes” position=”center center” paralax=”no” border_width_value_=”0″ border_style=”solid” border_color=”#000″ div_padding_top=”10″ div_padding_bottom=”10″ div_padding_right=”10″ div_padding_left=”10″ ][wr_column span=”span12″ ][wr_text text_margin_top=”0″ text_margin_bottom=”0″ enable_dropcap=”no” appearing_animation=”0″ disabled_el=”no” ]Germany and Brazil won the title at the World Championships in Roxbury, USA. [/wr_text][wr_image image_file=”http://www.ifa-fistball.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/U18-WC-2018-Women.jpg” image_size=”full” link_type=”no_link” image_container_style=”no-styling” image_alignment=”center” appearing_animation=”0″ disabled_el=”no” ][/wr_image][wr_text text_margin_top=”0″ text_margin_bottom=”0″ enable_dropcap=”no” appearing_animation=”0″ disabled_el=”no” ]The U18 women from Germany remained undefeated throughout the tournament, beating Brazil 3:2 (11:06, 09:11, 07:11, 11:08, 14:12) in an exciting final. The team thus defended its 2016 title and became world champion for the fifth time. Austria won the bronze medal by beating Switzerland 3:0 (12:10, 11:07, 11:9). [/wr_text][wr_image image_file=”http://www.ifa-fistball.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/U18-WC-2018-Men.jpg” image_size=”full” link_type=”no_link” image_container_style=”no-styling” image_alignment=”center” appearing_animation=”0″ disabled_el=”no” ][/wr_image][wr_text #_EDITTED text_margin_top=”0″ text_margin_bottom=”0″ enable_dropcap=”no” appearing_animation=”0″ disabled_el=”no” ][wr_text text_margin_top=”0″ text_margin_bottom=”0″ enable_dropcap=”no” appearing_animation=”0″ disabled_el=”no” ] Brazil lost only against Austria 1:3 to the U18 men and coach Jorge Luiz Heck’s and Valdir Simione’s team remained undefeated after the double elimination. In the final, the South Americans won 3:1 (11:05, 11:05, 14:15, 11:08) against defending champion Germany. Austria took third place with a victory over Switzerland (11:03, 14:12, 11:03). [/wr_text][/wr_column][/wr_row]

Germany has successfully defended its title at The World Games 2017 in Wroclaw, Poland. In an exciting final, the team of coach Olaf Neuenfeld won against Switzerland 4:3 (09:11, 07:11, 11:06, 07:11, 11:08, 12:10, 11:09).

In a rematch of the final 2013 in Colombia, the German team delivered a strong team performance and won after the last World and European Championships also the World Games title – despite bad luck in the first match, where Germany lost its main attacker Patrick Thomas due to a serious shoulder injury. In the subsequent matches, Steve Schmutzler, Lukas Schubert and Nick Trinemeier had to compensate for the loss of Thomas, and confirmed their world-class levels. AT first the fans witnessed a powerful start by the Swiss team, pulling ahead early in the match with a 2:0 lead. The Germans could bounce back and narrowed the gap to 1:2 with a superb performance in the third set. The Swiss team kept cool and was all over Germany in the fourth set, extending their lead to 3:1. Despite the set deficit Germany kept up their level, showed no signs of surrender and got back into the game winning the fifth and the sixth set to level the match. Driven by the huge number of fans the German team finished their masterpiece in the deciding set. This epic 7-set win lifts Germany on top of The World Games podium for the sixth time.
“I am speechless after such a game”, Olaf Neuenfeld, the German coach, admitted.
“Winning this game is more than sensational.” Spiker Steve Schmutzler, who scored points with almost every serve during the last set, analysed the match. “We worked hard for winnig set 7. I took a lot of risk – successfully!”
Oliver Lang, the Swiss coach, tried to analyze the reasons for the close defeat: “Probably we are not yet used to winnig such a game. Germany has much experience with such a situation and could only win after Patick’s injury.”

Before the final, Austria and Brazil matched for the bronze medal. The Austrians won 3:2 in an exciting game. Both teams showed spectacular saves and were head-to-head until (11:05, 10:12, 01:11, 12:10, 05:11). The Seleção had to compensate for the loss of Matheus Lammel who had broken his wrist yesterday. Klaus Thaller defends strong and made the difference with a strong performance – Austria took the bronze medal for the third time in a row.

Overall, the spectators of the fistball tournament witnessed exciting matches with the best four teams head-to-head throughout the tournament. “I have not experienced such a balanced performance at the top level for a long time”, German coach Olaf Neuenfeld said already on Monday. In total, more than 3000 spectators followed the competition at the centre court of Olawka stadium throughout the four days of the tournament.

The team around Competition Manager Christoph Oberlehner and Technical Delegate Winfried Kronsteiner, has ensured outstanding conditions together with a team of volunteers from Poland. Even inclement weather on Sunday could not derail the organization, as the games were temporarily moved to court 2.

The preliminary round featuring the six best mens’ teams was incredibly exciting with four squads – Austria, Germany, Brazil and Switzerland – head-to-head until the last matches. In the end, the Austrian team won the preliminary round – the team of coach Martin Weiß only lost its encounter against defending champion Germany. Both, Argentina and Chile did not proceed into the semifinals. However, in particular Chile showed strong form in the first days with close matches against Austria and Brazil. After four days of exciting competition, the Chilean team took the fifth place, following a victory over Argentina.