Fistball World Cup team loses by a whisker

The SKW team almost re-wrote history at last weekend’s Fistball Team World Cup in the men's division after they were leading 16:12 against the Austrian team FCB Askoe Urfahr Linz in the first set. SKW, however, somehow gave away their advantage and ended up losing 20:17 to the Austrians.

But the SKW men's team did extremely well by teaching their European opponents that they were a team to be reckoned with after also leading in their game against the Brazilian's Sogipa Porto Allegre. According to Harald Fülle, the chairman of the Fistball Association of Namibia, “ … the reverse games on Saturday brought world class fistball at its best to Namibia, and the men’s final was rated by the president of the International Fistball Federation as one of the Top 5 finals of all times”. The SKW ladies team could not make use of the home ground advantage as the other teams went all out to avoid giving them the upper hand. The first team to beat the SKW ladies team were the Germans, TV Voerde who won 2: 0 a victory they fought really hard for, according to Fülle. In the end, the South Americans Sogipa Porto Allegre decided that the title has to go to Brazil and did the least expected against TV Voerde.

But they had to win in two sets, and that is exactly what they did, with a set that lasted for nearly an hour. According to Fülle, the final set was “ … a set that had it all, awesome power, finesse, tactics on highest level, and a winner, that nobody expected. Sogpia Porto Allegre won the final set 21:19 and was crowned for the 8th time Team Fistball World Cup Winner”. Fülle said that it looked like the European dominance in fistball would continue, as both the European champions, ladies and men won all their games in straight sets. But in the final that Fülle called “one of the most dramatic Fistball World Cup events in recent history, Sogpia Porto Allegre became the first club to win the double - the ladies and men’s World Team Cup”.

But he said that “ ... the only sad issue was, that none of the Sports Commission members responded or had time to attend this World Class event”. The event drew big names in international fistball like the President of the International Fistball Association, Ernesto Dohnalek. After the end of the cup, Dohnalek suggested that it was time for Namibia to host a World Championship again, hinting that Namibia had an excellent chance to host the World Championships for ladies in 2010 as well as another Team World Cup in 2008.