Vitkovice shine at first X3M Berlin Open

It was most likely the major upset of the whole competition. Vitkovice, testing a sum of young players and struggling in some of the previous matches, won the final match of the premier X3M Berlin Open against the favourite Grasshopper Zürich with 6:5.

A compelling final between Vitkovice and Grasshopper Zürich was the last act of the most ambitious club tournament ever hosted on German soil. 16 mostly elite league clubs were facing each other in the German capital from 26th – 28th August.

After Kloten-Bülach Jets grabbed the third spot beating Bohemians Prag clearly with 6:0, the Seelenbinderhalle settled for the tournament highlight on Sunday from 14:00.

Grasshoppers who defeated the Jets in the Semis 5:4 were dominant in the tournament before, whereas Vitkovice had some hard time already in the group phase (2:1 against German vice champion MFBC Leipzig) and entered the final with a 2:1 win on penalties against Bohemians.

The final match was headed by the renowned veterans of international floorball Petr Cerny and Jiri Janousek, who were also testing a new head set solution for better referee communication at the Berlin event.

Vitkovice started with two early goals and maintained their lead until the last period. Though Grasshoppers tied the score up to 5:5 in the 57th minute of the game the young Czechs found a snappy answer only one minute later and celebrated a surprising upset.

The individual awards were handed over to Grasshopper’s Thomas Wolfer (Top Scorer), Vitkovice’s Patrik Suchanek (Best Player) and Lukas Soucek (Best Goalie) and Döbeln’s Toni Schnelle (Fair Play Award).

„I think, this event was one more proof, that Germany is on the rise,“ appreciates co-organizer Jan Kratochvil. „The media echo was huge, the teams and matches impressive and all volunteers fantastic. And we’re just getting started.“