Cortina wins the rematch of last season’s Tyrol Cup Final
Observations & Opinions / Week Three
From Harold Abrahams – Special Correspondent for TSS
Munich, Germany
A Week with the Tyrol League’s Only 3-0-0 Team
The Zurich Financiers’ Team President, Adrian Koller, placed a call to this correspondent ten days ago and invited me to the team’s training field overlooking a lovely cove on Lake Zurich. Koller and his Deputy Team Manager, a precocious 26-year old woman named Lina Montavon, leveled much good-natured ribbing at yours truly, reminding me that throughout the 2022-23 season, I wrote about the Financiers twice: once to mention their infamous “Financial Collapse of ‘74” (a cheeky phrase, of course, born during a year when Zurich imploded on defense and scored less than a skot a game) and the second time to characterize one loss as due to a “slipshod effort” by a “mediocre” team. I defended that latter remark turned in by a team that finished 9-9-0 last season – which is mediocre by definition.
Koller agreed that such a record was forgettable, yes, but his invitation to me was designed to allow me to witness the new dedication to fitness and teamwork the team has embraced. On this day, I watched a crisp 75-minute regimen during which Captain Marc Oberholler encouraged one of the younger rosters in the Tyrol League as they worked on strategy and positioning.
While I enjoyed visiting Switzerland’s largest city and its ambitious Wiesespiel squad, I daresay the Munich Lederhosen did not, as the Financiers became the only 3-0-0 team in the top division as they went to Bavaria and subdued the Hose 14-6. I am not certain that Zurich has the firepower and speed to win the Tyrol Cup, but an average score of 22.6 to 10 so far might provide Herr Koller with reason enough to chastise me further for my current estimation. Munich grumbled and sulked throughout their punchless effort, leaving last season’s 4th-placed team at 0-3-0, a beginning the Lederhosen haven’t endured for 23 seasons. Owner Augustus Gloop and Jurgen Hawksteader, Munich’s young talisman, withdrew from the Meadow soon after the final bell rang and were heard to exchange heated words soon after.
The Match of the Week, however, was played in Italy as Cortina d’Ampezzo welcomed Kitzbühel to the Dolomites for an early-season rematch of the Tyrol Cup Final from last April Fools Day. In that most tense of matches seven months ago, the Hahnenkamms held on for a 3-2 victory that wrested the Tyrol Cup away from the team that won the regular season. The Riflers had no trouble this time around in scoring points, earning a clear 25-17 win against their Austrian rivals. The Kamms’ Manager, Ernst Ells, offered his usual frank and gracious assessment of the match, pegging the men from Cortina as the team to beat. No argument here.
Finally, in this week’s finest illustration of the vicissitudes of this unpredictable game, Salzburg and Matterhorn, two of the winningest teams in Austrian League history and, in the case of the Edelweiss, a playoff team last season, scored 1 point between them in convincing defeats. You must attend these matches because, as each Saturday proves, one never knows what will happen on these trampled-down patches of grass where swift, strong men full of endeavor play the Meadow Game.