The second of our German teams is UHC Hamburg. Runners up the past 2 years, Janne Müller-Wieland is hoping for third time lucky…
A stalwart member of UHC Hamburg since she was 6 years old, some 26 years playing for the same club, something pretty unique in these times!
She laughed when we mentioned what she does in her “free time” “Unfortunately, my free time is very limited, but when I do have some time I enjoy travelling, exploring new things & places and spending time with family and friends. My other passion next to hockey is entrepreneurship, I work in a startup so I’m lucky I get to spend a lot of time in the startup world when I’m not playing/training.”
Their first game is against the hosts AH&BC, Janne conceded that this was quite a challenge “Playing the first game against AH&BC is a great challenge. They are the hosts and a very strong team. Our semi-final last year against them was very tough, so I believe this year will be no different. They’ve got a squad full of good players, so I guess we will have to watch them all… Easier said than done.”
However, she is very much looking forward to playing in the Wagener Stadium “It’s always a special venue, even more so with the new stadium now! The home crowd will be a big advantage for AH&BC, but I personally don’t mind fans being against us. I’m sure it will be a great atmosphere with hockey fans celebrating good hockey, that’s all that counts for such games.”
We spoke about the importance of women and girls watching women’s sport “When I was young I didn’t really know we had a 1st Ladies team in the club, I only knew our men’s team and was disappointed that my father wasn’t playing in the team. (Which was ridiculous anyway as he was far too old and had only played hockey for a couple of years ). I think it’s great if younger players can watch, learn from and get inspired by women’s top sport – I’m glad there’s a free live stream making it available for anyone.”
Click here for our preview of the 10th and final EHCC as we move to an EHL Women in 2020.