“Good level”, “interesting in terms of sport” and relatively few game cancellations: the season in the women’s Bundesliga has so far been running remarkably smoothly despite the very complicated conditions and offers exciting competition, especially at the top. Summing up after a good half of the playing time since the start of the season in October U18 women’s national coach Franziska Busch.
“The teams are handling the situation very well. There is a good level between the teams. It's very balanced - and that makes things very interesting in terms of sport. “It’s exactly what we want, a balanced Bundesliga,” she says.
In their opinion, the teams are making the best possible of the current circumstances and the players have quickly gotten used to the slightly different conditions. Everyone involved is happy that they can play due to the professional league status. The ERC Ingolstadt leads in front of the ECDC Memmingen Indians and the ESC Planegg-Würmtal the table. With Nicola Eisenschmid and Marie Delarbre from ERC Ingolstadt Two national players are also the top scorers in the league. According to Busch, the clubs at the top of the table were to be expected there too. "Ingolstadt is a very balanced and strong team." But no team in the top ranks is undefeated, "which means anything can happen," says Busch. According to Busch, the Cologne EC "the Sharks", the newcomer this season, which is in seventh and last place in the table, needed some time to adapt to the new circumstances.
“In my opinion, Cologne have now gotten used to the Bundesliga after a period of getting used to it and I think they have now arrived in the Bundesliga.”
With a view to the World Cup in April, the Olympic qualifying tournament in November this year and the recently canceled international matches against Switzerland last December, Busch also sees the women's national team facing special challenges: “Unfortunately, we lack the international comparisons that we would have planned I enjoyed playing against Switzerland at Christmas. That's why it's difficult to classify it at the moment. What can be said is that we are working hard and are prepared. It’s very difficult to say what it looks like in international comparison.”
In November of last year, in order to resume the women's Bundesliga after the interruption, it was decided to adapt the game mode based on the current situation. Instead of playoffs, there will be a deciding tournament for the title for the first time. It has not yet been decided where this deciding tournament will take place, but the date will probably be the weekend of the 20th/21st. March 2021. The top four in the table will compete against each other in the semi-finals on Saturday, and third place and the final will be played on Sunday. However, there is the possibility of holding the tournament a week earlier; plans for this are in the final stages.
Apart from a few game cancellations due to the corona pandemic, “we are getting through the season surprisingly well”, explained DEB-League leader Markus Schubert. He also says that there are sufficient alternative dates for canceled games and that sufficient buffer time has been planned. “We reacted flexibly to this lockdown in November and things are going really well. I am confident that there will be a champion from the Women’s Bundesliga this season.”
