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One of the most interesting sporting traditions in women's soccer is the Hallenpokal der Frauen. Each winter, top Frauen-Bundesliga teams gather together for an indoor tournament. The games are fast paced, quick, intense, yet fun. For the last 21 years, this tournament has been a staple of women's soccer and has been a time for teams to come together and have fun. As fun as the tournament is though, Bayern had a rough go.
Bayern started the tournament drawn into group B with Turbine Potsdam, FF USV Jena, and 1899 Hoffenheim. The reds won their first match against defending champion Potsdam 4-1 before beating Hoffenheim 2-1 and drawing Jena 3-3 to end group play. This performance put them through to the quarterfinals, where they faced off against VfL Wolfsburg, who finished their group in third place.
Currently Wolfsburg is top of the Frauen-Bundesliga, while Bayern is in second place. Having these two teams meet in the quarterfinals provided an interesting matchup early on. Bayern used both Katja Schroffenegger and Manuela Zinsberger in goal during the tournament, but was unable to stop Wolfsburg and dropped the match 4-1. The loss knocked the reds out of the tournament in a disappointing way.
Wolfsburg went onto the finals of the cup where they met Bayer Leverkusen. The match was tight before Leverkusen scored the game winning goal to earn a 1-0 victory and the cup.
With the close of this years tournament, German soccer will be saying goodbye to the 21 year old tournament. FIFA rules on Futsal require the games be played differently, and because of this the DFB is changing how indoor soccer will be played.
Now that the tournament is over, Bayern will turn it's attention towards it's American winter training camp in Florida that is coming up at the end of the month. For those who speak German, there is an excellent Google Hangout video with forward Eunice Beckmann from the tournament.