From Sunday, the handball players from Aalsmeer and Volendam will compete for the national championship. In a best-of-three series, the North Holland clubs will determine who will become champion of the Netherlands.
“I expect a fight. They are both two physical teams. I like this kind of handball”, Volendam coach Mark Ortega looks ahead. The American is in his last season in Volendam. His wife is expecting a third child and the young family has chosen to return to America.
Aalsmeer has been the proud champion of the Netherlands in recent years. In the last four years, Bert Bouwer’s team won the national title three times. There was no national champion in the 2019-2020 season due to corona. “The more often you take the title, the closer you get to losing. Of course you try to postpone that. Of course we want to go for four in a row,” says Bouwer.