WITHtwo games separate the German national ice hockey team from making it into the final of this world championship. More research than ever before, the players had spoken before the tournament about feeling mature enough to win a medal.
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It would be the first at a World Cup since 1953. At the end of the group phase, they proved that they were able to cope with the pressure that results from high ambitions on the one hand and unpredictable defeats on the other: With a 2-1 (2: 2) 0, 0: 1, 0: 0) against Latvia, the selection of national coach Toni Söderholm secured the necessary points at the last minute, which were absolutely necessary to reach the quarter-finals. This Thursday (3:15 p.m. at Sport1) there will be a duel with Switzerland in Riga for a place in the semi-finals.
In the hours before the opening bully, the coach got his team in the mood for a duel in which nerves will also play a decisive role. “Emotions are incredibly important in ice hockey,” said the 43-year-old, “it will depend on us being able to control them.”
The Swiss see themselves as favorites
Encounters with the confederates are always on the program for selected actors of the German Ice Hockey Federation (DEB) from teenage days: until the outbreak of the corona pandemic there was not a year who did not regularly check their form in strength tests with their neighbors. “It’s going to be a great quarter-finals, I can hardly wait,” said Korbinian Holzer, who last worked for a Russian club and has been wearing the Adler Mannheim jersey from summer on.
The rivalry with Switzerland, which reached (and lost) the World Cup final in 2013 and 2018, has grown steadily. And Söderholm is not lacking in respect, he praised its constant “upward trend” at major international events. Group A finished eighth in the world rankings as second behind record world champions Russia and impressed in six of seven games; only in the 0: 7 against Sweden they did not meet expectations at all. Against the Germans, the Swiss see themselves as favorites. For its counterpart Patrick Fischer, Söderholm’s troop is “certainly not an impossible task”.
Christian Künast, the sports director of the DEB, countered the statement with no less daring. “They can be the favorites. We say it will be a game at eye level – and it will be like that, “he said, predicting a game in which the smarter strategy will make all the difference:” It will be a battle, it will be a fight. “
Good German memories
The German memories of previous matches, which were about a lot, are good. So there was a 1-0 to celebrate at the 2010 home World Cup in the round of the best eight in Mannheim. Holzer was also one of the winners at the time, who afterwards fought a wild brawl with the losers.
According to the 33-year-old defender, the argument was memorable. Holzer now described the Swiss as “tough chunks” that had to be cleared out of the way in Riga. At the 2018 Olympic Games in Pyeongchang, a 2: 1 after extra time paved the way to the quarter-finals – which was later almost followed by the big coup in the final against the Russians.
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What causes Söderholm headache is Marcel Noebels’ health. The striker made it 2-0 against the Latvians and had to be replaced shortly afterwards due to an injury. The DEB kept silent about the exact background of the injury and only announced via its spokesman that the 29-year-old Berliner was being treated by the doctors when his colleagues mainly spent the day off recharging their energy stores. A decision on whether to use Noebels will probably only be made immediately in the final preparation for the game.
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