BWith the German ice hockey players, they are trying to be in a good mood this year. For the World Cup in Canada – the first opponent this Thursday (5:00 p.m. on Magentasport) is Sweden – they have set up a “fun committee”, said Laura Kluge these days on the broadcasting station Magentasport.
And that seems to be doing its job. “We’ve never had so much fun in preparation,” said Kluge, whose team also won the dress rehearsal 1-0 against Hungary. Good conditions for the targeted leap into the quarterfinals. You need at least third place in the group of five. But if that doesn’t work, if the fun is over, then the Germans get off.
That almost happened last year. It was 0.1 seconds before the end of the last game against Denmark before Tanja Eisenschmid scored the winning goal and thus secured staying in the class. Nobody has forgotten that – but not only in a positive sense: “It’s in our heads that we were close to relegation,” admits Laura Kluge. But she also says: “We want to make it to the quarter-finals.” Which would have been achieved with victories over France and Hungary. And even the other group opponents from Sweden and Finland are not unbeatable.
“Biggest challenge”
Christian Künast is more skeptical. Staying at the A-WM will be “enormously difficult”, says the sports director of the German Ice Hockey Federation (DEB) and goes even further: “The women’s area is perhaps the biggest challenge at the moment.” “Things would have to happen that it was fundamental will be much better”. Women’s ice hockey has problems worldwide, even in big nations there is a lack of professional structures, the best players in the world are boycotting all leagues, instead traveling through North America on their own for show games.
Christian Künast
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Image: dpa
But in Germany the situation is even more modest. The Bundesliga consists of only six clubs, nobody gets rich there. After all, twelve ice hockey players are employed by the Bundeswehr, but that’s not a panacea, “we need different structures,” says Künast, whose association has left a lot behind in recent years.
Now something should happen, after the missed qualification for the 2022 Olympics, the DEB already lost four Bundeswehr places. And more could follow. Because of the twelve who are currently being funded, only seven have made it into the World Cup squad. That should become an issue when the next appointment with Andreas Hahn, the head of the Bundeswehr elite sports department, is due in mid-May.
“Not everyone wants to join the Bundeswehr”
Associations from different sports come together here, “then a bit of haggling starts,” says Künast, who was able to live with the recent reduction. Because in return, a coaching position was created for ice hockey. “That’s worth more to us at the moment than 15th or 16th place,” says Künast, and you also have to look: “Do we have 16 players who want to join the Bundeswehr? Not everyone wants to join the Bundeswehr.” Because then you are bound. Also to the Bundesliga, whose level is not enough for many.
So more and more players have been going abroad lately. The World Cup squad includes four from the Swedish league and six from college in the United States. There is at least an academic education. And it helps them in terms of sport: “You can see in training that they played somewhere else. That can only help us,” says Laura Kluge, who plays in the Bundesliga herself.
At ECDC Memmingen, which she shot to the title. Despite having shoulder surgery in October, she still came back in the playoffs and was subsequently recognized as a MVP. Six other champions are at the World Championships and hope to be able to carry their good spirits over to the DEB selection. In a pinch, however, there is always the fun committee.
