U20 captain delivered a gala performance at the dress rehearsal / praise to the team
What a performance – and just before the World Cup: Andreas Eder (EHC Red Bull München), captain of the U20 national team, scored four goals and prepared another in yesterday's 5-3 win against Slovakia. A more than good statistic for the striker, but Eder rejects any praise: “Of course it's great that I was able to help the team win with my points, but what's more important is that we performed really well as a team yesterday and in the end have won. It doesn’t matter which of us ends up putting the puck into the goal, as long as someone does it!”
The 19-year-old native of Tölz also took part in the U20 World Championship in Canada last year. But he was unable to prevent relegation from the top group. "Last year's World Championship was unfortunate. We didn't play the hockey we could have," the striker remembers. This mistake is now to be made up for: "Even though it will be difficult, we want to give it our all at this World Championship and get straight back into the top division."
In addition to Germany, Latvia, Norway, Italy, Kazakhstan and host Austria will be competing at the 2016 IIHF U20 Ice Hockey World Championship Division I (December 13th - 19th, 2015). “The field of participants in Vienna is narrow, but if I were to identify our strongest competitor, it would be Latvia,” explains Eder. “In contrast to the top division, we will have the opportunity to determine games this year – but only if we deliver our best performance.”
In addition to Eder, Maximilian Kammerer (Düsseldorfer EG), Kai Wissmann (Eisbären Berlin), Manuel Wiederer (Moncton Wild Cats) and David Trinkberger (Sioux City Musketeers) their second U20 World Cup. For BundesYoung talent coach Christian Künast, however, it is the first world championship on the boards. He finds support from national coach and general manager Marco Sturm. “The atmosphere in the team is great and it works really well with the new coaching team,” says Eder. “And it is a great honor for all of us to be able to be on the ice with Marco. There is no one in Germany who has gained as much experience in the NHL and at major international tournaments as him.”
The boys want to take the momentum from the successful week in Füssen and yesterday's victory onto the ice and “go full throttle” on Sunday in the first game of the World Championship (December 13th/13.00:XNUMX p.m.) against Kazakhstan!