Next week it's all about that Deutschland Cup in Augsburg. It is the first appearance of the German national ice hockey team since the successful World Championship in Russia and the recent qualification for the 2018 Olympic Games in Latvia. With Slovakia, Switzerland and Team Canada, the German selection faces major challenges. National coach Marco Sturm emphasizes the importance of the Deutschland Cups out.
Marco Sturm, your team goes into the tournament as defending champions Deutschland Cup. The goal shouldn't change this year either, right?
Of course we want to repeat our success of the last two years. We will do everything we can to achieve this. But the opponents have the same goal. This year in particular, I rate all three opponents even more strongly. As with us, the players want to put in good performances so that they can take part in the World Cup.
The squad has changed a lot compared to the last two tournaments. Why is that?
There are two reasons for this: On the one hand, I wanted to give the players who took part in the World Cup and the Olympic qualification and only had a short summer a break. They get a lot of ice time at their clubs and regeneration is also necessary. On the other hand, I would also like to give other actors a chance to present themselves.
You had already said that the Deutschland Cup is already part of the preparation for the 2017 home World Cup in Cologne.
As a matter of fact. The Deutschland Cup Augsburg is actually a very important tournament with a view to the 2017 World Cup. We don't have much time. It is the only opportunity to explain the system to the players until the next meeting in April. That worked quite well last year and should be the same again. We want that Fans definitely offer great ice hockey again.