Placement for the national coach is more of a minor matter / Deutschland Cup attracted around 30.000 Fans to Augsburg / “Fair” audience celebrated the winner
Of course, if you look at the pure numbers, you could think of the German national team's balance sheet Deutschland Cup have something to complain about: Three games, one win and two losses were the result for national coach Marco Sturm's team in the games against Slovakia, Switzerland and Team Canada. That means third place in the final reckoning. After the two tournament victories in 2014 and 2015, the goal of defending the title for the third time in a row was missed.
However, no one in the German team thinks in such short terms. Especially not Marco Sturm. On the contrary: the ex-NHL professional saw exactly what he wanted to see in Augsburg. Players who wanted to present themselves with great commitment for further participation in the measures of the German selection. Players who, above all, have one big goal in mind – the 2017 home World Cup in Cologne.
"I'm very satisfied. It wasn't easy for the boys. They had to learn a lot of new things, that doesn't happen so quickly," said Sturm in his summary and gave great praise to the squad: "Everyone was very committed. You can't change much in three days, but the boys got involved. I've seen a lot of good things. The boys played eight of the nine thirds very well.”
The three debutants also delivered a solid performance alongside the well-known names. Konrad Abeltshauser, Maximilian Kastner and Thomas Holzmann showed that they can definitely hold their own at an international level. Just like the rest of the team, which was wrongly dubbed the "second team".
The national coach made it unmistakably clear that this was not the case: “Most of the boys have been part of the national team in recent years and have taken part in world championships. I'm glad that I was able to watch some of them play again that I haven't seen for a long time." This also means that the fight for squad positions has begun.
Overall, those responsible were able to Deutschland Cup be more than satisfied. The second tournament in Augsburg was even more attractive Fans in the Curt Frenzel Stadium than last year. In total, almost 30.000 (29.400) spectators flocked to all games. "The Fans “They always gave us great support,” said captain Kai Hospelt and praised: “They gave us applause even when we lost. They saw that we gave everything and that we were rewarded.”
In fact, the audience in Augsburg presented themselves as not only knowledgeable, but also extremely fair. After Slovakia's victory against Switzerland on Sunday and the title win, the (German) spectators gave the new tournament winner a big applause and even a standing ovation on his lap of honor. For the second time, Augsburg proved to be the perfect host.
Pictures from the weekend can be found below www.Sport-in-Augsburg.de