Today against South Korea, the German selection wants to celebrate its first success / Holzer: “Go out with the necessary respect”
In the fourth World Cup match (today, 16.15:1 p.m., live on SPORTXNUMX), the German national ice hockey team should finally score its first victory. "South Korea has shown in the preparation and at the Olympic Games that it is a very unpleasant opponent. They are certainly capable of tripping up any opponent," said Moritz Müller. But the defender of the Kölner Haie immediately added: "Our aim is to beat them. Anything else would be a disappointment."
It's no secret that the opponent is the absolute underdog. The Asians have a goal difference of 1:23 after three games. That's not really surprising, especially since their previous opponents are in a class of their own. "They also had tough opponents in Canada and Finland," said Müller.
They suffered a 0-10 defeat against the Canadian star ensemble and an 1-8 defeat against Finland. There was also a 0:5 defeat in the duel with Latvia. Like all new teams in the A group of a World Cup, the promoted team has a difficult time. With Brock Radunske (Augsburg) and Eric Regan (Hannover), two former DEL cracks are in the South Korean squad. A total of six players from North America were naturalized.
The 4:3 victory two weeks ago on April 27th during the preparation in Odense was the first and only duel between a German team and Korea. "The match against us will again be a game of a lifetime for the opponent at a World Cup. So they will throw everything into it," said Korbinian Holzer, looking ahead: "We have to go out today with the necessary respect and show right from the start that we want the win more. I am convinced that our quality will then make the difference."