A four-hour train ride was on the German national team's schedule on Wednesday morning. The destination: Bratislava. In the Slovakian capital, national coach Toni Söderholm's team will face the Czech Republic in the World Cup quarter-finals on Thursday. The game starts at 20.15:1 p.m. and will be broadcast live as usual on SPORT20.00. Reporting from the German team's quarter-final game starts at XNUMX p.m.
National coach Toni Söderholm: “The boys deserved the quarter-finals with constant improvements in their performance throughout the tournament. If we act as a compact unit again like we did last time, then we certainly have a chance. The most important thing now is to believe in ourselves.”
It wasn't until Tuesday afternoon that DEB-Selection celebrated a 4-2 win against Finland at the end of the preliminary round and thus achieved something historic: after the victories against Great Britain, Denmark, France and Slovakia, it was the fifth success of the team DEB-Selection in the preliminary round of the 2019 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship. Never before has a German national team achieved five wins in the preliminary round of a World Cup.
The entire team was accordingly excited when the final preliminary round placement of the German team was at stake in the Canada vs. USA match that evening. "We of course watched last night at the team dinner to find out who our opponent would be. I think the majority of us are quite happy with the Czech Republic," explained Defender Yannic Seidenberg shortly before departure for Bratislava. "Russia in particular has played an outstanding tournament so far. The Czechs have just as strong a team with a lot of good players. It will not be an easy task and we are now preparing for it with concentration. The important thing is to keep the game open for a long time and to get the little things right."
The quarter-final opponent Czech Republic
Six wins and one loss - that is the record of the Czech selection after the preliminary round. At the beginning of the tournament they shocked defending champions Sweden with a 5:2 victory. They then also won against Norway (7:2). In the third game the Czechs suffered their first defeat - the team of head coach Milos Riha lost 0:3 to Russia. The team then found its way back to success, winning four games in a row and ultimately finishing second in Group B behind the Sbornaja.
The Czechs' top scorer is captain Jakub Voracek. The 29-year-old NHL crack scored three goals in the preliminary round and contributed another twelve assists, placing him in third place on the World Cup scorers list. But for the Czechs, scoring is not just a matter for the boss. Four other players from the country's neighbor are among the “top 10” players with the highest points at the 2019 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship: Michael Frolik (14 points), Dominik Simon (11), Dominik Kubalik (10) and Filip Hronek (10).
There have already been 132 duels between Germany and the Czech Republic in the history of international matches. The German selection won 23 games, the game ended in a draw 11 times and the Czechs celebrated 98 victories. Both teams last met last month. In Karlovy Vary, the Czechs narrowly won both international matches 5-4.