This year, the German national ice hockey team will once again play its last preparatory game before the World Cup in Mannheim's SAP Arena. On Tuesday, May 5, 2020, national coach Toni Söderholm's team will face the USA at 19:00 p.m. This therefore occurs DEB-Selection for the 23rd time in the history of international matches in the city of squares.
Toni Söderholm, national coach: “We are pleased that we can compete against the USA again shortly before we leave for the World Cup. Mannheim offers the perfect location for this. We were able to play in front of this great backdrop in the sold-out SAP Arena in May of this year. We are now returning there next year for the World Cup dress rehearsal – we are really looking forward to the support of the Mannheim audience.”
Daniel Hopp, Managing Director of SAP Arena and DEB-Vice President: “We are honored that the German national team will once again play their last test match before the 2020 World Cup in the SAP Arena. With the USA it hits DEB-Selection again on an attractive opponent. As in May of this year, we can be sure that both squads will be full of numerous prominent players and that an attractive game awaits all spectators.”
The US opponent is anything but unknown: they have already scored twice DEB-Selection under the direction of national coach Toni Söderholm this year to the United States. In Mannheim they lost DEB-Selection in the sold-out SAP Arena with 2:5. The two nations met again two weeks later at the 2019 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship in Slovakia, where the German selection narrowly lost 1:3, but later advanced to the World Cup quarter-finals. In international history, the German national team secured a total of 104 wins in 31 games against the USA and lost 64 times. Three games were decided in a shootout - another nine games ended in a draw.
Tickets for the international match between Germany and the USA are now available www.deb-online.de/tickets .