After the women’s national team’s forced break of over a year, the three international matches in Switzerland were all about fundamental things. “The most important thing was that we got the team playing again,” said DEBInterim sports director Christian Künast after the two narrow victories and one narrow defeat in Romanshorn on Lake Constance. The women's national coach, who was replaced on the bench by the actual U18 women's national coach Franziska Busch due to his current field of work, also stated with satisfaction with regard to the World Cup: "We have gained a lot of knowledge, young players are coming up, the circle of candidates for the World Cup has grown."
The focus, however, was the joy of finally being able to compete internationally for the first time since February 2020 - and for Franziska Busch, the particularly appealing task. "It was great fun and an honor for me," said the former national player. Overall, she also drew a positive conclusion. "We had a bit of trouble finding our way internationally after such a long time," explained Busch, "but you could also see that we definitely continued to work well tactically that year. We have a stable system, which helped us."
This was particularly evident in the victories on Thursday and Friday against an opponent at eye level. Game one was decided by Emily Nix (Eisbären Juniors Berlin) with the winning penalty to make it 1-0, in game two the goals from Kerstin Spielberger (ESC Planegg) and Nix ensured a hard-fought 2-1 victory. The 3:4 in the third comparison after the goals from Carina Strobel (ECDC Memmingen Indians), Theresa Wagner (ERC Ingolstadt) and Spielberger was bearable. "It's fun to finally be able to play for Germany again," said Nix - and goalkeeper Jennifer Harss (Memmingen) agreed: "It was nice to play for Germany again after such a long break."
For the team and coaching staff, the focus is now on the World Cup in spring, but it is not yet entirely clear when it will take place. "The wish is to postpone and gain some time due to the pandemic. The Women's World Cup in Canada with the venues Halifax and Truro is to be postponed by a few weeks to May," said President Franz Reindl recently in a DEB-Interview. Busch and Künast are therefore currently working on possible scenarios for the path to the tournament. "We have a plan for how we will prepare," emphasized Busch, "and are still waiting for information from the IIHF."
The national team players, on the other hand, will return to their daily league routine next weekend and slowly enter the decisive phase of the women's Bundesliga. The World Cup is also still in the back of their minds, especially as Busch stated that the battle for places in the team has begun, "if you consider that players from overseas are also coming in for the World Cup." And Künast also attributes the increased number of players to the support of the German armed forces, which - even though international matches were not possible - at least made regular training courses possible at the federal base in Füssen. "We knew that we had made great steps, because the cooperation helps us enormously."
Photos: Jonathan Vallat/Swiss Ice Hockey