The U18 men's national team begins phase two of preparation for the World Cup in the USA this week (April 26th to May 6th). After the meeting on Wednesday, U18 national coach Steffen Ziesche also has the opportunity to play two test games during the course in Füssen. The matches will take place on April 10th and 11th in Zug, Switzerland, without an audience. On Saturday the game starts at 18 p.m., on Sunday the game starts at 12 p.m. These are the only two test opportunities for the selection of the Deutscher Eishockey-Bund before departure to the US state of Texas with the World Cup venues Frisco and Plano. That's where the hope is DEB-Team, after a two-day quarantine, another location assessment before the start of the tournament.
Ziesche is completing phase two of the World Cup preparation between April 7th and 11th, just like phase one the previous week, with a large squad of 30 field players and four goalkeepers. In phase from April 14th the DEB-Coach will then go with a squad of 25 players plus three goalkeepers and the trip to the USA will then begin on April 19th with 22 players and three goalkeepers. For the performance comparisons against Switzerland, Ziesche already has all the players available who are eligible for a place in the World Cup squad.
U18 national coach Steffen Ziesche: “It was a strenuous and intensive week of training in phase one, we did a lot of tactical things that we rehearsed and remembered. But it all takes time because you notice that some of the boys are missing match practice and real team training. We still have a lot of work to do, but the boys are working very hard. New guys are coming in now and it will be about taking the next steps. In the games against Switzerland we will see specifically where we stand and what we still need to improve. We will also have a few players in reserve in phase three of preparation so that we have some security, because you never know what will happen.”
Here you can find the World Cup schedule with all of the German team's matches:
https://www.iihf.com/en/events/2021/wm18/schedule
