Three and a half weeks ago, national coach Toni Söderholm and the German national team started preparing for the 84th IIHF World Championship. Today the final squad finally left on the plane to Riga. Weeks of uncertainty lie behind the team as the COVID-19 pandemic brought with it some obstacles. Injuries and a positive test result posed challenges for the team, coach, supervisor and organizational team and even though everything is a little different this year than before, the international season highlight for the German national team is now beginning in Latvia. After the 2020 World Cup had to be canceled, the DEBselection in Group B against the teams from Canada, Finland, USA, Latvia, Norway, Italy and Kazakhstan.
But back to the beginning: on April 21, the national team squad of the first phase met together for the first time in Nuremberg. Four training sessions were scheduled, before two test matches in Piestany (Slovakia) followed. As is so often the case, regular corona tests were also part of the everyday routine of the players, coaches and staff. Well over 1.000 tests have been carried out in recent weeks together with SYNLAB WEIDEN since the start of preparations. There were many new faces, promising players who were allowed to put on the Germany jersey for the very first time, eight in total, but old acquaintances also answered Toni Söderholm's call.
A very young team formed a game system and a philosophy in the first few days and many a bat broke right at the start of preparation. According to equipment manager Christian Menning, there were 20 in the four phases. However, the 200 rolls of tape provided optimal conditions for perfect racket preparation. “Everything is within a normal range, nobody needs any extravagances. Sure, some have their own peculiarities, but overall the players are all really frugal,” he adds. The DEB-Selection presented itself well in the international test comparison against a strong Slovakian team and, despite two defeats, ended the first phase with an appealing performance, as it was Toni Söderholm's first games back behind the boards since the 2019 German Cup in Krefeld after he played in the Deutschland Cup had to pass last year because of his corona illness.
In phase two, some experienced national players joined the team and preparations were made for the Czech Republic, the opponent of the week. ARENA Nürnberger Versicherung served as a base for the entire team last month. During this time, our partner ŠKODA once again provided both the team behind the team and the coaches with a safe vehicle to drive. When the weather was nice, the German national team also went from the team hotel LE MÉRIDIEN to the arena and back a few times with 25 bicycles from SCOTT BIKES. The team pedaled around 3.500 km together. But it's also really good to be out in the fresh air every now and then, despite strict hygiene regulations.
The boys completed four training sessions on the ice. Did you know that an ice hockey player loses up to three liters of sweat during an average game? Not exactly a little and that's exactly why our partner ROSBACHER provided the necessary hydration balance. And the number is impressive, up to 255 cases of Rosbacher water, apple spritzer and IsoFit drinks were needed to quench the thirst of our German national team during breaks or during training. The two Nuremberg ice machines also used a lot of water, making a total of 75 trips to bring the ice back into shape during all four phases. You can really speak of a kind of routine. In the games against Team Czech Republic there were good chances for the German team, but national coach Toni Söderholm and the boys still had to wait for their first victory in the World Cup preparations. The HOCH company also arrived from the Czech Republic and took care of the perimeter stickers and under-ice advertising during the international matches. To ensure that all sponsors were clearly visible, the seven-person team stuck a total of 820 meters of advertising space along the boards.
Our boys are not all heavy types, but a good meal or a healthy snack in between is very important. Since the teams weren't allowed to leave their hotel rooms, they had to DEB-Orga team do the shopping for the teams. We're not talking about a normal weekly shop that you do with the family at the weekend. Eight big purchases at PENNY were necessary to stop the growling stomachs. Speaking of healthy, the shopping bags also ended up containing around 75-80 kg of fruit. With FITLINE as a partner for nutritional supplements, the German team was also supplied with around 150 of the popular bars. And without coffee in the morning, it's hard to get going anyway. That's why the company WILDKAFFE from Garmisch-Partenkirchen made sure that our boys always turned up at the training hall awake and alert. A cup of coffee was not enough. 20 kg of coffee beans were provided, which is the equivalent of around 3.200 cups of coffee. According to assistant coach Alexander Dück, the coaching team used the video analysis tool DARTFISH to view and edit over 35 hours of video material from 15 games of the German national team and from the opponents' games. So the coffee not only kept the team awake on the ice, but also the coaches during some lengthy video editing sessions.
With three goalkeepers, nine defenders and 14 strikers, last week we entered the third and penultimate phase of preparation for the World Cup in Latvia. The opponent was now Team Belarus, against whom the German team had a very difficult time in the first encounter, but achieved their first victory of the preparation in the second and final test. As the saying goes, people make clothes. So that our boys make a good impression internationally off the ice, measurements were taken together with the fashion house HIRMER from Munich. Almost 50 items of clothing were ironed and a total of 10 sleeves and 55 trousers were shortened.
Phase four brought another eight newcomers from the PENNY DEL final teams Berlin and Wolfsburg took to the ice for their last valuable training sessions in Nuremberg. But now it has been decided: the final squad of the German national team for the 2021 IIHF World Championships in Riga, Latvia (May 21st to June 6th). Included are…
| Pos | No. | First Name | Last Name | Born Date | Club 2020/2021 | International matches |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| GK | 90 | Brückmann | Felix | 16.12.1990 | Adler Mannheim | 29 |
| GK | 35 | Niederberger | Mathias | 26.11.1992 | Eisbären Berlin | 41 |
| GK | 31 | Treutle | Niklas | 29.04.1991 | Nürnberg Ice Tigers | 38 |
| D | 3 | Bittner | Dominik | 10.06.1992 | Grizzlys Wolfsburg | 9 |
| D | 85 | Brandt | Marcel | 08.05.1992 | Straubing Tigers | 18 |
| D | 9 | Gawanke | Leon | 31.05.1999 | Manitoba Moose | 3 |
| D | 5 | Holzer | Korbinian | 16.02.1988 | Awtomobilist Jekaterinburg | 70 |
| D | 41 | Müller | Jonas | 19.11.1995 | Eisbären Berlin | 45 |
| D | 91 | Müller | Moritz | 19.11.1986 | Kölner Haie | 158 |
| D | 11 | Nowak | Marco | 23.07.1990 | Düsseldorfer EG | 41 |
| D | 53 | Seider | Moritz | 06.04.2001 | Rögle BK | 6 |
| D | 38 | Wagner | Fabio | 17.09.1995 | ERC Ingolstadt | 24 |
| F | 54 | Bergmann | Lean | 04.10.1998 | San Jose Sharks | 20 |
| F | 96 | Eder | Andreas | 20.03.1996 | Straubing Tigers | 13 |
| F | 58 | Eisenschmid | Markus | 22.01.1995 | Adler Mannheim | 26 |
| F | 77 | Fischbuch | Daniel | 19.08.1993 | Düsseldorfer EG | 10 |
| F | 7 | Kastner | Maximilian | 03.01.1993 | Red Bull München | 9 |
| F | 21 | Krämmer | Nicolas | 23.10.1992 | Adler Mannheim | 51 |
| F | 34 | Kühnhackl | Tom | 21.01.1992 | Bridgeport Sound Tigers | 5 |
| F | 15 | Loibl | Stefan | 24.06.1996 | Adler Mannheim | 26 |
| F | 92 | Noebels | Marcel | 14.03.1992 | Eisbären Berlin | 84 |
| F | 24 | Peterka | John | 14.01.2002 | Red Bull München | 4 |
| F | 83 | Pföderl | Leonhard | 01.09.1993 | Eisbären Berlin | 41 |
| F | 22 | Plachta | Matthias | 16.05.1991 | Adler Mannheim | 93 |
| F | 73 | Reichel | Lukas | 17.05.2002 | Eisbären Berlin | 3 |
| F | 8 | Rieder | Tobias | 10.01.1993 | Buffalo Sabres | 39 |
| F | 95 | Tiffels | Frederik | 20.05.1995 | Kölner Haie | 51 |
STAFF: Christian Künast (sports director), Toni Söderholm (head coach), Ville Peltonen (assistant coach), Matt McIlvane (assistant coach), Alexander Dück (assistant coach), Ilpo Kauhanen (goalkeeping coach), Jannik Kirchenkamp (athletic coach), Horst Fuchs (team manager), Fabian Blanke (team doctor), Thomas Stubner (physiotherapist), André Keidler (physiotherapist), Ruben Stark (media/PR), Konstantin Lesnych (media/PR), Marco Nachrichtener (equipment manager), Christian Menningen (equipment manager), Sascha Engel (equipment manager )