President Franz Reindl was happy about an “outstanding and self-sacrificing team performance”, sports director Christian Künast complimented the “very deserved quarter-finals” and the players with captain Moritz Müller immediately developed a hunger for more after a short period of enjoyment. “It is a milestone that we have reached, no one should sit back,” said the veteran, turning his attention to the exciting quarter-final against long-term rivals from Switzerland on Thursday (from 14 p.m. with detailed preliminary reporting on SPORT1, starting at 15 p.m :15 p.m). The exciting knockout duel at the Olympic Sport Center in Riga “plays into our mentality,” said goalkeeper Mathias Niederberger.
Training, gathering strength, eating well, recovering well: the German national team focused on very important aspects on Wednesday in such a demanding tournament with seven games in twelve days so far. “It’s important to get your body in the right mode, because we’re definitely going to have another very close and tough game,” emphasized Niederberger. In which it is important to act with a warm heart and a cool head - at least that is how national coach Toni Söderholm summed it up, who still has to wait and see whether Marcel Noebels will comply DEBteam will be available: “We want to give it our all, but be cool and tough in our decisions. There will be emotions in there, but those are part of it too, but you have to control them.”
The selection of the Deutscher Eishockey-Bund also brought emotions home, with more and more ice hockeyFans are excited with the Söderholm team. SPORT1 reached a peak of 2 million viewers in the showdown against Latvia (1-1,66) on Tuesday, setting a record for the current year in terms of market share. Moritz Müller illustrates how essential this team spirit will continue to be. “It's all about our characteristics if we want to be successful, we live them extremely well here,” he said and added: “We have to find the next gear in our play to beat the Swiss.” Korbinian Holzer also pointed out “ “very strong” Swiss, “against whom we have to give our best performance, not only passionately but also playfully.”
Added to this is the special ingredient and spice of the long-standing rivalry between the two teams, which in many cases builds up through the young talent teams and then culminates at the national team level. “It was always great games against the Swiss, it's always fifty-fifty and I'm really looking forward to it,” emphasized Holzer, who was on the ice with them at the last World Cup quarter-finals in Mannheim in 2010 DEBteam won 1-0 and made it to the semi-finals. “That was unbelievable,” he recalled, and sports director Künast made it clear that a similarly intense battle could be on the horizon on Thursday. “I think it will be a game of equals. It's extremely exciting, both teams want to get to the semi-finals. Yes, you can say: It will be a battle.”
Photos: Peter Schatz