For the team of U20 national coach Tobias Abstreiter, there are only a few days left until the start of the 2022 IIHF U20 World Championship in Edmonton. This is how she graduated DEB-Young talent selection last Thursday and Friday two test matches against Slovakia and Latvia during your preparation phase in Alberta, Canada.
Physical start against strong Slovaks
In their first game against Slovakia, the German U20 national team played a fast and tough game. U20 national coach relied on Nikita Quapp in the first test (Eisbären Berlin) in his team's goal. The opponent created a few good chances right from the start, but they scored the first goal DEBteam while heavily outnumbered at the end of the first third thanks to striker Alexander Blank (19th / Düsseldorfer EG). The BerlinHe assisted Bennet Roßmy to give Germany a 1-0 lead. Even after the first break, the team around U20 national coach Tobias Abstreiter started strong with a double majority in the middle section and so they were able to DEB-Captain Luca Münzenberger (University of Vermont) took the lead a little later due to a goalkeeping mistake by Simon Latkoczy DEB-Continue to expand the selection. However, the joy over the successful goal did not last long, as a few minutes later Slovakia's number 19, Jakub Demek, scored the next goal for his team. Both teams fought for possession of the target as the match progressed. In the 46th minute, defender Maksymilian Szuber scored another opening goal for Germany, which made the German bench celebrate. Due to carelessness on the German side, Slovakia managed to score again four minutes later through Dalibor Dvorsky in the 50th minute. Although the German team tried to get back into the game, the team was unable to take the lead again. Shortly before the end, Slovakia scored two more goals from Servac Petrovky (58th) and again Jakub Demek (59th), which secured the opposing team a 5-3 victory. Luca Münzenberger was then voted the best German player of the game.
Restrained second test against Latvian young talent team
Just 24 hours later it was over DEB-Young talent selection back on the ice for the second showdown. The Latvian U20 national team was waiting for Germany. In the second game, the opponent quickly put pressure on German goalkeeper Florian Bugl's goal. However, despite many good opportunities on both sides, we didn't see any goals for a long time. It wasn't until the 38th minute that Darels Dukurs sounded the goal siren for Latvia for the first time. 15 minutes later, Team Germany also had reason to celebrate. The German striker Danjo Leonhardt single-handedly shot the puck behind the opponent's line when he was outnumbered by the Latvian goalkeeper Bruno Bruveris. However, further penalties on the German side prevented the German U20 national team from taking the lead. Martin Lavins and Klavs Veinbergs increased the score to 1:3 from a German perspective in the last minutes of the game. The German team also lost the second comparison after 60 minutes despite their fighting performance. The best German player in the game was goalkeeper Florian Bugl.
U20 national coach Tobias Abstreiter: “We saw good scenes and situations in both games that we have to improve if we want to have a successful World Cup tournament. Overall, and this is no secret, we have to eliminate unnecessary penalty times so that we can find our game and continue to grow together as a team.”
Defense attorney Luca Münzenberger: “The game against Slovakia was pretty even in the first third. The Slovaks came out of the locker room well and it took us a while to find our way into the game. But as the game progressed, we found our rhythm and were the better team in the second third. Overall, however, we simply took too many penalties and didn't convert our chances well enough, which cost us the win. We didn't play our best game against Latvia. Florian Bugl kept us in the game for a long time. Ultimately, we didn’t play consistently enough in the defensive zone and again spent too much time in the penalty box.”
Striker Alexander Blank: “We have seen in the last two games what our strengths are and where our deficits are. We now have to continue working on these. Of course the results of the test matches don’t speak for themselves, but we are confident and will attack fully in next week’s tournament.”
MagentaSport shows all group games of the German U20 national team as well as the knockout phase from the quarter-finals live.
The game plan of the German U20 national team
Aug 04.08.2022, 13 | 00:21 p.m. (German: 00:XNUMX p.m.) | Slovakia – Germany (Test match) 5:3
Aug 05.08.2022, 13 | 00:21 p.m. (German 00:XNUMX p.m. | Germany – Latvia (friendly match) 1:3
Aug 09.08.2022, 20 | 00:04 (German time 00:1 +XNUMX) | UNITED STATES - Germany
Aug 10.08.2022, 20 | 00:04 (German time 00:1 +XNUMX) | Germany - Austria
Aug 13.08.2022, 20 | 00:04 (German time 00:1 +XNUMX) | Germany - Switzerland
Aug 15.08.2022, 20 | 00:04 (German time 00:1 +XNUMX) | Sweden - Germany