The German U20 national team started the U20 World Championship in Edmonton on Tuesday evening (local time). From a German perspective, the game kicked off with a 1-5 defeat against the reigning U20 world champions USA. The only goal for the German team was scored by Joshua Samanski Straubing Tigers with a solo worth seeing in the 54th minute.
The expected dominance of the Americans became apparent early on. After the first half of the opening third, the USA had already recorded ten shots on goal. DEB-Goalie Nikita Quapp, who was preferred for the opening game, was able to do well Paradistinguish him and prevent a goal being conceded in the first outnumbered situation after almost two minutes of play. That came after the penalty period DEB-Team got into the game better, but had to accept the 14:0 in the 1th minute. Luke Hughes took a direct shot from the right face-off point, and Quapp had no chance without seeing the puck. A short time later the next setback: Bennet Rossmy received a game misconduct penalty for a check to the head. In the five minutes that followed, the Americans had the advantage, Logan Cooley scored the second goal of the evening (19th minute of the game), which also meant the first score at halftime.
At the start of the second period, the German team continued to play outnumbered and conceded their third goal as the penalty time expired: Landon Slaggert scored from a tight angle to make it 0-3 (22'). Just 36 seconds later, Red Savage poked the puck through Nikita Quapp's legs over the line (0:4, 22').
Things got strange in the 32nd minute, after the Americans were awarded their fifth goal after an unusually long video review. National coach Abstreiter then had the goal checked again with the Coaches Challenge due to goalkeeper interference. The referees reversed their decision after repeated video evidence. A minute before the second break, Riley Duran scored the fifth goal after a counterattack by the Americans to make the score 0:5 at halftime.
That came in the final third DEB-Team to more opportunities. And Joshua Samanski took advantage of this in the 54th minute with a remarkable solo to score the first tournament goal for the German U20 team. Samanski left the defenders standing and pushed the disc backhanded through the legs of US goalie Kaidan Mbereko into the goal. The final score was 1:5. For the defending champions from the USA, this was the seventh win in a row against Germany at a U20 World Cup.
For the DEBteam continues this Wednesday evening (local time) against Austria. The team is hoping to get its first points at this World Cup against their neighbors. The game will be broadcast live on Magenta Sport – from 4:00 a.m. German time.
Voices about the game:
U20 national coach Tobias Abstreiter: "We knew that the Americans would start the game at a high pace and with good intensity. At the beginning we had problems with that, sometimes we couldn't get out of our own zone because we took a little too long and didn't make the decisions quickly enough. It's just about playing at a level for 60 minutes that allows us to constantly free ourselves from this pressure, and we did that quite well at times in the third period. Now we need to take the momentum of the last third into the next match against Austria."
Striker Yannick Proske: “From my point of view, this game was basically very solid. We had a good start and also had good phases as the game progressed. But there were also clear low points where we just had to play, be it getting the disc out or finishing the checks. But there were some good points. I think we are going in the right direction and are ready for the Austrians.”