The German U20 national team won its first World Cup match in Canada on Friday evening, beating Austria 4:2. DEB-Team the ticket for the quarter-finals at this U20 World Cup. Roman Kechter was named best player.
In the two previous defeats against Sweden and Canada, the team of U20 national coach Tobias Abstreiter was the underdog. Against the neighbours from the Alps, the situation changed, so that the DEBteam wanted to take control from the start.
In the first few minutes, however, both teams equalized, and after almost ten minutes each only had one shot on goal. That came in the twelfth minute DEB-Team had its first chance through Adrian Klein, but the shot from the blue line fell through to Austrian goalie Michael Sicher. The following power plays by both teams resulted in no goals. Two minutes before the break, Philipp Krening scored from a pass from Julian Lutz to make the score 1-0.
Two minutes into the second third, Leon van der Linde hammered the ball under the crossbar from the blue line for a 2-0 lead. On the other hand, Nikita Quapp's first test came in the second third after almost 25 minutes of play: Jonas Dobnig was awarded a penalty after he went solo from the penalty box and was prevented from shooting on goal in a running duel against Nils Elten. Dobnig then shot past the goal.
In the 27th minute, Thomas Heigl finished with the third goal for the DEB-Team celebrated Michael Sicher's working day in the Austrian goal. Heigl tunneled the goalkeeper after a perfect assist from his brother Nikolaus. The second third was around ten minutes old when Leon van der Linde had to go to the penalty box for delaying the game. The Austrians used the following power play to score their first goal of this tournament and Ian Scherzer made the score 3-1. Austria got back into the game better. The fourth goal was even more important for them DEB-Juniors almost three minutes before the second break by Roman Kechter.
The German team started the final third confidently with a 4-1 win. Due to a blunder in the German defense, the Austrians were able to reduce the score to 4:2 (47th minute of the game) through Jonas Dobnig, which increased the tension even further. Five minutes before the final siren, Austria had a power play, which turned into a double power play with an empty net. A shot off the post was the best opportunity to score. In the end, Germany was able to defend its lead and achieve victory.
After the first victory at this Junior World Championships, that qualifies DEBteam for the quarterfinals. On Saturday the group phase ends against the Czech Republic. The game against the group runners-up will be broadcast live and free of charge by Magenta Sport from 19:30 p.m. (German time).
U20 national coach Tobias Abstreiter: “After today’s game and reaching the quarter-finals, the boys can be really proud of themselves. It was a lot of hard work, everyone gave everything, left everything outside and that was exactly what we imagined and planned. Great respect for this achievement. I think the Czechs are a very strong team. We have to regenerate well first. The game against Austria took a lot of energy today. We’ll definitely try to put in a good performance again tomorrow and prepare for the quarter-finals.”
Striker Bennet Roßmy: “I think we got off to a good start and got into this game well. We scored one goal in the first third and continued to come out of the locker room well after the first break. We did the little things right, got the targets to the goal and just worked well. For tomorrow’s game against the Czech Republic, we have to take today’s momentum with us and prepare well for the quarter-finals.”