The men's national team suffered a defeat in the first of two World Cup preparation matches against the Czech team. In the debut of the new national coach Harold Kreis, the German selection lost 2:6 to the bronze medal winners of last year's World Cup. Goal scorers for the DEBteam were Tobias Eder (9th) and Jonas Müller (52).
Goalkeeper Maximilian Franzreb celebrated his first senior international appearance in front of 3.800 spectators in the Kassel ice rink. Striker Marcel Noebels led the German team onto the ice as captain, Daniel Schmölz was missing with a slight illness and remained in Frankfurt.
At the beginning, the Czechs created a slight increase in chances, also because the German team had to play for the first time when they were outnumbered after just over three minutes. The formation around goalie Maximilian Franzreb was compact and survived the difficult phase. Shortly afterwards the power play also showed up DEB-Selection from the best side: Tobias Eder (9th) skillfully deflected a shot from Marco Nowak from the blue line into the goal. After that, the guests sporadically came in front of Maxi Franzreb's goal, but the German team controlled the neutral zone for a long time.
In the second period, Germany initially survived being outnumbered again, but shortly afterwards had to accept the equalizer from Jakub Flek (27th). As a result, the Czechs managed to gain more of the game and increased the pressure on the German goal. This resulted in the Czechs' second goal from David Tomášek (34'). Shortly afterwards, the German team had another good offensive sequence and also had two more chances to equalize when they had the advantage. But no further goals were scored until the second break.
The started in the final section DEBselection still had the upper hand, but was caught by a counterattack from the Czechs. Roman Horák scored the 1:3 from the German team's perspective while they were outnumbered. David Tomášek scored the 1:4 in a similar way, again with the German team in the upper hand. A little later, Jonas Müller (52.) brought the DEB-Selection approached with a long-range shot, fueling hopes of a comeback. But exactly two minutes before the end, the guests' fifth goal came from Ondřej Beranek. Scored the sixth and final goal of the evening Filip Chlapik (59th), the DEB-Selection had brought a sixth field player onto the ice at this point.
National coach Harold Kreis: “The Czechs played well, but the result was too high for me. We made decisions with the disc in important moments that weren't so good. Especially in the second third when we conceded two goals, where we stood around the goal but didn't cover the space consistently. The Czechs then take advantage of this. Today we saw what we have to and can do better.”
Defender Jonas Müller: "We started relatively well, had a good pace and created chances. In the second third we made too many mistakes. At such a high level, every little thing is punished. In the end we came back even better, we will take that with us for the game on Saturday and then give it our all again."
Striker Alexander Karachun: “We still felt a bit of a lack of match practice, some of us hadn't played a game for four to five weeks. The team held up quite well today. We made some mistakes during the game, but we are currently in a learning phase and we are now looking at how we can improve.”
The second international match against the Czech selection will take place on Saturday, April 15, 2023 in the Frankfurt ice rink. The game starts at 17:00 p.m.
Tickets are available here: https://www.ticket-onlineshop.com/ols/deb/
The game will also be broadcast live and free of charge on MagentaSport.