Opening victory in Albertville against Japan
The Women's national team has won the first international match of the new season. On Thursday afternoon, national coach Jeff MacLeod's team secured a hard-fought 2-1 victory after a penalty shootout against the Japanese selection at the start of the four-nation tournament in Albertville, France. DEB-Selection was Franzi Feldmeier (53.). In the penalty shootout, the two goals from Luisa and Lilli Welcke the match. The German goal guarded Sandra Abstreiter.
In the first period, the German team impressed with committed hockey and several good scoring opportunities against a disciplined Japanese team. A penalty against Carina Strobel initially hampered the German team's efforts. Two more penalties followed in the middle period against the German team, which continued to create good opportunities but failed to capitalize. A goal scored by Team Germany was disallowed due to goaltender interference. Team Japan also began to get closer to the German goal. Neither the women, coached by national team coach Jeff MacLeod, nor the Asian team managed to score a regular goal in the second period.
After the second half, Franzi Feldmeier scored the deserved 1-0 for the German women (53rd minute) after a pass from Celina Haider and Jule Schiefer. But the Japanese had the perfect answer five minutes later, leveling the score at 1-1 through Rio Noro (58th minute), forcing extra time. The penalty shootout ultimately decided the match. The match's best player was named Jule Schiefer. Charlotte Schaffrath played her 50th international match.
Statistics for the game #GERJPN: https://www.hockeyfrance.com/competitions/rencontre/68382/
National coach Jeff MacLeod"We continued to improve throughout the game today. We lacked freshness a bit at the beginning, but we fought through it well and improved in the final period. We also saw the learning curve in the game regarding our tactical guidelines, and Sandra had a strong performance in goal today. We played with all four lines, so all players had a chance to show their talent."
Captain Daria Gleißner"Overall, for our first game, today was a solid performance. We haven't played together in a while and only had a short preseason together on the ice. We're happy with the start and now know what we need to work on in the next few days."
U18 women with convincing victory against Italy
To kick off the Four-nation tournament in Fondo (ITA) succeeded in DEB-Selection a clear victory against the hosts from Italy. In the end, the score from the team's perspective was National coach Sebastian Jones 9:0. The superiority of the German team was already evident in the first period, pulling away with two goals. In the middle period, four more goals made things clear, and in the final period, the U18 women of the DEB three more goals. The nine goalscorers for the DEB-Selection were: Franziska Heinig (2), Victoria Butuzov, Mathilda Heine, Lena Marie Spagert, Isabell Manns, Theresa Zielinski, Anabel Seyrer and Sarah Pamula.
Tomorrow we will play against Hungary (16:00 p.m.).