Bread, Sweat and Tears – The Game

On Sunday morning, the German Ice Hockey Association (DEB) sent home the arrival schedule of the German national team. Spread over four flights, the first players will land in Frankfurt/Main on Monday at 9.10am, the last at 1.10pm in Berlin. A large reception waited for him neither there nor in Munich or Düsseldorf. Even if they have won one of their last two matches at the World Cup in Riga, it would not have been a triumphant return in front of thousands of fans because of the pandemic. As it was, it turned out to be a sadly quiet arrival at home. Due to a completely unsuccessful bronze match against the United States (1:6), the German team on Sunday missed out on winning its first World Cup medal in 68 years. At the end of the day there was fourth place, the best result since 2010. In the ranking of the World Federation IIHF published on Monday, the DEB team jumped to fifth place and is now ahead of ice hockey superpowers such as the Czech Republic and Sweden. , who has won 23 world titles. But this was not the result the Germans themselves expected and expected.

Lost these games for third place on Saturday: After 1:2 in the semi-final against Finland, as they dominated the defending champions in parts, the players’ feet and hearts became heavy as concrete. “Today was not our day,” said national coach Tony Soderholm after the game against the United States. “Yesterday was our day, but unfortunately we didn’t win there.” Captain Moritz Müller saw it this way: “We were close to the final. Today we just couldn’t get it out of our heads.”

He was finally allowed to feel like a world champion. Canada, as usual in the World Cup with three losses and only stumbled into the quarter-finals, thanks to an improved goal difference against newly promoted Kazakhstan as the German team knocked out hosts Latvia from the tournament, with the Finns 3–2. Cheated in the final after extra time and drew with their 27th title equal to the record world champions Russia. Nick Paul scored the winning goal after 66:26 minutes. Prior to this, the Ottawa Senators striker had scored only one goal in the tournament: 1:3 in the preliminary round against Germany. DEB team has now defeated the eventual world champion in this and previous world cup. But it was not even a small consolation. Muller, who was ruled out with a hand injury, said after the game against USA: “Not a single eye went dry in the dressing room. This team deserved everything. Such teams don’t get together very often. “

Later scenes were characteristic when Müller returned to honor the best players and despair broke out among them: the team gathered around their weeping captain, all carrying the man from Cologne in their arms. Even viewers on television must have realized “how special this group is,” Mueller said. There were others: 2.7 million people watched the semi-finals in Sport1. Even René Fassel, the outgoing president of the World Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF), said that you can “feel the spirit of this team”.

Support for Rendl: Twelve of the 15 regional associations support the DEB president.

There was a flurry over the weekend over a possible successor to Fassel. The presidents of the regional associations of Thuringia, Saxony-Anhalt and Schleswig-Holstein launched an offensive against DEB president Franz Reindel, who on Saturday announced his candidacy for the presidency of the IIHF. The allegations are: Reindal, 66, Honorary DEB President since 2014 and Payment Managing Director of DEB Eishoki GmbH from 1994 to the end of July 2020, did not always act for the best of the Association and GmbH, for example in negotiating the marketer. While he offered surprisingly favorable terms to a Swiss sports rights dealer, he paid himself about EUR 9,000 a month and a “full salary” of a company car. Spiegel speech. Rindle reacted “deeply concerned” to the allegations on Sunday: “Apparently there is an attempt to harm the association and the individual individuals herein.” The President supported him in the evening. Twelve of the 15 state federations “explicitly” distanced themselves from the three other state federations in a joint declaration: the aspects they deal with are known and in general meetings and in working groups with all state ice. We have been informed transparently and widely. Sports Federation”. The declaration of honor ends with the words: “We all welcome the candidacy of Franz Reindel as President of the IIHF and wish him every success.”

Only in Riga did the German team get even more support. Players said they were overwhelmed by how warm the condolence was from home over the phone, text message or social media. He was denied the medal. “But the memories will remain,” said Moritz Müller when the tears had dried up. Defense chief Korbinian Holzer, selected to the All-Star-team alongside Moritz Cedar, said: “At the moment it hurts ruthlessly. We wanted more.”

“He trusts us to do things that no one previously thought we were capable of,” says striker Knoebels of national coach Soderholm.

What would have been considered completely Gaga a while ago is the perfect description of ice hockey’s new German self-image. “We gave away our complexes, which we had taken with us over the years,” explained Captain Muller. His belief in himself, which was implanted in him by former national coach Marco Sturm and which led him to Olympic silver in 2018, will now be further strengthened by Tony Soderholm and his assistants. “We have a team of coaches who really trust us one hundred percent to play at this level. You have to understand that feeling as a German first,” Muller said. Marcel Knoebbels, with three goals and five assists, the best German scorer with Matthias Plakta (4/4), said: “Tony knows how to get everyone involved. He counts on us to do those things.” which no one before would have thought capable of us.” “One is getting closer and closer to those countries, “where six, seven, eight years ago everyone would have thought we would be in double digits,” said Knoebels, the last time being against Canada at the 2015 World Cup with Germany. when he set a 0:10 against a team of NHL superstars. Canada’s low-budget team 2021, on the other hand, needed striker Andrew Mangiapen named in German: Brad Eater, who scored seven goals in seven matches. The Germans were left with pieces. This time.