Set everything to zero. Forget what was. reboot. Who hasn’t toyed with the idea of starting all over again?
The German national ice hockey team was able to continue the thought on Tuesday. After a mixed group stage at these Winter Games, losing twice to Canada and the USA and beating hosts China, it shouldn’t matter what had happened up until then. Only the 60 minutes ahead of them against Slovakia should count. Quarterfinals or flight home? That was the question.
After the 0: 4 (0: 1, 0: 2, 0: 1) through goals by Libor Hudacek (12th minute), Peter Cehlarik (28th), Michal Kristof (29th) and Marek Hrivik (58th). another question: What, please, was that?
Did the team fail because of its own expectations – or because of external demands?
Four years after the silver medal in Pyeongchang, the selection of the German Ice Hockey Federation (DEB) not only missed the quarter-finals of the 2022 Winter Games. It failed, as is often hastily said, in Beijing. Out with bang. Defender Korbinian Holzer, who has been under contract in the North American professional league NHL for ten years, said: “We deserve to go home.” Holzer is celebrating his 34th birthday this Wednesday – it will be a quiet celebration. Captain Moritz Müller, the other defensive veteran, said: “We never found our game today, like in the whole tournament. It’s very bitter now.”
It remained unclear why the team of national coach Toni Söderholm had failed: because of their own expectations? The demands from outside? Even Söderholm, who had openly spoken of a chance at the gold medal before his personal Olympic premiere, initially had no answer: “We didn’t play well enough as a team and didn’t get to the top level we should have been at . Everyone is disappointed but we are not hiding from the situation.”
National coach Toni Söderholm and his team have to leave the Olympics early.
(Photo: Peter Kneffel/dpa)
At the start of the game, the Germans were still trying to make them forget the first few minutes against Canada or the USA, when they were surprised by the pace and toughness of their opponents. They wanted to actively shape the game, just as they had planned before the tournament: “No matter what opponent, we dictate what happens on the ice,” Söderholm had drummed into his team.
The problem was: the Slovaks remembered very well what was. They had analyzed the group games of the Germans and knew about their problems in building up the game. From the start they put the DEB selection under pressure. They locked down the neutral zone where the game speeds up – or grinds to a halt.
The German defenders had to turn away again and again, looking for a pass – and often couldn’t find any. Nico Krämmer had the first chance to score after more than eight minutes had already been played. The Slovaks, on the other hand, whose coach, Canadian character Craig Ramsay, 70, has been sending physically robust teams to international tournaments for years, kept the game simple. They carried stolen discs quickly and without frills in front of the German goal and drew luck on their side: a little nudge from Kristian Pospisil bounced off a German skate blade and hit Mathias Niederberger’s stick hand, and Libor Hudacek finally pushed the puck into the net (12’).
If it was an unfortunate performance by the German team up to that point, it became more and more mysterious afterwards. Instead of attacking, the Germans retreated, they seemed anxious, undecided, as if every further goal conceded would already mean the certain end. And if they did get into the opposing third, they got hectic. Patrik Rybar, the Slovakian goalkeeper, must have experienced more serious disturbances in his midday rest than on this Tuesday: the Germans only got ten shots on his goal in the first 40 minutes – the Slovakians, on the other hand, covered Niederberger with 20 shots.
The body language of the Germans is increasingly mumbling
In November at the Germany Cup they had beaten the Slovaks 4:1 and won the cup. Tobias Rieder (2), Leo Pföderl and Dominik Bittner scored the goals back then, all of them also in Beijing, at least on paper. In a friendly a week ago, in training jerseys, they beat Slovakia 5-3, all good, we’re ready.
But: They didn’t want to look back (especially since the significance of such loosening exercises is limited), but forward, towards the quarter-finals on Wednesday against the USA. However, the closer that quarter-final drew, chronologically speaking, the more playing time against Slovakia elapsed, the more clearly this quarter-final proved to be a deceptive mirage. Like the sea in the desert, which pretends to the dying of thirst, just a few more meters, then…
After conceding the second and third goal, the DEB team finally lost faith in themselves, the belief that the “miracle of Pyeongchang” in Beijing could be followed by another miracle. The body language of the Germans was increasingly slurred, even outnumbered, they now dragged themselves across the ice as if they had packed two stones from the Great Wall of China in their skates as souvenirs. Only Dominik Kahun tried to push, but increasingly acted as a soloist in an orchestra with different sheets of music. “We never really managed to play as a unit on the ice,” said Captain Müller.
Niederberger averted a higher defeat and as he left to give way to another outfield player, Marek Hrivik delivered the final fatal blow to Germany’s ambitions (58′).
Nothing could be seen in Beijing of that fighting bravado, of the verve with which Krämmer or Tom Kühnhackl threw themselves into opponents’ shots at the 2021 World Cup, certainly nothing of the playful brilliance with which they stormed into the semi-finals in Riga. golden times ahead, a medal in China, at least. 21 players from the 25-strong World Cup squad for 2021 were there in Beijing, oh yes, but they weren’t the same.
“You have to let the frustration about how we presented ourselves first sink in,” said attacker Patrick Hager. Not everyone will deal with the frustration as quickly as David Wolf, who punched Hudacek shortly before the end. “We fell flat on our faces today, will now analyze what happened and then get up again,” said Korbinian Holzer. The questions of why will stay with you for a while.
