U20 national team at the World Cup in Canada
1:9 debacle must not wipe away good group phase
In the end, the U20 national team left a desolate impression at the World Cup. But before that, the team in Canada showed more than was to be expected. The dog is buried elsewhere.
1/5
The 1: 3 in the 1: 9 debacle against the Czechs in the quarter-finals: Goalie Kevin Pasche, defender Dario Sidler and Slovakian Marcel Marcel are in goal.
Stephen RothDeputy Head of Ice Hockey
With their appearances in the group phase, the U20 national team had created hopes, which then evaporated despite a perfect start in the quarter-finals against the Czech Republic. The teenagers felt like a balloon being deflated. The young Swiss lost their step completely, showed by far their worst performance of the tournament and were swept off the ice by the strong, goal-hungry Czechs with a score of 1:9.
Big disappointment after Aus: Bichsel: “If you get 9 goals, you’ve missed a lot”(01:55)
A slap in the face for Marco Bayer’s team, a humiliation for Swiss ice hockey. It showed what was already known before the tournament: the gap between the best hockey nations in the world and the Swiss is large, and the difference in terms of individual class is considerable.
The U20 national team only had one player with NHL prospects in defender monster Lian Bichsel, who showed an impressive tournament with some actions for his personal collection of highlights. With the Czechs and the other top teams there are a dozen or more.
In Switzerland there is a backlog in training and recruiting talent. Forming young players isn’t worth it enough for the top clubs. The training costs a lot of money, but in contrast to football, where transfer fees plug holes in the budget, it then brings in little. Because promising players like Bichsel, who moved to Sweden at the age of 17, are gone early, which is also due to the fact that there are hardly any prospects in the National League. New incentives would have to be set here.
Three wins in four group games
Despite the debacle in the quarter-finals, this U20 cannot be accused of not being ready when it counted. Because the goal could only be to reach the knockout phase. And Bichsel & Co. achieved this with strong performances and three (!) victories. First they outplayed favorite Finland (3:2 aet), then they won the key and nerve-wracking game against Latvia in extremis (3:2 aet, equalizer in the 58th minute), then they defeated the strong Slovaks (4:3 nP, after 1:3). The Bayer team was before the quarter-final knockout. more than the sum of his individual players and convinced with team unity and defensive stability.
Maybe an embarrassing 9-1 in the quarter-finals will help more than an honorable 3-1 to initiate the necessary changes.
Next stop semifinals? This is how U20 defender Despont motivates his teammates(00:49)