If you could surgically remove a certain event from its historical context, as with a scalpel, and transplant it to another place on the timeline, for example a famous Beckenbauer commercial (“Yes, is it Christmas today?”) into one Stall to Bethlehem about 2000 years ago… Large parts of the Bible would have to be rewritten.
Of course it’s strictly forbidden! First Doc Brown law of time travel: Interventions in the past could dissolve the space-time continuum and destroy the entire universe (“Back to the Future”, 1985 ff.). But what if you could project a tiny snippet of time from the past onto an expected event? About the penalty by Marcel Noebels from the 2021 World Cup quarter-finals against Switzerland on the World Cup quarter-finals Germany against Switzerland this Thursday (3:20 p.m., Sport1 and Magentasport)? Those four or five seconds when Noebels runs up, hooks to the left in front of Leonardo Genoni, the Swiss goalkeeper, pulls the goalkeeper with him, then puts the puck on the right post and slides it over the goal line with just one hand on the stick? And Germany is in the semifinals again?
The ice hockey players call this trick a “Forsberg”, after its Swedish inventor, comparable to a Panenka penalty kick in soccer, cheeky and technically demanding. You had never seen anything like that from a German ice hockey player, especially not in an important knockout game at a World Cup.
Just do the same magic trick again? The thought amuses Noebels. “I actually like to be spontaneous,” says the Berliner. “I’m taking nice moments from the past with me. But the boys are in the mood for a new story.”
“White Ballet? Honestly?” National coach Harold Kreis sees Switzerland as the favorite, but he is not afraid
History does not repeat itself, it is constantly being updated, of course. But in a modified form, the history of the knockout games between Germany and Switzerland at major ice hockey tournaments has happened three times in a similar way, always with the better end for the German team: 2010 at the home World Cup in the quarterfinals (1 :0); 2018 on the way to Olympic silver medal (2-1, playoff to quarterfinals); and in 2021 at the World Cup in Riga/Latvia, again in the quarterfinals: 3:2 after a penalty shootout with Noebels’ memorable decision.
So now: Germany – Switzerland for the fourth. Again in the quarterfinals, again with Noebels, again with Genoni, again in Riga. And again with the winner Germany?
As in 2021, basically everything speaks for Switzerland, the superior winner of Group B. After the preliminary round with six wins in seven games, including a 3-2 win against Canada and a 4-2 win against the Czech Republic, the highly inflammable Swiss media was already there to read from the “white ballet”: “elegant, fast, light-footed and precise”. When asked about this, the German national coach Harold Kreis initially reacted with amusement (“White Ballet? Honestly?”) And then when asked what role he saw his team in, he replied: “I’m not very familiar with theater and ballet. But sure not as a dying swan.”
Kreis worked in Switzerland for many years and celebrated two championship titles there as head coach. He says: “The Swiss are already favourites. They play impressively, with high attacking power. But they will certainly not dictate the game. We will be on an equal footing against them line up.”
The The New Zurich Times counters: “Switzerland has more depth in the squad and the better individuals, it should give the German coach some headaches as to how he wants to counter the speed of the Swiss.” Answer from Kreis: “With our will, with our ability and our unity.” After three unfortunate defeats against top nations, then winning four games in a row under pressure: Take that, neighbors!
Patrick Fischer’s team, on the other hand, lost their first World Cup preliminary round match on Tuesday after 15 consecutive victories, against World Cup co-hosts Latvia, who also qualified for the quarter-finals, 3-4 after extra time. Fischer rested the three NHL pros Nico Hischier, Nino Niederreiter and Denis Malgin.
In the Swiss media, the word of the preliminary round world champion makes the rounds
The Swiss have arrived with a total of six players from the North American professional league NHL. “They have the big goal of becoming world champions. They do everything to achieve that, that’s why they all come,” says German center forward Dominik Kahun, who plays for SC Bern. Marcel Noebels is nevertheless convinced: “The Swiss are definitely not happy that the German is in front of him again.”
National coach Kreis believes in a “very hard-fought, close game”, he says: “The times are over when the Swiss fear the Germans. So we can’t count on that. That they lose their nerve against a German team, that’s it really over.” The earlier duels against each other are definitely an issue between him and his club colleagues, reveals Dominik Kahun: “Of course we talk a lot about such games, it’s always very funny.”
The Swiss don’t seem to have gotten over the recent defeats that much. In any case, the Swiss media, which were just as easily aroused, once again calculated that Patrick Fischer had qualified for the quarterfinals of a major tournament for the ninth time under him – but only once, at the 2018 World Cup, did they succeed the next step (Switzerland won silver at the time). The word “preliminary round world champion” is doing the rounds again.
He was already “on fire” for this classic, said Noebels after the 5-0 win against France, while sweat from the last group game was still dripping from the tip of his nose. “Thursday can’t come soon enough, I’d love to get back on the ice right now.”
And what if there is actually a penalty shootout? “I haven’t thought about that yet,” said Noebels and grinned. “Maybe I’ll do it again and hope I get lucky on my racquet.”
As far as Kreis is concerned, there is no risk of getting caught in a time warp. penalty shootout? “It will not come to that,” said the national coach. He didn’t sound scared.