Switzerland also easily won their second group game at the World Cup in Helsinki. With a 6-0 win against Denmark, she managed an effortless revenge for an ignominious defeat at the Olympic Games. Even the magic of the trainer Heinz Ehlers does not help the opponent.
Hardly ever challenged at the weekend: Switzerland around defender Janis Moser.
Denmark can be an uncomfortable opponent – Switzerland only realized that in February when they lost 5-3 to them at the Olympic Games. The Danes will be guided by Heinz Ehlers, the former coach of Lausanne, the SCL Tigers and EHC Biel, who has been toying with a return to Switzerland for some time. In the last few weeks he has been in talks with Langnau and EHC Visp; an engagement in Valais failed because of the salary expectations of the 56-year-old, which are said to have amounted to almost 180,000 francs. That’s not much for the National League, but a lot for the Swiss League.
Ehlers is known for being able to distil the maximum out of his teams. The collectives he coaches tend to make the spaces so narrow that the opposing offensive withers away because Ehlers’ system cuts off the oxygen supply. Ehlers is one of the most underestimated coaches in Europe, he is misjudged because he never had the fortune to coach one of the top teams. It would be interesting to see what he could do with a club of ZSC Lions caliber.
Four scorers from the NHL
It is worth keeping this background in mind when considering comparisons with the Danes. Because it makes the Swiss performance on Sunday in Helsinki that little bit more valuable – there was something playful about the way Switzerland secured their second win in 26 hours after beating Italy 5-2. After just 33 minutes, the Swiss were leading 4-0 in front of just 2,645 spectators, they scored worth seeing goals, almost the entire collective was able to stage themselves, which speaks for the depth of the squad. With Timo Meier, Janis Moser, Pius Suter and Philip Kuraschew, four NHL legionnaires scored, especially the goals from Meier and Moser were for the gallery; they could probably be marketed as non-fungible tokens.
Fans had put this banner up in the Helsinki Ice Hall: “Uf e goldigi WM”. The performance nourished this hope, even if the weekend wasn’t optimal in terms of medal prospects. Striker Kevin Fiala, who was eliminated from the NHL play-off with the Minnesota Wild in the first round, canceled his participation, as did superstar Roman Josi shortly before. The contract of 25-year-old Fiala is expiring, his next agreement could exceed a total volume of 50 million, which is why the risk of injury at the World Cup was understandably too great for the eastern Swiss. In addition, the attacker Nino Niederreiter reached the next round with the Carolina Hurricanes. This means there will be no cavalry rushing to the aid of the North American team. The attackers Marco Miranda (Geneva/Servette) and Damien Riat (Lausanne), who have not yet been used, should be announced soon.
In a perfect world, trainer Patrick Fischer would have refined his team with this trio and would probably have become the gold favorites: Josi, Fiala and Niederreiter. But even so, there are eight professionals working overseas in the squad, the clout of this collective is also remarkable.
The Swiss proved this impressively against Denmark, although it should be mentioned to save the opponent’s honor that Ehlers could only count on one regular NHL player – his son Nikolaj from the Winnipeg Jets. With their manageable level of talent, the Danes had nothing to oppose the Swiss, even the momentum from the 9-1 start win against desolate Kazakhstan, the next Swiss group opponent on Tuesday, didn’t help.
A race with Canada?
In the absence of the excluded top nation Russia, Canada is the only top 7 nation in Group A at the 2022 World Cup alongside Switzerland; the Swiss should only rarely be challenged in their seven group games and will fight a duel with the Canadians for first place. The direct duel is scheduled for Saturday afternoon.
It’s a comfortable starting point for the Swiss team: They can use the first ten days of the tournament to gain the momentum and self-confidence for the capital quarter-finals, which they mustn’t lose here, with practically no pressure. That worked extremely well against Denmark – and not just in terms of the very productive offensive, which was strikingly fun to play: Number 1 goalkeeper Leonardo Genoni, who was used for the first time in Helsinki, celebrated a shutout and played his part in the Swiss start couldn’t have run better in this tournament.