I know we’re not in February anymore but it feels like it’s Groundhog Day for Germany. After winning Pool B last year and only losing 1-0 to Czechia in the quarter-finals, Germany was coming into this tournament with moderately high expectations. They didn’t reach expectations but they were close enough to those expectations that the tournament shouldn’t be considered a failure for the Germans.
They finished third in Pool B which is two places lower than last year and it was a rocky road getting there. They lost 5-2 to Sweden and with second place on the line, Germany lost 1-0 to Japan. Credit where credit is due though in that they did care of Norway and Hungary ensuring that neither team would put them at risk of relegation. Then in their quarter-final match against the USA, Germany found themselves on the wrong side of a 3-0 decision. The good news is that in a game that should have looked more like Canada’s 9-1 drubbing of Japan, Germany did only lose by three goals. The type of tournament where you’re not happy but not mad either.
Offence | C-
No one can accuse me of taking it easy on Germany with a C- grade on offence. If you read my preview of the team I was very explicit in saying that Germany needed to find a way to score if they wanted to make an impact in the tournament. They did finish sixth in the tournament in goals for (11) which places them above Switzerland and Japan. On paper that looks good but it’s missing context.
The context of course being that they scored nine of their 11 goals against Hungary and Norway, the two teams who were relegated after the tournament was over. They were shutout in the last two games of the tournament for Germany with a 1-0 loss to Japan and the 3-0 loss to the USA. The scoring showed up for two games and a bit of it showed up for Sweden. There’s no way to paint a pretty picture with Germany’s performance, they didn’t show up offensively.
Now that’s not to say the team was completely inept offensively and there were no silver linings. Going back to my preview for Germany I mentioned that the Welcke twins would need to step up if Germany wishes to make an impact at this tournament. You had Lilli Welcke tie for the team lead in points with veteran forward Laura Kluge and Luisa Welcke only finished a point back of her twin. It wasn’t a breakout tournament however it’s still something to build on moving forward. There’s some hope there for next year.
Defence | B+
Let it be known I do give Germany credit where credit is due. I’m a big fan of their defensive game and I thought we saw them execute it very well. Nina Jobst-Smith really stepped up playing over 25 minutes per game and leading the defence. There’s probably going to be debate about whether or not the low goals against is a credit to the defence or a credit to Sandra Abstreiter.
Obviously a lot of credit going to Abstreiter and we’ll get to her below. The situation with Abstreiter though is that with her talent/play style she needs a rigid, structured system to play behind. She needs the team in front of her to cut out the chaos and allow her to gain positioning on every shot. Abstreiter doesn’t thrive in games like Frankel or Philips where there’s a flow to the game, lots of movement. The German defence allowed a lot of shots but it’s a lot of shots Abstreiter could save. It’s the next step before reaching the defensive results of a Finland.
Goaltending | A
Look, when you finish with a 0.923 SV%, allow four goals in your last two games combined, and get zero goal support your efforts should not go unnoticed. We saw the Czechs and Klara Peslarova get about as close as you can to beating one of the big two in Team USA but Abstreiter wasn’t far off herself from making that happen a game earlier. Abstreiter isn’t the most talented goalie in the world and the Germans aren’t the best defensive team in the world. Doesn’t matter when they have the high level of chemistry they do have.
Goalies are like fish. You take them out of the water and they’re flopping around. If you take a goalie out of a defensive system that doesn’t work they start flopping around trying to make saves in highly ineffective ways. Abstreiter is the goalie Germany needs because she’s the type of goalie they know how to play in front of. For those that like watching goalies and defence, they’re a very informative watch.
MVP | Nina Jobst-Smith
The easy pick would be Sandra Abstreiter but I think Nina Jobst-Smith deserves credit especially in the last game for how many minutes she played while only going -1 and providing two shots on goal. She had three points this tournament to tie for third on the team including one goal. In the loss to Japan she was pushing the offence and got four shots on goal there. A lot was asked of her and she stepped up.