Germany was close to a miracle, but for the 28th time the gold goes to the home of hockey.
Hockey is far from the most popular sport, so we can hardly expect big sensations at international tournaments. After the Russian national team was banned, the already thin pool of national teams who are seriously competing for gold in the World Championships shrunk even more, but the 2023 World Cup, which has long been held without any surprises, still had some surprising surprises in its final stage.
All of Europe’s top teams fell apart after the quarterfinals, the Americans, who had marched magnificently through the tournament, took only fourth place, and the Germans and Latvians suddenly ascended to the medal zone along with Canada, and for the Baltic national team the bronze was truly historic.
Germany was a minute or so away from the Olympic triumph in PyeongChang, and throughout its history, the German national team has taken silver and bronze at the World Cup and twice won the European Championship, but almost all of the achievements of the Bundestimm (except for silver at the Korean Olympics) before the 2023 World Cup belonged to the old times. The Germans took second place at the World Cup in 1953 in a competition with only two teams (Sweden and Switzerland), and then the championship was played in a round robin system, well, Germany played in the finals of the World Forum back in 1930, and then the tournament took part neither Russians, nor Swedes, nor, of course, the Finns and Americans, and the Czechoslovaks have not yet been formidable force.
But here we are in 2023, and the Germans are back in the finals. It is true that on its way to it, the German team defeated only one top contender (USA in the semifinals), but in the decisive game the Germans had to beat Canada, the main boss of international hockey, for the first gold in history. “The Maples reached their fourth straight and seventh World Cup final in the last eight tournaments and came close to their 28th title in history.
Throughout the two periods of the match, there was quite the feeling that Germany was capable of pulling off a miracle. In the eighth minute, the Germans took the lead when Jon-Jason Peterka took the puck at the blue line and flicked it past Sam Montembo. The Canadiens called for an offside call, but the goal was legitimate.
