Halle (Saale) –
The wait is over: After a break of more than eight months, the Saale Bulls will start the new season of the ice hockey league on Friday (8 p.m.) with the away game with the Hammer Eisbären. On Sunday (6.15 p.m.) – also in front of empty stands – the first home game against Krefeld is on. Before the kick-off, coach Ryan Foster took time to talk to Christoph Koch about the kick-off and the difficult season.
Mr. Foster, despite the circumstances, are you looking forward to it?
Ryan Foster: I’m even really excited that it can start again. Precisely because there has been an uncertainty over the past few weeks as to whether we can play. I now hope that there are no positive corona tests.
Do you expect game cancellations due to positive corona cases in the teams?
It may well be that we have to take a break. My gut feeling says we won’t play through. This is also the case in the top leagues in Austria, for example, where there were up to ten cases in the teams. Or in the Czech Republic. But I like to be wrong with my forecast.
How do you deal with the ghost games that will be held in November at least?
The players told me it wasn’t that bad in the friendly matches. Sure, the good mood is missing. But during the game you’re so focused and that’s why you don’t notice it. But the view of the empty grandstands is funny.
In the shortened preparation, there were only two test matches for your team. As a trainer, can you even draw any conclusions from this?
Normally we would have had four to six weeks of preparation and six to ten test matches. But we are happy that we were allowed to play at all. We had two good tests. At the beginning you noticed that the guys were still a bit rusty. But that was no wonder. Some players haven’t been on the ice for seven months. That’s why we had problems with the pace.
Long break, short preparation, few tests: can the players even be at their usual level of performance?
No, definitely not. It will take at least another month until we are also at the top level in terms of fitness. I had planned to do two training units a day, but we couldn’t do that until the end of October due to the short-time work. That’s why we weren’t able to train everything as desired, for example in the tactical area. Other teams like Tilburg or Krefeld had been on the ice since the beginning of August. We’re way back there.
The league teams do not have the desired squad strength due to the need to save. In addition, the lengths of the preparations were very different. Can you still make a forecast for the new season?
Basically, one can say that Herne and the Hannover Scorpions will play again at the top. But you have to have played against every team first to be able to assess where we stand.
Is it an advantage to play against promoted Hamm and last year’s Krefeld at the beginning?
These are games that always make the coach a bit afraid. Because it could be that players underestimate such teams. We can’t just play with 50 percent and have to be fully focused. But if we play like we can, we should be successful.
With Valtteri Hotakainen and Tatu Vihavainen, two Finns were brought in, who are playing abroad for the first time. What is your impression of the newcomers?
Finns are always well trained. Hotakainen is an experienced player, has also played first division in Finland. He’s very reliable, very good on the defensive, a really good team player and talks a lot with the young players, which I think is very important. Vihavainen has got a good shot and is a good ice skater. You will help us, so far I am very satisfied. But currently I can only rate the training.
How do you go about the balancing act of being successful in sport on the one hand, and showing consideration for the players on the other? The workload for the professionals is high and the framework conditions are very difficult.
That’s not that easy. As a coach, you have to be very careful with the small squad, that the load is not too high and that the training units are not too many. Because there will also be phases in which we play three times in a week. The players need enough sleep and have to eat well. But that shouldn’t be a problem because the bars are open (laughs).
How do you want to play in the coming season?
I like to play aggressively. But with the smaller squad we have to be careful now. We can’t go full throttle for more than 60 minutes, we have to take breaks from time to time.
What lessons did you learn from the past disappointing season?
We still had a lot of room for improvement when it came to defensive work. We have now focused on that. It’s going to be very, very important. We have already noticed progress over the past two weeks. We are on the right path.
Who surprised you in the preparation?
The two new defenders Erik Hoffmann and Leon Fern are doing very well. Fern had the requirement to be offensive as a defender – that works very well, he also scores the goals. I also like Lukas Valasek very much. Max Pietschmann and Davide Vinci also do their job very well. Tim May is a great addition to this, so I wanted him back. He always delivers top performances. But everyone is playing very well right now. I can’t say anyone disappoints. (mz)
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