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Report nowSeven games, seven wins: the Swiss national field hockey team plays the perfect preliminary round at the home World Cup and puts a strong Finland in its place at the end. Quotes from the game.
"Our expectation is that we get better in every game. We focused on each game and didn't look too far ahead. We wanted to concentrate on ourselves, no matter who we were playing.
It's mega. I've had a lot of chances in the last few games and I knew that if I carried on like this, one would fall in. I didn't expect it to happen so quickly today. My teammates Nico (Hischier), Timo (Meier) and Dominik (Egli) also did a great job in the build-up. It wouldn't have been possible without them.
It's great fun with Nico and Timo and we can just play free-flowing field hockey. I can learn a lot from them and they help me a lot. We also have a good time together off the ice. They give me a hard time at Brändi Dog. They two fleet and then you enjoy playing like that.
Every game is the same for me. Whether it's the first or last game. It's certainly special, even at home in front of your own fans. You certainly have more energy there, but I don't think too much about whether it's a high level. I play my game."
"We wanted to go full throttle and win every game. We're now exactly where we wanted to be and can go into the knockout phase with confidence. We have nothing to lose.
We didn't play as straightforward in the second period and made a few mistakes. They were able to punish us for that. We didn't take our chances either. (...) But we showed character, didn't let ourselves get rattled and went full throttle again in the third period. A great game in the end. Good, we were able to win it.
The Finns are a very disciplined team - in the box or in five-on-five. You could see that. In the end, they opened us up a bit in the power play - and we were able to take advantage of it. Better late than never.
Sweden is a good opponent. But we don't have to hide. We've got the crowd behind us and have played great games so far. We have to play our field hockey again for 60 minutes and focus on ourselves. That's why we've also said that it doesn't matter who we play. To get to the top, you have to beat everyone."
"I don't care about the result against Sweden. What happened before has happened. We can't change that. What's important is that we want to create something special and concentrate on this moment - and nothing else.
We have to remain ourselves. We believe in ourselves. We know we can play great field hockey. We have to play 60 minutes of disciplined field hockey from now on.
In the end, perfection doesn't exist, but maybe it's perfect for you. We wanted to grow game by game and that's what we did. We took a good step forward. We want to keep this attitude for the future."
