Coach Dominic Giskes is looking forward to seeing how his German panel bonds together as he has picked what he calls a “very cool and exciting squad” for the women’s EuroHockey Indoor Championships in Berlin.
The event gets under way on Thursday with the home side hoping to do a European double and also win the title for the 17th time as their men did last Sunday in Leuven.
Just four of the panel named have indoor international caps with Teresa Martin-Pelegrina the most experienced having played in the Euros in 2016, 2018 and 2020.
Maike Schaunig has played two previous Euros in addition to 63 outdoor caps and Elisa Gräve has 95 to her name but debuts on this stage.
“From our point of view, it’s a very cool and exciting squad with a good mix of experienced Bundesliga players, players who have already played in the field Danas plus a few indoor specialists,” Giskes says of the side.
“Although there are no players from the last European Indoor Championship team, I think we have a very experienced squad with really cool personalities.
“Everyone in the team was enthusiastic about this project right from the start, whether they were players or staff members. Of course, we want to maximise our sporting performance, which means winning the European Championship title.”
They are in a group with World Cup bronze medalists Czechia, Turkiye and the newly promoted Belgium and Spain as the tournament expands from six sides in 2022 to 10 this time.
“The group is difficult to assess, we haven’t seen much about the opponents yet. To me, the Czech Republic looks like the strongest team in the group.
“I can’t really assess Spain and Türkiye, we’ll have to get there relatively quickly and gather impressions, but that’s our turn now. I rate Austria highly in the other group.
“Of course we want to get to the final and be on the field in the last game of the tournament on Sunday. That has to be the aim and of course, we want to win. I think it’s even more possible this year since Holland isn’t there, so we’re already the top favourites.
“Even though we don’t have many international matches overall and have never played together in this configuration. The girls are all smart enough that we can build something in a week and everyone is up for it.”
** 28 of the games will be streamed live from Berlin on www.eurohockeytv.org
** To find out more about the stats, fixtures and teams, click here: https://tms.fih.ch/competitions/1551
