Not only did the Geretsried ice hockey team suffer their fourth home defeat in a row in a 3:4 loss against EHC Waldkraiburg – the River Rats also missed the chance to stay up in the Bayernliga early.
Nevertheless, striker and assistant captain Klaus Berger (32) answered questions from sports editor Thomas Wenzel.
Mr Berger, actually I wanted to congratulate you today on staying up in the league. But do we have to wait for that?
Yes, I would have preferred it if we had made everything clear on Sunday.
It goes without saying that the atmosphere in the dressing room was very bad after the match.
Everyone is frustrated.
What was it this time?
Actually, it was the same points as in the weeks before.
We slept through the beginning and were already 2-0 down after two minutes.
Apparently we always need a hello-wake effect.
But did it get better after that?
Yes, but we always have to put in an endless effort to score goals.
Which then, despite a large number of opportunities, do not necessarily fall ...
Yes, madness.
But that's really difficult to explain.
How do you feel as a striker?
Maybe there's a lack of concentration or the ultimate consequence in the end.
Of course, luck with the shot is also part of it, and we could do better with the follow-up shots.
In any case, the opposing goalkeepers always deserve top marks against us.
And the guests also hit the mark ...
Funny, unlike us, our opponents always get easy goals, they can often finish the slot without any problems.
And apparently the River Rats suddenly have a “home game allergy”?
This is obvious – and also inexplicable.
At the end of the day it doesn't matter whether a game takes place in your own stadium or in someone else's stadium.
We have to be focused and committed from the first face-off.
It's not that the team plays badly, they usually undersell themselves...
That's probably so.
After Hans Tauber took over as coach, things went really well for us.
We got into a positive trend there.
If everything goes well for everyone, you go onto the ice with a different level of self-confidence or as a striker in the direction of the opposing goal.
How do you rate your own performance this season? You've contributed 11 goals and 10 assists in 34 games, plus a hat-trick once...
I'm not entirely satisfied.
I had good and bad phases this year.
After all, you were in most of the games, so little injured?
Fortunately.
In Peißenberg I once got a bat on the chin.
And then there was an ear injury.
In training, did I hear?
Yes, that was almost absurd: The very last shot was so unluckily deflected that the puck hit me squarely in the ear.
The eardrum had ruptured and I needed stitches.
What is your prognosis for the last three games of the River Rats against Buchloe, in Schweinfurt and in Dorfen?
I'm really hoping that in the last home game on Friday against Buchloe we'll finish the class perfectly.
