After the departure of national coach Söderholm, German ice hockey is entering a new era. While he has already failed in his new job, the new national coach is only just getting started.
At 64, Harold has come full circle. Even if the long-time national ice hockey player has never curried in the search for a new national coach in the past, it is an open secret that Kreis always wanted exactly that: to be the national ice hockey coach.
The former defender is now in office with a delay and is currently preparing the weakened national team for the first World Cup tests on Thursday in Kassel (7.30 p.m.) and on Saturday in Frankfurt/Main (5 p.m. / both Sport1) against the Czech Republic.
“We want maximum success,” said Kreis before his debut with a view to the upcoming World Cup (May 12 to 28) in Finland and Latvia. “Whatever he looks like.” The President of the German Ice Hockey Association (DEB), Peter Merten, already openly formulated the minimum goal: “Reaching the quarter-finals” at the World Cup and direct Olympic qualification for the 2026 Winter Games in Milan. According to the current status in May, Germany would have to come one round further than Switzerland or Slovakia.
WhatsApp from Söderholm
His much younger predecessor Toni Söderholm (44) wished Kreis “good luck” via WhatsApp. There was a casual brief exchange, nothing more. Kreis has clear ideas about his new job, which he wants to take on with an open mind. He deliberately avoided telephone contact with his predecessor.
Söderholm left DEB head over heels last November to join SC Bern after successful years. There the Finn failed again after only five months, before his successor, Kreis, even started his job. Kreis did not want to comment much on this. Kreis also always charmingly smiled away rumors about Söderholm’s dissatisfaction with the sporting strategy at DEB.
The German-Canadian currently seems completely happy and at peace with himself. “I’m incredibly excited and full of joy,” Kreis said recently in the Sportschau winter sports podcast before his debut.
After Söderholm’s departure and the commitment of the experienced DEL coach (Mannheim Düsseldorf, Schwenningen), there were also critical comments that saw the upturn in German ice hockey and the new, self-confident style of play under the young and innovative predecessors Marco Sturm and Toni Söderholm in danger .
circle appeased
But Kreis reassured: “Tactically, not much will change. We will keep the playfulness. The players should handle the target safely and confidently. I don’t want a team that just withdraws and plays defensively.”
The biggest difference is likely to be seen off the ice. Söderholm is said to have had a good and, above all, intensive connection to the leading players, but the Finn was considered a procrastinator. circle is different. “I get to the point quickly,” said the veteran about himself. Clear speeches and decisions characterize him. In addition, Kreis is considered a coach who can unite the cabin behind him within a short time and has it under control.
“I think it goes down very well in player circles,” said national team captain Moritz Müller about DEB’s choice of national coach. The Kölner Haie defender, like some other high performers, will only join the team later in the World Cup preparations. The 64-year-old already knows that Kreis will only have his best team together shortly before departure for Finland on May 10th. As an assistant coach to the then national coach Uwe Krupp, Kreis stood by the gang in 2010 when Germany reached the semi-finals of the home World Cup.
Even then he was considered a “secret national coach”. Success with the national team only came after his enthronement at the DEB on the initiative of the German Ice Hockey League. In 2018, after Sturm left, he was supposed to become a national coach. At that time he was disappointed with the veto of his employer Düsseldorfer EG. In the second attempt it worked for both sides. circle has arrived.