“The best booth speech of the century wouldn’t have helped”

There were not many eyewitnesses. What favors the creation of legends. The audience is excluded from all performances. Most of the chroniclers who should have been at the stadium stayed home.

Not even the Zurich media empire “TX Group AG” with the “Berner Zeitung” in its range sent one of the great chroniclers as usual. None of the knowledgeable and trusted hockey correspondents will be able to report first-hand about this hockey miracle at the Ilfis to the readers of Leibblatt der Langnauer.

Yes, after the game, the competent television production team will be surprised that, for the first time in memory, it is not necessary to do a television interview. The heroes of the night cannot appear in front of the television camera. The Zugers would have done well. The viewership ratings of the pay TV channel “MySports”, which are in any case within a manageable range, have probably been narrowed down to relatives and acquaintances of the players, the referees and the commentator anyway.

So nobody expected anything from this game. It took place in the media trail, so to speak, almost behind closed doors.

Understandable: It is the most absurd qualifying game since the introduction of the playoffs (1986). Never before have two teams faced each other by so many points in the table.

Before the game, the SCL Tigers are 85 points behind leader Zug. They have lost 19 of the last 20 games. The previous one in Lugano after a 3-1 lead in the last third due to an almost historic collapse with six goals against in a good quarter of an hour.

Worse yet: SCL Tigers compete without a single foreigner. After all, the Zugers use three. Worse yet: the SCL Tigers put their number three goalie in goal with Damian Stettler.

Also: It is no longer about anything. Zug has already been confirmed as the winner of the classification with a new points record. And for Langnau, the season will end after qualifying: there is no relegated team. A victory for Langnauer is actually completely impossible from a human perspective.

For comparison: Basel has had the previous record for absurdities. The Basler lost on February 2, 2008 against SCB 1: 5. Before the game they were 83 points behind the leaders. But they still used four foreigners with Justin Papineau, Radek Duda, Stanislav Dudec and Maxim Spiridow and played on goal with their number 1 (Reto Schürch). And yet they had no chance. Although it was about getting in shape for the next playouts. The end of the Basel table was relegated and replaced by Biel.

So we see: the Langnauers have achieved what is probably the biggest qualifying sensation since the playoffs were introduced. How is that possible?

There are two ways of looking at it. The first is absolutely neutral, factual, objective, sober, impartial, free of poetry, fresh, without imagination. As is the custom and duty of the chronicler.

So suppose there is a visitor who has traveled extensively. Perhaps the sports minister of the Mongolian People’s Republic, who tried to get an idea of ​​our hockey at the invitation of the Federal Sports Office (BASPO).

The minister has no further information. He doesn’t know how good the people of Zug have been and how miserable the people of Langnau have been in recent months.

The senior official will report to his government something like this:

“The level of Swiss ice hockey is very high. The team, which competes without foreign reinforcements, wins against the team with three foreign players, who together probably cost as much as the first three lines of the Langnauer and earn more than the Mongolian Hockey Association (MOHO) can spend during a season . . “

The training of the Swiss goalkeepers is so developed and so formidable that even the Langnauer’s third goalkeeper, just 19 years old and almost a child (but only almost), is good enough to take the strongest storm in the league with the league. Top scorer save. Nor was it for Luca Hollenstein. Anyway, they told him that he was better than the famous Leonardo Genoni. But he did not check if that was true.

The team with the three foreigners (ie Zug) had the most game (42:28 shots on goal). But Langnauer would have combined at least as many good graduation opportunities. Saw a fast and fun game with a deserved winner.

It also assumes that both gang generals are highly respected. He called reports that Langnauer’s coach (Rikard Franzén – the editor) had to go at the end of the season in view of the great state of the team, as malicious talk and outrageous disrespect.

All in all, Langnau can be seen as a superior team. A typical winning team: because after the first goal (Sven Senteler’s 0: 1 after 4:33 PM) there was an immediate reaction (for Yanik Blaser’s 1: 1 after 5:38 PM) and then especially in the final third: just 40 seconds after the score improved from 4: 1 to 4: 2, Langnau responded with 5: 2 just 40 seconds later. That is typical of a team that is very confident in itself after numerous victories and will surely play for the championship title. A typical winning team.

Let us now try to explain the defeat from the perspective of the loser. This view is more interesting than that of the winners. What else do the Langnau people mean that they have never given up, that the atmosphere in the team has not suffered even from the many defeats, that they still come to training or the game happy every day. And that’s exactly what they will tell you after the game.

But how does Dan Tangnes explain Zug’s probably most embarrassing loss since the 1998 championship, at least from a statistical point of view?

Zug’s head coach is not upset or perplexed or grumpy after the game. It has style. It almost seems as if he had foreseen what would happen to his crew in the valley of the howling winds. The Zugers had already won just 5: 4 on March 26 and the great Leonardo Genoni had to pull the puck out of the net four times in the final third. After this match, Dan Tangnes said: “As a coach at Langnau, I have never had a quiet night …”

Of course, Zug’s coach is now praising Langnauer. That’s the way it should be. A coach who does not respect the performance of the opponent is very dishonorable.

But the chroniclers (the only chronicler was still busy with paperwork and did not have time for interviews), of course, are not satisfied with the opponent’s praise. They already want to know what was happening to the favorite from the heights.

Dan Tangnes explains that after hitting the points record, you got into a mental no man’s land – the last qualifying goal had been achieved and your mind was already on the next task. In the playoffs. Similar to a writer who, after finishing a work, falls into a depression. In fact, even the great Gotthelf is said to have taken a break from art after completing a masterpiece and took the manuscripts of earlier sermons with him for subsequent services. And with the record for qualifying points, Zug has also achieved a hockey masterpiece.

The question is, of course, also: how does a band general react when he sees the downfall of his boys approaching? Are you furious or are you cheering them on calmly and firmly? Dan Tangnes says he was not enraged. “The best booth speech of the century wouldn’t have helped.”

He remembered good habits at breaks and on the players’ bench. Concentration and discipline. Ultimately, it was crucial that the Langnauers made fewer mistakes. And ultimately, he sees it as an instructive loss at the right time before the playoffs. “We were shown how fine the line is between victory and defeat.”

In the future, when you see disaster looming, you can simply say, “Remember the night in Langnau! “Perhaps the people of Zug will one day even say that the assault on the championship title started that night in Langnau.

The mistakes made by the people of Zug were truly remarkable. Defense Minister Raphael Díaz did the most spectacular with a blind pass backwards in his own zone on the stick of Toms Anderssons (37 min.). The Swiss-licensed Latvian with wooden hands immediately scores 3: 1. His second goal of the season. At this point it is clear why Zug has not extended the contract with Raphael Diaz (35).

But later he made up for his mistake and regained hope with a fabulous individual performance to make it 3: 5 (47th). At that point it is clear why the decision not to extend his contract with Raphael Díaz (he will defend for Gottéron next season) has given so much talk at Zug.

You can see everything from two sides. Even in the most absurd tie since the introduction of the playoffs.