Arrival of the Czech hockey team from the World Championships in Riga and Tampere, May 26, 2023, Prague. Roman Červenka during an interview with journalists.
Prague – The captain of the hockey team, Roman Červenka, does not share the opinion of the head of the union, Alois Hadamczik, according to whom the national team lacked combativeness at the World Cup. He told reporters after arriving from Finland today that the team fought and wanted to succeed. The question, however, according to the experienced striker, is whether it was within the power of coach Kari Jalonen's selection to achieve success.
Advertisement'; }
Hadamczik said on social media that the national team lacked courage, creativity, will and fighting spirit. “I don't know if the team lacked combativeness, it's hard to say. If I say from the point of view of the team, I certainly can't say that we didn't want to, or if someone missed something, that's definitely not the case,” said Červenka. “Creativity, will, courage…? It's really hard to say, I can't judge it. The team wanted it. But frankly – I don't know if they had it,” he said after a longer reflection.
The thirty-seven-year-old world champion from in 2010, he didn't even want to think about whether the elimination in the quarterfinals and the final eighth place was a realistic picture of the current state of Czech hockey.
“I don't think so at all. Maybe something, but last year there was bronze, this year it didn't work out. It doesn't mean that there can't be a medal next time. Every tournament is different. The Latvians didn't even have to be in the quarterfinals and then they beat Sweden and they'll play for medals. it's simply about one match that decides whether the tournament will be considered a success or not,” declared Červenka.
He believes that it is possible to succeed even without an influx of high-profile reinforcements from the NHL. “Of course, you can tell when you have the top players in the team, that's clear. That will of course make a big difference. Last year we had them. This year we didn't have such big stars, but the problem was that Filip Chytil and Lukáš “They injured Sedlák. You can tell that when two such important players are injured,” said Červenka. “But I still think that we also have other good players in Europe who were not here this time. Every championship is different and the opponents also have different teams.”
He confirmed that the team missed Chytila and Sedlák a lot. “They were our two first centers. They missed a lot. Of course it affects the game. Regardless of the fact that then the individual lines were scattered and so on. It had an effect, but it is not an excuse, even so we should have dealt with it better, ” said Červenka.
What was surprising even for him was that the team could not play well throughout the match. There were big swings in the game and coach Kari Jalonen's players almost constantly alternated good passages with bad. the whole 60 minutes. In successful passages it became clear that we can play like that, so I can't judge why we couldn't keep it up for at least most of the match,” stated Červenka.
