Fight for a ticket

Ganahl: “The 2026 Olympics is our big dream”

Manuel Ganahl (right) dreams of taking part in the Olympics.

(Bild: GEPA pictures)

Austria's ice hockey team will be competing for a ticket to the 2026 Olympics at the tournament in Bratislava from Thursday: The big favorite Slovakia awaits right at the start (start 6 pm, live ORF Sport Plus). Further opponents are Kazakhstan (Friday) and Hungary (Sunday), with only the tournament winner ultimately securing a ticket to the Games in Milan.

Manuel Ganahl will replace Thomas Raffl as captain in Bratislava, the 148-time team player spoke to the "Krone" about the chances of red-white-red.

"Krone": Manuel, on paper you are only outsiders in Bratislava. How are you coping with this role?
Manuel Ganahl: It will be a Herculean task, Slovakia is the absolute favorite. But the role of underdog suits us, as the last few years have shown. We've played a lot of good matches against very good teams and have a strong squad at our disposal in Bratislava.

Manuel Ganahl

(Bild: GEPA pictures)

What will be important in these three games?
It will be important to be wide awake from the first face-off. We need three very good days as a team, a few strong individual performances won't be enough. The most important thing will be to play as simply as possible and not make it complicated. Of course, the tempo has to be right, the error rate has to be kept as low as possible, we have to defend very well and take advantage of counter-attacking opportunities. These are key points that worked very well at the World Cup and must also work in Bratislava.

It's the first meeting since the strong A World Championship in May - to what extent was Prague another team in preparation?
We analyzed what made us stand out in Prague and looked at some sequences. In other words, what were the key factors that made us perform so well. We then tried to put this into practice again at the camp in Graz and it got better from day to day.

This is your third attempt to take part in the Olympics. It goes without saying that Milan 2026 is your big goal.
Of course, the 2026 Olympics is our big dream! These Games offer another level, as we saw recently at the Summer Games in Paris. The staging of the Games and the worldwide attention - that's something very special!

Your last attempt at the 2021 Olympics was also in Bratislava, where you lost 2:1 to Slovakia at the start and failed in the end.
Everyone who was there at the time still remembers that 2:1. We put in a great performance against a very strong Slovakian team and missed a great chance to make it 2:2 just before the end. That's a performance we can certainly take our lead from. We are eager for revenge!

Manuel Ganahl

(Bild: GEPA pictures)

Slovakia are once again the big favorites to win the tournament.
All the pressure is on them, they're playing at home in front of a sell-out crowd, they're one of the top 10 teams in world ice hockey and have reached the quarter-finals at every A-World Championship. But it's true that we have the necessary self-confidence to know that we can also win games like this. Provided we show what we can do.

Apart from the coaching team's instructions, do you have any individual rituals to prepare for a game?
Yes, everyone actually has them. My credo is: don't build up too much anticipation, find the right emotional balance. Otherwise you run the risk of getting too excited about a game or going into a match too relaxed. I think I've found a good way to be ready. All I can say is that I'm already tingling with excitement when I think about the first game in Bratislava.