Our media partner Nemzeti Sport is out at the World Championships in Prague Czech Republic and they had the opportunity to catch up with former Hungarian national team coach Pat Cortina who is now the skipper of the German national team.
This is your third world championships with Germany, how is it going so far?
If you look at the results it's not as good as we would like, our first game was ok we managed to get 3 points against france, and we lost to a very strong Canadian team and had a 1-0 loss to Switzerland, it would have been nice to pick up a couple of points against them. It's pretty much as we expected, france and Switzerland are teams we can play against but we are not read of Canada yet.
How difficult is it to play in the current system of two groups of eight instead of the old four groups of four system?
It is a difficult schedule we are playing seven games in ten days, every game is like a final it's an important game, you have to be had high energy every day, it's tough but it is fun.
What is the official expectation at the world championships for Germany?
Everything is possible for a team like ours, a quarterfinals spot would be a dream, but the dream also comes with a nightmare which is last place in the group. Realistically if we are close to that fourth place, fifth or sixth would be satisfied, we have a lot of injured defencemen, and that's difficult when you can't play with your best team.
You have said that you regret that back in 2009 you didn't let the guys enjoy themselves because they might not be back again in the A Pool, but Hungary will be back next year?
I was rooting for Hungary to get back to the A Pool, only a few of the player will be back next year from 2009 I hope they will enjoy it, back in 2009 it was tough tournament and we were really trying to stay in the A Pool.
Did you follow the Division 1 championships this year?
Yes I did online, and I kept my fingers crossed for my Hungarian friends and I’m happy for them, I checked everything regularly.
Do you still keep in touch with anyone from Hungary?
Unfortunately not as much as I would like to, in the first couple of years i did but everything gets busy this time of the year, but when we do talk it's like we have talked regularly.
What do you think about your former players starting their coaching careers?
I hope they enjoy themselves and I wish them the best of luck maybe someday I can be their assistant coach. I always joked that maybe they will be just as crazy as me and become a head coach and they will ask me to be their assistant.
What would be the biggest dream for you? Reaching the quarter finals with germany this year and then facing Hungary next year?
Lets take this step by step, if we reach the quarterfinals and Hungary is in the other group so I can enjoy their games as well, that would be better.