With the cream of European ice hockey descending on Salzburg this week for Red Bulls Salute, the tournament this year serving as the finals of the prestigious European Trophy, we got the thoughts of some of EC Red Bull Salzburg’s big names.
The Red Bulls enjoyed mixed fortunes in the earlier stages of the competition, which you can read about at our event page for the European Trophy, but they are looking ahead positively to hosting the final showdown and to the future of this great hockey competition.
Their head coach, Pierre Pagé, suggests that they will need to be organised and careful to succeed.
“What we need in general is discipline,” Pagé comments. “We had two bad thirds in the last game of the European Trophy against SC Bern, but fortunately the good finish was the reason why we won the game.
'In my opinion, the level of the whole tournament is extremely high' – Reinhard Divis
“The European Trophy is a new and exciting project for Europe. This tournament is just at the beginning and will get better and better with the time.”
Goalkeeper Reinhard Divis agrees that the close competition makes for a very good standard of hockey.
“In my opinion, the level of the whole tournament is extremely high. And the final [Red Bulls Salute] will be as tough as the European Trophy,” goalie Divis says. “But we know our opponents very well and played already against nearly all teams. It will be close, so I wouldn’t want to make a prediction.”
Forward Ramzi Abid believes the team can put their defeats in the early stages behind them to progress, as he commented before travelling back to Austria to prepare.
'It’s difficult to say who will be the favourite at Red Bulls Salute, but we are not afraid of any other team' – Manuel Latusa
“It is a good feeling to be back on the winning track,” Abid says. “We lost a few games during the tournament. Hopefully we can keep the scoring and get ready for the Red Bulls Salute.”
Fellow forward Manuel Latusa agrees.
“I think we don’t have to hide ourselves. We won against the Finnish and the Swiss champions, and lost a few games in overtime,” he comments. “It’s difficult to say who will be the favourite at Red Bulls Salute, but we are not afraid of any other team – come what may.”
As hosts, the Red Bulls qualified automatically for the latter stages, but though admitting that they could have done better in the group phase, Marco Pewal, one of the team’s other forwards, suggests that being defending Red Bulls Salute champions could be a winning factor.
“It was a very difficult group [in the European Trophy] and we had our up and downs,” Pewal says. “We tried to qualify for the Salute on our own – unfortunately this didn’t happen, but we are still optimistic about defending our title at the final tournament.”
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