ISTANBUL - Today is the day. The Belgian national U18 team will start the world championships in Turkey. Always exciting such a big tournament, but the coaches have every confidence in the players.
Today at 18:00 is the face-off of match 1 for our U18 team. The first opponent is Turkey. According to Guylain Turgeon, coach, the team is ready to start the match: "Together with my coaching staff, we are convinced that we have committed and taken the time to select and prepare the best possible group of young men to represent our country. We know the real challenge is ahead of us, we are ready to face adversity and achieve our ultimate goal."
The Belgians can start the first match with their feet on the ground, though. The last exhibition gamewas a bit less good, losing 9-2 against the Netherlands but according to Ben Boute, T1, there is an important lesson to learn from that match: "Everyone has his job to do on the ice. If one person doesn't want to work as hard, the whole team suffers. Win your battles, win the game."
But expectations are high. The squad has never been so close and there have never been more practice games played by the Belgians. Steve Sels, T2, is convinced that this squad should have the strength to meet those expectations: "We expect a good result this championship. This is a generation that knows each other quite well. Thanks to the Hello Player and Belgian Talentpool Programme, this is a group that gives each other confidence. We as the new coaching staff also work very well together. We spent a lot of time watching our opponents, online theory sessions and we have created good chemistry in the team. We also played more practice games than ever before. We really believe in our squad."
Games:
04.03 20:00 TUR-BEL
05.03 16:30 BEL – MEX
07.03 13:00 BEL – BIH
08.03 13:00 NZL – BEL
10.03 16:30 BEL – ISL