Paterlini with the SCL Tigers on a high: “We are going to suffer defeats again”

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The start of the season was not promising for Langnau. Three defeats followed in a row with a total goal difference of 4:20! A 3:7 against Lausanne, a 1:6 against Davos and as a low point a 0:7 in the derby against Bern. “Against Lausanne we were in the game for a long time, but against Davos and Bern we really came under the wheels. But it didn’t throw us off track, you have to be able to tolerate something like that,” says coach Thierry Paterlini.

The SCL Tigers actually pulled through and went on a great run afterward. Most recently they managed to score five times in a row and win three games in a row. Moreover, in these five matches, only five goals were conceded in total. What just happened there? How was this radical change possible?

A blessing and a curse for sick players

“If only we knew exactly,” Paterlini puzzles at first, but then finds an answer: “It certainly played a role that we had a few sick and injured people and this gave us the opportunity to get even closer together.” The players then did that very well: “The team played in front of the goalkeeper, the goalkeeper kept us in the game and then the puck bounced for us.” His team could have taken the manner of this performance into the next matches.

Yet Paterlini does not want to go so far as to say that in retrospect he is happy that players like Pesonen, Mäenalanen, Saarijärvi, Erni and Zanetti were ill one after the other: “Certainly not, we actually didn’t need that! Because it also cost us a lot of energy. When a player goes back to bed after feverish days, it takes about a week before he is back in normal shape. It is therefore convenient for the Zuricher coach employed by the Emmentaler that this week a few will be quieter days, at least there was no match on Tuesday.

“Connection established, nothing more”

For Paterlini, it is important not to overestimate the current high: “With these victories we have reconnected, that’s all.” He urges caution, “because things could quickly go the other way.”

Paterlini also believes “that we will suffer defeats again. That’s part of a long season. A team like Lausanne recently experienced this in Zug (2:9 defeat, editor).” It doesn’t have to be this weekend. The next opponents are the ZSC Lions and Lugano. The SCL Tigers, who are currently brimming with self-confidence, do not have to be afraid of these opponents either.

Source : Blick