50-minute crisis meeting: Biel coach Matikainen rages after defeat in Langnau

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The match in Langnau ended shortly before 10 p.m. and Biel suffered his next defeat. Disappointed, the Seelanders retreat to their guest cabin in the Emmentaler Versicherung Arena. And the doors remain closed there for a long time – no less than 50 minutes! That’s a record. Every now and then the waiting journalists in the catacombs hear coach Petri Matikainen (56) shouting. The F-word is said loudly at regular intervals by the raging Finn.

The fallen play-off finalist (currently in 11th place) narrowly lost twice this weekend: 2:3 on Friday against leader ZSC Lions, 1:2 on Saturday against surprise team SCL Tigers. The performance was good twice. The team from Biel fought, they made fewer mistakes than before, but again could not take advantage of their opportunities sufficiently. So they were anything but desolate performances – and Biel did not lose to exciting guys like Ajoie or Rappi. Therefore, this response from Matikainen is quite remarkable. And you wonder if he’s completely desperate or about to lose his nerve.

Matikainen responds to the interview with Törmänen

Flashback: Blick published an interview on Thursday with ex-coach Antti Törmänen (53), who is again battling cancer. This mainly concerns his health, but he also complains that Matikainen has banished him from the hut. As a result, he is no longer allowed to see Biel’s players and staff, even though that would be good for him in his situation. A day later, Matikainen hit back at the Finnish web portal IS, was outraged by Törmänen’s statements and had no respect. After all, he is now responsible for EHC Biel.

When asked by Blick whether EHC Biel wanted to comment on the entire case, CEO Daniel Villard (50) made a unique statement in Langnau and said: “We are disappointed by these statements by Antti, which are also not true. There was already a clear agreement with sports director Martin Steinegger about how we wanted to deal with this dressing room problem, as there were already irritations during his first break when Lars Leuenberger was coach. That is why we have drawn up the rules of the game. In addition, the timing for such statements is also poorly chosen, now that things are difficult for us from a sporting perspective, this causes extra unrest. We don’t understand that and we also told Antti that.”

Rumors of early departure

Villard supports Matikainen and no longer wants to concern himself with the Finnish feud between the ex-coach and the current coach, but with how EHC Biel gets back on track. But as soon as his words were heard, Matikainen loudly called for a crisis meeting. And so he supported his reputation as anti-Antti with his rough manner. The question also arises as to how well such actions are received by the team.

This week, rumors also emerged that Matikainen will return to his home country next season despite a two-year contract in Biel and will be Kiekko-Espoo’s preferred candidate. Things don’t seem to be getting any calmer in Zealand. Especially because Biel has two tough tasks ahead of him next weekend with games against Bern and Fribourg – and then the Nati break is coming. And such breaks can be quite dangerous for (failed) trainers.

But back to the spectacular 50-minute crisis meeting. Defender Noah Delémont (21) was asked what this was about, and he appeared first with the waiting journalists. He didn’t go into details. But at least he revealed: “We tried to find solutions. We’ve been dealing with this since the beginning of the season and still haven’t found it. I hope we find her Friday. We have been playing a few games better, but it is still not enough to get points.”

Source : Blick