With three goalkeepers, eight defenders and 14 forwards, the women’s national team traveled to Utica, the tenth-largest city in the state of New York, on Tuesday, March 26, 2024, to spend seven days preparing for the World Cup and fine-tuning the final details.
In addition to numerous training sessions, two test matches were also on the program. Head coach Colin Muller’s team won the first preparation game against Sweden 5:2 thanks to goals from Lara Stalder (two), Alina Müller, Laura Zimmermann and Alina Marti. In the second test game against Germany, the Swiss turned around a deficit and ultimately won 2:1 on penalties. Nicole Vallario in regular time and Rahel Enzler and Alina Marti in the penalty shoot-out scored the goals.
Switzerland must take these two positive experiences with them as they face a tough test and tournament favorite in the form of the USA in the World Cup opener on Thursday night (01:00 CET). The Americans have won ten of the previous 22 matches, most recently last year. Only Canada, who were also assigned to Group A, have won more world championship titles with twelve. When the Swiss women take to the ice against the USA on the opening day, they will be celebrating a small anniversary and playing their 100th game at the World Championships. They will do everything in their power to prevent the Americans from celebrating their 100th World Championship victory.
In addition to the two great dominators in women’s ice hockey, the Swiss will also play against the Czech Republic and Finland in Group A, which contains the best five teams from last year’s World Championships. Group B features Sweden, Japan and Germany, the nations that finished sixth to eighth at the 2023 World Championships, as well as China and Denmark, two teams that have been promoted from Division I-A. All the nations in Group A and the top three teams in Group B advance to the knockout phase, while the bottom two teams in Group B are relegated.
