Miracle on Ice

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Miracle on Ice (English for "Miracle on Ice") is worldwide, but especially in the United States , a general term for the unexpected victory of the US ice hockey team on 22 February 1980 at the time unbeatable force Soviet National ice hockey team , as well as winning the gold medal in the ice hockey tournament of the 1980 Olympic Winter Games , which took place in Lake Placid, Switzerland. A few weeks earlier, at Christmas 1979, the Soviet intervention in Afghanistan had started and influenced the mood accordingly. In the general perception, this tournament is reduced to the 4: 3 victory of the American college amateurs over the state amateur team of the Soviet Union , which had dominated their preliminary round group with an average score of 10: 2. Two days later, the USA defeated Finland 4-2, which in connection with the preliminary round draw against Sweden was enough to win the final round, especially since Sweden lost 9-2 to the USSR at the same time.

The way to Olympic gold

Historical situation

Soviet intervention in Afghanistan began seven weeks before the opening of the Winter Olympic Games in mid-February, Christmas 1979 . The then ruling Cold War also had a major impact on sport. In general, the matches between teams from the United States and the Soviet Union in all sports were particularly explosive. In addition, at the time of the Winter Games, US President Jimmy Carter was already considering an American boycott of the 1980 Summer Olympics , which were to take place in Moscow six months later . If this plan had become known, a Soviet boycott would probably have already taken place at this Winter Olympic Games.

At the ice hockey world championship held the previous year in 1979 , the national team of the United States only reached seventh place. Since all teams at this World Championship were also present in Lake Placid, every effort was made in the run-up to the Olympic Games to increase the chances of the host US Americans winning a medal. For this purpose, a completely new team was formed around the successful college trainer Herb Brooks , with almost all college players being recruited. Like the coach, most of the players came from the University of Minnesota team , which won several titles in American university sports in the 1970s. Nevertheless, at this point in time only a few players had the prospect of being allowed to play as a professional in the NHL later .
Throughout the winter of 1979/80, the team underwent specific preparation for the Olympic tournament, which was unprecedented for a college team in terms of both organizational planning and training intensity. Nevertheless, the US team suffered a clear 3:10 defeat in a preparatory game against the Soviet Union team a week before the start of the Olympic decisions.
The Sbornaja was also the big favorite at the Olympic ice hockey tournament. Since 1963, with three exceptions, it has won the world championship title every time and has also won the last four Olympic ice hockey tournaments. In the ranks of the five-time Olympic champion and 16-time world champion at that time, names played who at the time represented the absolute best in the world. These included, for example, Boris Michailow , an excellent center player and team captain at the same time , or Wladislaw Tretyak , who is still considered by many observers to be the best goalkeeper in ice hockey history. There were also young, up-and-coming talents in the team, such as defender Vyacheslav Fetissov . Almost all of the players belonged to the Soviet ice hockey club CSKA Moscow , which had dominated the European club teams for years. Due to this fact, the Sbornaja was the best well-rehearsed team of all national teams and over time developed a dominance in international ice hockey, which so far had only been nearly achieved by Canadian teams in the first half of the 20th century. Officially, the Soviet players had amateur status, as this was a requirement for participation in the Olympic Games at the time. In fact, they did not pursue any other gainful activity and were able to practice their sport professionally under excellent training conditions. Therefore, mainly in Western media, the players of Eastern European teams were disparagingly referred to as state amateurs .

Preliminary round

In the preliminary round games, the hard preparation paid off when the US team astonished many observers, especially with their physically strong game. So they were able to win against the also highly traded Czechoslovaks 7-3 and survived the preliminary round without defeat. With a total of four wins and one draw, they finished second in the group behind Sweden and thus qualified for the final round.
The gold contender and defending champion from the Soviet Union held himself harmless in his preliminary group and emphatically underpinned his favorite position by winning all games. The teams from Japan, the Netherlands and Poland were downright outclassed. But the co-favorites from Canada and Finland also suffered defeats against the "Eis-Sputniks". The latter team was able to qualify for the final round at least behind the USSR.

Final round

Matchday one: United States - USSR (Miracle on Ice)

Although the US team was able to cause quite a stir in the preliminary round and had triumphed as hosts at its last Olympic Games, nobody seriously believed that there was a real chance of victory against the Soviet team. Dave Anderson, a columnist for the New York Times , wrote the day before the meeting: “ Unless the ice melts, or unless the United States team or another team performs a miracle, as did the American squad in Winter Olympics 1960, the Russians are expected to win the Olympic gold medal for the sixth time in the last seven tournaments. "(German:" If the ice does not melt or the US or another team works a miracle, as the American team did at the 1960 Olympic Games - then one can assume that the Russians will win their sixth Olympic gold medal within the win the last seven tournaments. ")

The teams themselves prepared for this game in very different ways. The Soviet coach Viktor Tikhonov let the top performers rest in confidence in the playful superiority of his team and limited himself to theoretical video studies. The US coach Herb Brooks, however, stuck to his previous training methods and let his players continue to train on the ice. He was aware that his team's only chance of success was to face the superior Soviet style of play with hard physical effort.

In view of the explosiveness that prevailed as a result of the political tensions between the two countries and the great athletic performance of their team in the preliminary round, the encounter against the Soviet Union met with great interest from the American public. Except for the spectators in the hall, they had to be patient in front of the screens, as the television station ABC did not show the game live, but rather five hours late in order to be able to broadcast at so-called prime time .

The game finally started as most observers expected when the USSR side took the lead after nine minutes. Here took Vladimir Krutov a pass from Alexei Kassatonow and overcame the American goalkeeper Jim Craig , who was no chance. The US-Americans, who were cheered on frenetically by their compatriots in the hall, were not impressed by the fast deficit and were equalized by Buzz Schneider . In the eighteenth minute, the Soviet team scored again. This time it was Sergei Makarov who put the defending champion in the front. At this point, the superiority of the Soviet team came into its own. A total of 18 shots on goal by the Sbornaja were counted in the first third alone, as opposed to eight shots on goal by the US team. If anything, it was thanks to goalkeeper Jim Craig that the Americans were only one goal behind. In the last seconds of the first period the hosts got another chance when Dave Christian tested the Soviet goalkeeper Wladislaw Tretjak. He fended off the shot, but could not hold the puck, so a margin from Mark Johnson a second before the break brought the American equalizer.

Game scene with Mike Ramsey at the puck; Viktor Schluktow and Valery Vasilyev in defense in front of goalkeeper Vladimir Myshkin

At the beginning of the second period coach Tikhonov decided against Tretyak and let Vladimir Myshkin guard the gate in his place . This measure met with great astonishment and was later described, among others, by the Soviet player Fetissow as the turning point of this game. At first, however, the substitution seemed to have been the right decision, as Myshkin held up perfectly and Alexander Malzew scored the renewed lead in the superior number game for the USSR just two minutes after the restart. In this third, too, the Soviet team was overwhelmingly superior and, from their point of view, had a goal shot ratio of 12: 2. Nevertheless, the goal of Malzew remained the only goal in this period of the game, which in turn is ultimately due to the outstanding performance of the US keeper Jim Craig. After a body check by Valery Kharlamov, he suffered from pain, but decided not to be replaced.

In the last third, the dominance of the favorite was no longer too clear, as most of the players lost their strength. Nevertheless, it came as a surprise to many spectators when Johnson was able to equalize again to 3: 3 with his second goal in the 49th minute of the game. Barely a minute and a half later, the US team even took the lead for the first time to the general enthusiasm in the hall. Mark Pavelich played the puck to his teammate Mike Eruzione , who was relatively uncovered and withdrew directly. The Soviet goalkeeper Myshkin could not see the shot because his own defenders blocked his view and had no chance. Thus, ten minutes before the end of the game it was 4: 3 for the US national team. In the remaining minutes of the game, the Americans limited themselves exclusively to saving their narrow lead over time. They left the initiative to the Soviet team and defended their goal with all field players, concentrating primarily on keeping the puck out of their own zone. The final offensive of the Sbornaya, in whose ranks not a few saw themselves exposed to such a situation for the first time, was unsuccessful. The final seconds were counted down by the public and the reporter Al Michaels , who play the game for ABC -Television along with former goalkeeper of the Montreal Canadiens , Ken Dryden commented, took the countdown and said the sentences, after which finally the game was later named :

“Eleven seconds, you got ten seconds, the countdown going on right now […] Morrow up to Silk […] five seconds left in the game! Four left in the game! Do you believe in miracles? Yes !!! Unbelievable! "

"Eleven seconds, ten seconds to go, the countdown really starts now [...] Morrow ahead of Silk [...] five seconds left in this game! Four more! Do you believe in miracles? Yes!!! Incredible!"

Despite the drama, this encounter was never unfair. Both teams were each given two time penalty minutes three times during the entire game.

Team line-up

Dave Christian jersey in the Hockey Hall of Fame
Jim Craig goalkeeping kit in the Hockey Hall of Fame

United States

USSR

Second matchday: United States - Finland

Often the game against the USSR and against Finland is called the semi-finals or the final. However, this is not correct. At the 1980 Olympic Games, the final round of the best four was held in group mode (the direct comparisons of the preliminary round were adopted), with the team with the highest points being chosen as the Olympic champion. Despite its defeat, the Soviet team still had the chance to win the gold medal by defeating Sweden. The prerequisite for this was a defeat of the US team against Finland.

For many Americans, the game against the Soviet “over-team” was the emotional climax of the Olympic Games. Many had therefore not yet understood that the Finnish team had to be defeated in order to win the gold medal.
After two-thirds of the time, the United States was behind, as it had been against the USSR. Although this time the battle was pretty even, the US strikers repeatedly despaired of the Finnish goalkeeper. Herb Brooks only gave an emotional booth address before the last third ( "If you lose this game, you'll take it to your fucking grave." - "If you lose this game, you will take it with you to your damn grave.") to give the US team another boost. In the last third, the team scored three goals in a row through Phil Verchota , Robert McClanahan and Mark Johnson and ultimately won 4: 2. Again it was the commentator Michaels who coined the words: “This impossible dream comes true!” (“ This impossible dream comes true !”). Immediately after the final whistle, exuberant cheers took place on the ice. The players threw gloves and sticks on the field and hugged each other. In particular, the goalkeeper of the winning team, Jim Craig, was remembered by many observers as he, wrapped in the US flag, ran across the ice and looked for his father in the audience. The fact that Craig's mother had recently passed away and that she wished her son could attend the Olympics gave this moment a special meaning. The award of the gold medals to the American team was followed by millions of Americans nationwide on television sets. The defending champion from the Soviet Union could at least be happy about silver thanks to a safe 9-2 victory against Sweden.

After the games

After winning the gold medal, the American team was received by then President Jimmy Carter in the White House . However, despite this success, the team could not be held together and suddenly fell apart after the Olympic Games. Many of the players began a career as a professional primarily in the NHL and were largely able to celebrate success there or were inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame . Ken Morrow even managed the feat of winning the Stanley Cup with the New York Islanders the same year they won the Olympics . The scorer of the winning goal Mike Eruzione, on the other hand, ended his career after the 1980 Olympic Games because he lacked the athletic motivation after winning the Olympic gold medal. His racket was sold several times, most recently for € 236,000.

In 1980, Sports Illustrated magazine awarded the US Olympic team the title of Sportsman of the Year . This award is given annually and is intended to honor athletes or teams whose successes in the past year were particularly characterized by sporting fairness and outstanding performance. The team was also honored with the Associated Press Athlete of the Year award .

Commentator Al Michaels was voted "Sports Reporter of the Year" by colleagues in 1980 for his reports on the ice hockey games in the Olympic tournament. Over time, he became one of the most popular and valued sports commentators on US television and was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2004 for his exceptional services .

In the years after the legendary duel between the two teams, the Soviet team was able to maintain its international dominance in ice hockey despite this defeat and won every subsequent match against the United States in subsequent tournaments.
It wasn't until the early 1990s that the balance of power gradually changed in ice hockey. A few years earlier part of the Soviet ice hockey elite was allowed to play in the North American NHL (which for CSKA Moscow also meant the end of European supremacy among the club teams), this trend increased significantly after the end of the Soviet Union. This also had a lasting influence on the style of play of the Russian national team as the successor to the Soviet team, which nowadays is heavily influenced by the physical game in the NHL and hardly differs from that of other teams.

Members of the American ice hockey team of 1980 lit the Olympic flame at the opening ceremony of the Salt Lake City Winter Olympics in 2002.

The name Miracle on Ice is also used for another ice hockey game when the Belarusians sensationally defeated the highly favored Swedish ice hockey team at the 2002 Winter Olympics in the quarter-finals.

Others

Under the name "Miracle on Ice" a film was broadcast on US television in 1981, in which Karl Malden as Herb Brooks and Steve Guttenberg as Jim Craig were seen.

In 2004 a movie called " Miracle " with Kurt Russell in the role of Herb Brooks was made.

In episode seven of the fourth season of the TV series X-Files , "Thoughts of the Mysterious Smoker", it is claimed that the USSR lost the game because the "smoker" did not want to see it as the winner and had therefore anesthetized the Soviet goalkeeper with procaine .

The cartoon character Marge also makes reference to the Miracle on Ice in the episode “Marge's old friend” of the television series The Simpsons . At the end of the episode, she imagines what her life would have been like if she had chosen the profession of journalist as a young woman. She sees herself reporting on the television news that the Miracle on Ice never happened.

credentials

Movies

Books

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ WORLD: Winter Olympic Games: cult ice hockey sticks auctioned for 235,000 euros . In: THE WORLD . February 23, 2018 ( welt.de [accessed June 2, 2018]).

Web links