On the largest darts stage in the world, Ricardo Pietreczko made a fool of himself. Germany’s last World Cup hope was not only hopeless in terms of sport, but also emotionally helpless. In the most important game of his young career, Pietreczko had a miserable performance that led to a 4-0 defeat against England’s Nathan Aspinall in London.
“Today just wasn’t my day. “I don’t know, somehow it just didn’t work out,” said Pietreczko after a wasted afternoon. Aspinall is now fighting for his third place in a World Cup semi-final on New Year’s Day (1:30 p.m. and 8:00 p.m./Sport1 and DAZN), the last remaining German has to travel home instead after the sporting disaster.
“Double quota underground”
Pikachu, as Pietreczko is called, had previously played an excellent tournament, but completely collapsed on Monday – also mentally. The 30-year-old from Nuremberg only won two of 14 legs and was eliminated in less than 45 minutes. All dreams of a World Cup title that he had openly expressed were dashed.
An average of 78.46 points per three arrows is a miserable value. “Those weren’t the averages I played. The double quota was also underground. Round of 16 at the World Cup is not bad, you have to say,” said Pietreczko on Sport1. He added: “It could even be that I was the worst to ever play in the round of 16.”
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Aspinall praises the audience
For the euphoric English, the exit of the last German representative became a real sporting holiday. The fans loudly shouted “Football’s coming home” and Pietreczko was regularly greeted with whistles and boos. “He didn’t play like he normally plays. I have never experienced an atmosphere like this before,” said Aspinall, after all a former World Matchplay title winner. He meant it as praise.
Pietreczko had already checked off the match before the end. After two sets with no chances, the game already seemed decided. “I noticed all day that something was wrong. “Sometimes it’s just the way of the day,” said a perplexed Pietreczko. He made a questionable calculation: “One round every year, then in four years we will have a world champion.”
Quintet left before Christmas
Until the Aspinall match, the man from Nuremberg had held the German flag high in the Ally Pally. His victories over Gian van Veen (3:1) and Scott Williams (4:1) came as a surprise and fueled hopes of a darts sensation from London. But Aspinall was already several sizes too big.
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All other Germans were eliminated before Christmas. Martin Schindler and Gabriel Clemens lost their first match as seeded professionals. Even for Florian Hempel and the two debutants Niko Springer and Kai Gotthardt it was not enough to make it into the third round.