The Men’s World Floorball Championships will be held in Malmö, Sweden, from 7 to 15. december shows all matches in Finland on its channels.
The broadcast of the opening match Latvia–Finland starts on TV1 on Saturday at 12:25 p.m.
Commentator Antti Ennekarin the words left no room for guesswork.
Now comes a bad, bad solution From Eemeli Salin and it has to be reached Rasmus Enströmone of the best players in the world… And then the ball is in the goal, Sweden narrows to 1–2. And it all starts from Eemeli Salini’s really weak solution.
Finland’s opening set in the floorball World Cup finals in Gothenburg’s Scandinavium arena in December 2014 had gone well.
The underdog had managed to freeze Sweden’s game and silence the roar of the home crowd by striking twice in important places at the beginning and end of the set.
World Cup debutant Eemeli Salin, then 24, had served Risto Töllikön 2–0 goal in the last minute of the period.
The sled slowly started to turn at the beginning of the second period, after a stray pass by Salini Mattias Samuelsson was able to narrow down and the blue-yellow nation was untied from its connections.
Robin Nilsberth equalized with superiority at the end of the set, and Sweden’s only scorer in the final set Henrik Stenberg.
Finland narrowly bowed 2–3, and one of the most disappointing players in the hall was Salin. Although the tournament had mostly gone well, a dark moment weighed on the mind.
– It was a really hard place for a young man, and I didn’t really know how to deal with it at that moment. I was in deep water, although I know that the loss was not my fault in any way. Floorball sometimes depends on the little things, Salin recalls the decisive moments of his first World Cup tournament.
Salini had become a father shortly before the Games, and family and the passage of time helped take the worst of it away. He did not remain in mourning, but thirsted for the World Championship gold even more.
– It left me terribly hungry and I grew up as an athlete. The slippers became even tighter, and if you look back a year, the game improved a lot. Then something happened in me that made me take a big step to become a better player.
The better player got his reward in the end, but we’ll get back to that a little later.
A master of three sports
Salin, who grew up in Uusikaupunki, has been a hard-working competitor since she was a child, who played basketball and soccer in addition to floorball until she reached A-junior age – sports in which she felt she was more talented than floorball.
Korihai’s promising playmaker junior made it to the youth national team camps, and top man Salin played half a season in the A-Youth Championship in TPS’s shirt.
However, floorball took the win, as he had the best time wearing USB’s shirt in the floorball court.
After two World Cup golds and six Finnish championships, the choice of sport has not regretted, even if the bankroll could have been better in other sports.
– I’ve liked playing floorball and sometimes I’ve had quite a bit of success, so there’s been no need to worry. I was talented in soccer when I was younger, and I was good at it. Surely something could have come of it.
Soccer still goes along in the summer as a good support sport, and the top couple has been their own father for years Vesa Salin. The younger brother also plays vitos divar in Uusikaupunki’s Pallokerho shirt.
On the basketball side, Salin always goes to coach his son’s team when he has time.
As a father of three children, Salin hopes that the children will be able to do a variety of activities, and that there is no need to lock in the choice of sport too early.
Salini’s physical foundations are iron, he perceives the field excellently and he has avoided bad injuries throughout his long career.
– I understand that, especially in big cities, when the amount of practice is so large that it (practicing many sports) is made really difficult. On the other hand, it’s also sad, because I personally feel that more sports have been so beneficial to my own career.
– Maybe it just comes earlier in the way that you have to choose a sport after middle school at the latest. I always try to encourage children and young people to be versatile and to be able to play two sports.
“Shy Boy and House Mouse”
Although Salin is going to his sixth World Cup and has more than 110 international caps and more than 350 games in the F-League, the world’s best winger has never enjoyed basking in the limelight.
When Salin was younger, he was so shy that going to youth national team camps was stressful and sometimes he missed the camps.
15 years ago, the under-19 World Cup home games were played almost next door in Turku, but Vesa’s father had to persuade his son to get him to go on representative duties. Even as an adult, the transfer from Koovee to local rival Classic was exciting.
The pint-sized top athlete has always wanted to let his actions speak for themselves.
– Especially when I was younger, I was a shy boy and a house mouse. If someone wants to do things, they can do it, but I’m not the kind of person who enjoys attention. I’m happy to be in the background.
– I like to lead by example and I always do things as well as I can. I’m not the first to speak, but I speak when there’s something important to say.
For Salini, who thrives in fish waters and the peace of the mushroom forest, the team’s advantage always comes before everything else, and playing in your own bag makes you see red.
When playing for victory, there is no place for soloing.
– When I really notice that everyone doesn’t put in their full effort on the field and are left to think about their own points or don’t play for the team, I get annoyed. That has happened too.
Between two cities
Salin, who has enjoyed his entire career on Finnish courts, has been playing in Tampere Classic since 2015, but the family has already lived in Uusiakaupunki for more than four years.
Moving back home meant that thousands of kilometers were accumulated during the season, but Salini has another apartment in Tampere and life is divided between the two cities.
Salin, who trained as a nurse and also worked in her own field in the past, can invest everything in indoor basketball in Tampere.
– I have been able to fulfill my dream in Classic and focus fully on sports. I’m getting old, so I’m betting on myself and on being able to pull for as long as possible.
As a floorball professional, you don’t accumulate money in such amounts that you can just put it away – especially not in a family with three children.
As the choice of the main sport already showed in its time, rather than money, Salini’s decisions have always been guided by passion.
– You can’t really save money here with floorball benefits, and in addition to playing for the club, I also do some work. You have to get enough money to be able to feed your family and take care of housing, but now the situation is quite good and the contract is also quite good.
Fourth place in the national team’s all-time scoring list (Salin 132, Hannes Öhman 134) the approaching Salin got to taste the drug of the home games already three years ago in Helsinki, but in even more familiar scenery the World Cup medals will be played in Tampere two years from now.
The career is not yet at the end point, everything else.
– The long term has definitely been in Tampere. When I heard that the games are there, a smile came to my face and I thought that I will still play there.
– Winning is still the number one thing. I want to win everything I’m involved in. Now first in Malmö, and from then on every year. For that, I always do things so that we can manage, says the oldest player of Malmö’s World Cup team.
Read more: Will Finland grab gold with this group in Malmö? See the presentation of the men’s indoor bandy WC team
Riga’s sweet revenge
Extension is looming, but Finland still has time to build that one place… SALIN LAUKOO! Is that shoulder warm? That’s it! Right in the top corner – a magical goal!
Commentator Matti Härkönen got to stretch his vocal cords in the World Cup semi-final in Riga in December 2016. Salini’s wonderful shot into the top corner gave Finland a 4-3 victory over the Czech Republic just seven seconds before the end.
The final against Sweden lasted until a penalty shootout, and this time Finland emerged victorious.
To Gothenburg’s disappointment, Salin had received a golden acknowledgment in the very next Games.
– More or less it had been a certain kind of goal in the back of my head, that you have to experience it anew and win. You get chills when you go there for the 2016 final atmosphere, Salin smiles and strokes his arm.
– It was something so great that an athlete can work hard for. Those experiences are probably what sports are all about.
The Men’s World Floorball Championships will be held in Malmö, Sweden, from 7 to 15. december shows all matches in Finland on its channels.
The broadcast of the opening match Latvia–Finland starts on TV1 on Saturday at 12:25.