‘s floor bandy experts put together a surprisingly adult and mature performance from Finland, which in turn caused question marks for tournament host Sweden.
The Men’s Floorball World Championships will be played in Malmö, Sweden, from December 7 to 15. shows all matches in Finland on its channels. The broadcast of Finland’s quarter-final against either Denmark or Norway starts on Friday the 13th on TV2 at 20:00.
Finland ended its opening group of the Men’s WC Men’s World Championship in style on Tuesday, when the world champion Sweden lost in front of 6,200 home spectators with goals 2-5. First-court defender Miska Mäkinen was awarded as the best player in Finland.
Coach Esa Jussilan the proteges go to Friday’s quarter-finals with the group win in their pockets, and will face either Norway or Denmark.
Sweden will face the winner of the match between Germany and Poland, but in a possible semi-final the yellow shirts will probably face the Czech Republic, which would mean a repeat of the finals of the last World Cup.
Sports experts Perttu Kytöhonka and Toni Lötjönen tell in which matters the Finnish men’s national floorball team was able to surprise Sweden for the first time in the history of the World Cup on its home court.
– This was a surprise, when nothing indicated it in advance. Of course we knew the potential of the Finnish team. If we take the six practice matches from the fall and the first two matches from here, there was no indication that Finland would be able to offer such a performance, Lötjönen stated.
Almost perfect goalkeeper and special situation game
According to Lötjönen, Finland’s special situation and goalkeeper play was excellent and the team played extremely maturely throughout.
– In this game, we managed to measure the top register of the Finnish team and specifically in those things where Finland has been good even before the Jussila era, the expert reminded.
According to Expressen Finland’s indoor basketball players rumbled over Sweden, while the host’s players mostly “ran around and whined”.
Perttu Kytöhonka saw that Finland built the winning elements for the Finnish ball team with traditional means.
– Clever, adult-like playing with the ball and sometimes got the home crowd to whistle, which was a good sign.
– Really good goalkeeper game Oskari from Fälden and very good special situations, i.e. two goals from the first two overtimes. On top of that, another goal from a corner kick and one into the net. In practice, only one five-on-five goal was scored. The team was in good shape and received important stepping stones for next weekend, praised Kytöhonka.
Fewer question marks now
Lötjönen admits directly that Finland’s upward trend and by far the best game of the tournament reduced the question marks surrounding the team.
Finland plays three games in three days from Friday to Sunday. On Saturday, the semifinals are on the program, where Turkey will face the strongest Switzerland before the possible World Cup final on Sunday.
– This was the only top success when you look at the whole autumn. Sweden was now challenged. The western neighbor ran into those old, own original sins, when the feeling got over and Finland did a clock card-like good job. Finland was boring in a good way, Lötjönen marveled.
Sweden’s hot-blooded head coach Niklas Nordén got a little pep from the expert.
– I’m not saying that Sweden was open, but maybe they didn’t expect such a performance from Finland.
– I was partly disappointed with Sweden’s coaching, because they were not able to change anything in the third set, even though at that point they were completely following Finland’s footsteps. Finland got off easy, while Sweden was not able to challenge Finland’s case at all, Kytöhonka continued.