The Latvian men’s national floorball team has never been seen among the top four countries.
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 Finland’s quarter-final against Norway starts on Friday the 13th at 8 p.m.
The Latvian men’s floorball team has advanced to the World Cup semi-finals for the first time in the country’s history. On Thursday, the team defeated Switzerland, known as floorball country, after overtime, with a score of 4–3.
The last time Switzerland was left out of the top four countries was in 1996, i.e. 28 years ago.
Finished the decisive goal in the third minute of overtime Rolands Kovalevskis.
“Great significance for Latvian floorball”
The head coach of the Latvian national team is a well-known name to Finns Heikki Luukkonen. Luukkonen has coached the Latvian team since the end of 2022. At the club level in Finland, Luukkonen has coached Espoo Oilers and Nokian KrP, among others.
Luukkonen was understandably satisfied after the match.
– Of course, incredibly important for Latvian floorball. Today the glass ceiling was broken and now the sky is open.
In the interview, Luukkonen singled out the team’s young guard, who have raised the level of the national team.
– Efforts have been made to improve mental and physical performance. We have a suitable combo. A lot of young players who have developed and progressed and grown with this story.
– The biggest thing has been that the boys have gained such faith that you can really succeed here and everything is possible, Luukkonen said in the interview.
Latvia was also a difficult opponent for Finland in the first match of the initial group. However, Finland, which came to the games with a short completion time, defeated Lavia 4–3.
Luukkonen thinks it would be great if Finland met in Saturday’s semi-final.
– We have already prepared the gang for once in this tournament against Finland. We still have a bit to improve and homework, but hopefully we can get the job done and we will be able to face Finland tomorrow.