Because of this, the Czech Republic earned its World Cup gold – Kari Jalonen, who coached the team, found three significant reasons for the success | Sport

Urheilu followed the ice hockey World Cup in this article.

The Czech Republic stormed back to the top of international hockey. On Sunday, the team beat Switzerland 2–0 in the final of their home WC in Prague.

The biggest Czech NHL star David Pastrnak scored his only goal of the tournament, the winning goal of the World Cup final in 49.13.

Pastrnak, a Boston talent who joined the team in the middle of the World Cup, was the fifth and by far the best Czech player in the NHL regular season with 47+63=110.

David Kampf completed the 2–0 readings in the final moments into the empty Switzerland goal.

The Czech Republic has won the men’s World Cup gold seven times. In addition, Czechoslovakia won six world championships.

Recently, Czechoslovakia won several World Cup golds in their home games. The Soviet Union celebrated the championship in Moscow in 1986. Since then, the host country has won the World Cup tournament only three times: Sweden 2013, Finland 2022 and the Czech Republic 2024.

You can see David Pastrnak’s winning goal in the International Hockey Federation’s X publication.

In its initial group in Prague, the competition host was third when it lost to Switzerland in the winning goal race and to Canada in overtime.

However, in the playoffs, the Czech defense was ironclad. In the semifinals against the USA and in the final against Switzerland, the own goal remained clean. In the semi-final, the Czech Republic, on the other hand, upset Sweden’s glowing NHL bundle 7–3.

There is Finnish spice in the Czech Republic’s return as champion. Selected as the best goalkeeper of the tournament and in the star field Lukas Dostal23, arrived in Finland at the age of 18 and represented Tampere Ilves for three seasons.

Read more: The Czech World Cup hero, who played in the SM League, joked about Finns

Kari Jalonen, now 64, coached the Czech Republic from 2021 to 2023. If Czech players have been stereotypically seen as skilled artists, Jalonen brought a disciplined five-man defense to the mix.

In the spring 2022 roughs in Tampere, Jalonen piloted the Czech Republic to the World Championship bronze. It already created a sensation in the country, because the previous World Cup medals were bronzes in 2011 and 2012.

Read more: Kari Jalose became the great hero of the Czech Republic in nine weeks – “Could you say the greatest time of the hockey career”

Now the Czech Republic is the champion – the previous World Cup gold was from 2010.

The main championship factors

Jalonen, who knows Czech ice hockey and sports culture well, says that summing up the most important factors, the World Cup gold went to the right address.

– After all, everything starts from the spirit of togetherness, which shone strongly from the Czech team. Looking at the history of the Czech Republic, when they are really together, then they are strong. The team spirit was also highlighted in the interviews with the players. They played for each other and for their country, Jalonen begins.

Another thing Jalonen emphasizes is the tight defensive game of the Czech Republic and the improvement of goalkeeper Dostal.

– The defense was really strong, fought with a big heart and kept the real top spots away from the opponent, especially in the final.

As a third fact, Jalonen praises the Czechs’ fighting toughness, which, like the tightness of the defense, shined especially in even top games in favor of the champion team.

– Everyone knows that the skill and skating power have already been there. It is in the Czech players’ DNA that they are a very footy and skating group.

A lot of noise

The positive buzz of the tournament, which was played in Prague and Ostrava, was further increased by the high atmosphere in the stands that continued throughout the games. A total of 797,727 spectators attended the matches, which is an all-time audience record.

The average audience per match was almost 12,500, and the atmosphere was wild even in the smaller puck countries. The Finnish media wrote a lot about how great the show was at the Games compared to the Tampere WC tournaments.

Jalonen, who will coach Kölner Haie in the German DEL league next season, followed the World Cup in the role of MTV Urheilu’s expert and also saw a match on the spot.

– Yes, the Czech audience, which I myself enjoyed for a couple of years, is lively and very involved in the game. Now that’s where the people’s movement really got started. The organization did a good job as the atmosphere in all the matches in Prague was great.

The Czech team succeeded its head coach Radim Rulik too led to turn drugs into a source of strength.

– I followed a lot of Czech media, and the players talked about how they were able to turn the pressure into pleasure. They didn’t crumble in any way, on the contrary, they got strength from the audience, praises Jalonen.

What does this mean for hockey?

The Czech Republic even dominated international hockey at the turn of the millennium. In the last ten years, the top of international ice hockey has been narrow, and now Russia is also on the sidelines. In the years 2011–2023, the championships were shared between Russia, Sweden, Finland and Canada.

At the same time, the wretchedness of the Czech player production and the lost potential have been wondered at. Now the gold medal and the show seen in Prague in general can have far-reaching effects.

Jalonen laughs that this gold medal was certainly expected, but he also reminds us of the bigger picture.

Jalonen was involved in giving his views to the Czech team at the under-20 World Cup in Edmonton 2022, when the games were played exceptionally in August as a result of the corona pandemic.

The Czech Republic was fourth in the Games, which was already a hard performance for its age group.

Since then, the Czech Republic has won World Cup silver and bronze at the U20 Championships.

On the women’s side, the Czech Republic has taken the first World Cup medals in its history, bronze in 2022 and 2023.

– When all these are put together, it is good for Czech hockey. Children are attracted to the sport and new idols were made from the players of these home games, Jalonen believes.

– And when the organization succeeded so well, it is also financially good for Czech ice hockey. There will be a financial buffer, as Finland received from its home games. Where is that money distributed, but usually it is also put into junior hockey.

When reflecting on the struggles for promotion, Jalonen points out that, for example, the Czech U20 series has been stretched a lot in recent years, such as by reducing the number of teams.

Still, most of the best juniors in the Czech Republic are looking for a boost in their careers in North America.

– The Czech U20 national team is mainly made up of players who play in North America in various junior leagues. They are there before the NHL draft, after the draft, trying to fight to get into the bright lights. In addition, there are also junior players in Finland and Switzerland and to some extent in Sweden.

Of course, the rise of the Czech Republic is just beginning, but in any case it is good for the breadth of international ice hockey competition.

World Cup gold came with experienced NHL men and Czech league players. The average age of the group was almost 30 years. The best scorer was also 38 years old Roman Cervenka (3+8).

However, the fact that the U20 team has risen again to challenge the best countries gives us support.

Jalonen singles out the 21-year-old Minnesota reservation from the WC gold group David Spacek toowho was winning the World Cup silver in the U20 Games at the beginning of 2023.

– He is the first one from those U20 teams to reach the men’s prestigious competition and was ready to play. There are plenty of other players out there who struggle between the farm and the NHL. These players are the future of Czech hockey.

– I personally see that these results spawn more positive things for Czech hockey.

Corrected on 27.5. at 9:02 p.m. The Soviet Union celebrated the championship in Moscow in 1986, not 1968.