Finland experienced a rare initial group defeat to Switzerland in the floorball World Championships. Urheilu’s experts widely criticized Finland’s game performance.
In the history of the Men’s Floorball World Cup, Finland had previously only lost Four times in the preliminary group stage. On Sunday, the Fifth came against Switzerland, who played in ecstasy in a screaming storm in Zurich.
In 2018, Finland advanced to the World Cup gold, even though they lost one match in the first group. So the goal of the world championship did not experience a bump in itself, but the game itself raised a lot of questions.
– It was a difficult game. A certain courage to play this game with the ball was conspicuous by its absence. I see that we gained important experience playing in such a hall, and from this we will start developing our own thing, striker Ville Lastikka said to Urheilu after the match.
There is really enough to develop based on the Swiss struggle. Sports experts Toni Lötjönen and Perttu Kytöhonka gave Finland highlighted three essential things about the match.
1) Ball game
The problems of the ball game mentioned by Lastkanki also emerged in the observations of the experts. Switzerland had 60 percent of the ball in the match, which is rare for a Finnish opponent.
– Points to Switzerland for their lead play. They were able to control it the way Finland has often played, Kytöhonka said.
When Finland had the ball, according to Kytöhonga, Switzerland often defended in a 1-2-2 formation, where the second line was slightly below the center line. Finland did not find enough ways to break Switzerland’s defense.
– In the F-League, that kind of really traditional playing is not terribly welcome. Actually, the best example was Switzerland’s second goal. Otto Lehkosuo thought a bit about what to do and pushed a long ball into Switzerland’s end. Switzerland’s big defenders applied pressure, turned the game around and the ball was in the net, Kytöhonka said.
Lötjönen felt that Finland had to wrestle with the Swiss a lot on the offensive end. This played to the strengths of the Swiss defenders.
– It also led to the fact that there were no further presses and if there were, the distances between the players were large. Switzerland’s somewhat scrappy Paks got through easily, Kytöhonka added.
2) Goalkeeper game
Finland is used to dominating the ball game at the World Cup, and the fans are also used to seeing the best goalkeepers in Finland’s goal. against Switzerland Pascal Meier took the neck from the one who played in Finland’s goal Lassi from Toriseva.
– It’s always brutal to put one player in the frame, but that’s the goalkeeper’s role. Toriseva didn’t have the best day today. He would have needed more energy, but it didn’t come today, Kytöhonka said.
3) Coaching
The Finnish coaching staff also received criticism from experts. Lötjönen would have missed it Petteri Nykyn a better reaction from the led group, because the image of the game remained similar throughout the match.
– Finland was without the ball a lot, but at no point did they really start pumping, pressing or pushing. The chasing position showed little signs of confusion from the experienced coaching, Lötjönen stated.
Kytöhonka was on the same lines and offered an example of thoughtlessness in coaching.
– Finland took a timeout after Switzerland’s sixth goal. There was a commercial break coming up in a minute. It was wasted, as it were, one extra time.
– At the end, the goalkeeper was taken off in a special spot. It seemed that the six wasn’t quite prepared for playing without a goalkeeper. In the next situation, Toriseva had to ask herself out of the goal. It felt like the lights on the bench weren’t quite on, Lötjönen added.
The group victory is now in Switzerland’s own hands. If Switzerland keeps its number one position, Finland would most likely meet Sweden already in the possible semi-final. In the final round of the first group on Tuesday, Finland will face Norway and Switzerland will face Slovakia.