Poland, Germany, Estonia, Austria, Russia, Hungary, Japan and Canada will play in the 2009 B-division.
Poland is one of the favourite teams in the B-division. Team Poland was relegated to the B-division in 2007 and their best placement is from 2007, when they were 7th. The team challenged five of the A-division team in the Polish Cup in February, but only against Slovakia the numbers remained acceptable, with a 1-3 loss. Łukasz Chlebda, who played already in U19 2007 scored most points in the Polish Cup with 2+1.
Germany played two friendly internationals against Poland in April and the results were one loss (7-11) and one win (8-6). The German´s lost the B-division final in 2007 against Denmark with a last minute goal and are now aiming for the B-division victory. The captain Sebastian Bernieck, Tim Böttcher, Matthias Siede, Lennart Liebig and Christian Faber are all playing their second U19 Championships.
Also Estonia is aiming for a place in the A-division in 2011. Estonia played a friendly international versus Latvia in April and the result was a clear loss 2-12 against the A-division team. Three Estonian players, Mats Tamme, Ats Tamme and Elvis Aug, played in Finland during this season. In addition Oskar Salm, Fredy Maalt and the goalie Rainer Kalde are worth mentioning.
Austria made their first U19 entrance in 2007 and they were placed 12th. There are six players in the 2009 team that have gained WFC experience from the last championships. Keep an eye on the following players: Joe Leurer, a physcal player with a great shot; Timo Schmid, a skilful player who is good at scoring goals and Felix Moosburger, who is a very fast player.
Team Russia is aiming back to the A-division after some disappointing years. The team includes many promising players that play in the highest league in Russia. The most important player is Vladimir Garevskikh, who played in the Men´s WFC A-division team in 2008 and can play both defender and forward. In addition Kontantin Kuryatnikov in the goal and Alexander Avtushenko in the defence are important players.
In addition to Russia, Hungary made their way to the B-division through the qualification in November 2008 played on home ground. Five of the Hungarian players are born in 1993 and the most interesting player is Philip Kapetz, who is born in 1991 in Sweden and is playing for the Swedish club team Lindås Waves IBK.
Team Japan is the only team from Asia and therefore automatically qualified to the championships. Japan has participated in the Men´s U19 championships already since the second WFC in 2003. In 2007 the team was placed last and they are aiming to improve their placement. Takahashi Katsunori, who gathered 9 points in the last WFC, is the most important player.
Canada is the other out of European team in the WFC and are newcomers in the U19 context. Floorball is still a young sport in Canada and the Canadian team includes a lot of young ice hockey players who have found the new sport as fun and are looking forward to challenge the other B-division teams. Connor Smith, Roger Sherwood, Andzej Zadora, David Stubbs, Lyndon Stanwood, Zac Anker and Robbie Wilkinson are all born in 1993.
