21st August
Men´s EFCQ Top4 starts today
The Men´s EuroFloorball Cup Qualification for the second best teams from Top 4 nations will start today in Biglen, Switzerland.
The men´s Top 4 Qualification consists three teams: Tatran Stresovice from Czech Republic, Tapanilan Erä from Finland and home team Tigers Langnau from Switzerland. The tournament will be opened this evening in Biglen arena in a match between Tatran Stresovice and Tigers Langnau. During the weekend the three teams will play once against each other and winner of the group will be qualified to the EFC Final Round.
22nd August
Tigers took the advantage
Despite the regrettable and disappointing fact that the Swedish male teams have for different reasons decided to stay home in the 2009 edition of the Euro Floorball Cup, it was not visible in the Espace Arena in Biglen, where the 2nd top ranked Men’s teams started their qualification for the final round.
In the first match between Tatran Stresovicse and Tigers Langnau, there was a packed house with a very good atmosphere.The match started off as a typical pre-season game and it looked like the players had been let in to the rink for the first after the summer.
The first period was full of speed and action, but not that much tactical finess or consideration. Especially Tigers got carried away in the beginning taking two 2 min penalties for incorrect substitutions and even had to play with 3 vs. 5 in 47 seconds. Despite good efforts from Tatran it was, after 8.07, the second line of Tigers that scored after having rolled the ball all around the field with Marcus Gerber serving the ball to Marco Burkhalter, who just had to place the ball into the net. Tatran was able to equalize the score after an uncontrolled pass of the Tigers defense. After this Tigers stepped up both physically and tactically and it gave result after 15 minutes played, when Stefan Held opened the Czech defense like a bottle cork, with a long diagonal pass and Dario Langenegger scored 1-2. Tigers took a 1-3 lead in the first period when the returning star Marc Dysli gave the home crowd what they wanted, assisted by Stefan Held.
Tatran came back into the game in the second period by a typical Czech goal, where the ball was moved fast from behind the goal by a brilliant pass from Milan Fridrich to Michal Jedlicka in front of the goal, scoring the second goal for Tatran. Tigers increased their lead to 2- 4, after a great “clip-clap” goal by Marco Burkhalter, who scored his second goal after 5 minutes. Tatran took control, without being able to score, even on power play. The big Czech Ales Zalesny more or less killed the attempts of his countrymen by scoring a typical goal for him after 15.19 in the second period, going through on the left wing and shooting hard in the back top corner, assisted by Olli Oilinki.
It seemed that Tigers thought the game was over, since Tatran scored two goals within 30 seconds in the beginning of the third period, by Johan von der Pahlen and Michal Jedlicka. The Czech put pressure on Zalesny and that paid off, after a bad scoring attempt Milan Friedrich equalized the game to 5 – 5 after 55.48. However just only about one minute later it was Olli Oilinki who became the hero of the game. He had been left alone in front of Tatrans goalie Tomas Kafka, who didn’t have the best of days dropping the ball on the line giving Oilinki an easy job tipping in the ball for 5-6 to Tigers.
Tatran tried very hard to get an equalizer but that ended in the good saves by Tigers national team goalie Phillip Gerber and the unnecessary penalties taken by Michal Podarsky and Filip Ullmann. The victory for Tigers, gives additional interest for the coming matches. A big question will be how the talented and skillful Tapanilan Erä will survive against the physical force of both Tigers and Tatran.
Advantage moved to Tapanilan Erä
The second match in the 2nd ranked Men’s qualification put the physical Tatran against the skilled Erä, who surprised by benching the world champion goalie Jani Naumanen and placed Juha Kulmala between the posts instead.
The first period was pretty even, with a lot of cost to cost play where Erä produced more real goal scoring situations through their effective short passing game also giving them the lead after 12 minutes through Henri Lehtonen, assisted by Tom Strömsten. Erä’s third line also stood for the second goal of the match when Markus Huhtimo found a hole in the Czech defense and celebrated the 2 – 0 goal with a full somersault. Tatran was unable to use their trademark – fast and dangerous counterattacks, since the Erä defense was able to push them to the sides.
Tatran showed to be dangerous and Tomas Vavra scored only 28 seconds into the second period, giving their self-confidence real boost. Erä had clearly scouted the Achilles heel of Tatrans goalie Kafka, when Tommy Aro made 3-1 by a second far away goal, placing the shot low in the corner. Tatran’s first line effectively used the big spaces left open by Erä’s defense, when Ales Hlavicka scored a 3-2 goal assisted by Michael Jedlicka. Erä’s fourth and fifth goal, both scored by Otto Moilanen, showed one of the main differences between the two teams. Erä’s players possesses a far better passing quality, moving the ball fast and accurate between the players.
Tatran changed goalie for the third period, replacing Tomas Kafka with Martin Zich. Pasi Laitila gave the final blow to the attempts of Tatran after 49 minutes; by scoring 6-2 after steering a 25 meter volley pass up in the roof of the goal. The end of the match was more of a formality, where both teams merely played off the time in the clock. Pasi Laitila scored his second goal with little over one minute to go.
The victory gives Erä a small advantage in front of the match against Tigers Langnau tomorrow, since they only need a draw to qualify for the final round, due to the better goal difference. On the other hand Tigers had a rest day today and will certainly put a lot of pressure on the Finns. Most probably we can look forward to a very tight game between the two teams…
