Paula Jouhten, the captain in the Finnish team and a member of the IFF Athletes Commission, has been involved in international Floorball for quite a long time as she played her first WFC in 2001.
Jouhten feels that Floorball has developed a lot sice her first World Championships:
– Floorball has become faster and more physical. The top level players are in general more complete athletes at present. A fine thing in the game is that the tactics continue to play a big role. Tactical alterations just happen faster and tactical thinking has become more versatile.
Jouhten is satisfied with her pre-season and the preparation for the WFC:
– I’ve had a privilege to work with a pro coach who is expert in physical training. I think that I’ve had a good pre-season, which I feel good about. The team has had successful training camps. Of course it would be preferable to be able to practice more with the team, but we have tried to get the most out of all the time that the team has spent together.
Do you have a team that you are expecting the most to play against in the WFC?
– We are going to meet interesting teams in the group games. I’m looking forward to play against those teams for different reasons but I’ll play to beat them all. For example I’ve heard that the Russian team includes skilful individuals. In the Danish team, on the other hand, I’ll meet a friend of mine from the last season in Sweden.
– In advance you never know who you’ll play against after the group games. Usually the WFC tournaments have included at least some unexpected result. Of course my expectation of the WFC tournament is to get to play against the best and to beat them.
What is the goal of your team in the World Championships?
– The goal of our team in the WFC is to play ourselves to the final of the tournament and win it, to win the World Championship. However, we need to concentrate on every one of the games and perform well, so we’ll proceed one game at the time in the tournament.
You play as a defender, who do you think are the toughest forwards that you will meet in these Championships?
– Every team, which we’ll play against, has surely a tough forward in the line-up. To name a couple of them I choose Susanna Tuominen (Sweden) who moves fast and is able to hold the ball unattainable for the defender and Andrea Benz (Switzerland) who plays well in situations close to the opponents goal.
What is your best Floorball memory so far?
– I have a number of unforgettable fine memories related to floorball and I’ve meet a lot of wonderful people. Of course one of the highlights is from WFC 2001 in Latvia because we won but I also have many good memories for example from WFC 2005 in Singapore and from the Finnish league.
Team Finland will play in the A-division group B in the same group as Switzerland, Russia, Denmark and Poland. Finland´s first opponent will be Russia on Saturday the 5th at 13:45 CET.
