A record number of 4521 spectators were gathered to watch the Final in the ABB Arena. For the first time the home team in a Women´s World Championship was crowned as the WFC Champion, when Sweden won the final against Switzerland with 6-2 and the Swedish captain, Karolina Widar, could lift the WFC trophy in front of her home crowd.
Both teams played careful defence in the first period although Sweden had more scoring opportunities. The Swedish players seemed however to freeze in the decisive moment as many of the shots missed the target and the rest was snatched by Laura Tomatis.
Tomatis was however not able to stop Karolina Widar when Sweden was awarded a penalty shot. Widar could lift the ball with backhand to the upper corner just over Tomatis.
The Swiss defender made a terrible mistake in the start of the 2nd period as she passed the ball straight to Josefina Eiremo, who could free Susanna Tuominen and the score was 2-0 for Sweden.
The third Swedish goal was scored by Emelie Lindström, who is now also leading in the amount of goals in one WFC as this was her goal number 17. Only 15 seconds later Switzerland scored their first goal with a long distance shot by Andrea Hofstetter.
Then Sweden scored two goals in a row as both Malin Dalbjer and the tournament MVP, Hermine Dahlerus, could get the ball passed Tomatis and it looked as the game would be over, but Corin Rüttimann, who has played a good WFC tournament, scored the 2-5 goal before the intermission and the Swiss were not yet defeated.
The Swiss first line with Natalie Stadelmann, Daniela Morf and Mirca Anderegg created the best opportunities for Switzerland, but could not pass Hanna Pettersson and when Victoria Wikström scored the 6th goal for Sweden the game was settled. Switzerland played without goalkeeper during the final minutes, but no goal and Sweden could celebrate the World Championship victory for the 2nd time in a row.
Susanna Tuominen and Daniela Stettler were elected as best players in the WFC Final and Karolina Widar now leads in the amount of all time assists with 21 assists. The Women´s WFC records 1997 – 2007 are found here.
– Switzerland is in a fantastic shape and made the match really difficult for us. In the end we had more scoring opportunities, so the result was justified with all respect to the opponent. I think that we have some more players with a winner instinct and a wider roster and that is what makes the difference, Jan-Erik Vaara said in innebandy.se´s interview.
Emelie Lindström (pictured) scored 17 + 6 in the WFC
