Sweden winner of group B

Sweden won the group B with a better goal difference than Finland and will play their semi-final against the 2nd placed team in group A. Finland will play their semi against the winner of group A.

Sweden defeated Noway with clear numbers 16-2 and especially the star duo Therese Karlsson (pictured) and Anna Wijk dominated the match in the first two periods, Karlsson scoring a hat trick already in the first period.

The Norwegian attacks were mostly solo performances and easily stopped by the Swedish defence. Hildegunn Holm and Camilla Vike were Norway´s only goal scorers. Michelle Rydin who came into the match in the third period made an effective entrance and scored 3+0.

The Swedish head coach Marcus Holm was happy that the line with Karlsson and Wijk could produce goals:
– They have not really got stheir game going before but today they were really good, Holm said to innebandy.se.

The players of the game were Karlsson and Susann Biseth.

Norway will play for the 5th place tomorrow at 14:00 and Sweden will meet either Czech Republic or Switzerland in tomorrow´s semi-final.

Finland won against Latvia 15-0

Finland played first against Latvia, a game which Sweden won yesterday with 31-0, and needed to score as many as possible.

Finland dominated the match and kept the ball for 90 % of the match, but were not as effective as the Swedes yesterday. The score after the first period was 5-0, Mira Wickman, scoring two of the goals. Kristiina Kauppila was however the player collecting the most points by scoring a hat trick and one assist in the third period. The third period was the most effective for Finland as they passed the Latvian goalie seven times.

The hat-trick scorer Kristiina Kauppila was satisfied with the match.
– Our aim was to keep own net clear and succeed in scoring, which both went well. We expected that Latvians would have played harder against us, but maybe they were a bit tired already.

Mirja Hietamäki (pictured) scored 3+0 and was awared as best player

The final numbers were 15-0 which means that if Sweden wins Norway in the next match they will also win the group and Finland will be placed second. In the Semi-finals Finland will meet Switzerland or Czech Republic, depending on the result of their mutual match today at 17:00.

Kauppila is looking forward to the Semi-finals.
– We feel confident before the Semi-final tomorrow. It really doesn´t matter which team we will meet, but I hope it will be a tough match. That would be the best preparation for the Final which is of course our next aim.

Switzerland won against Czech Republic and group A

The top match of group A was played between Switzerland and Czech Republic. After a tight first period the reigning Champion Switzerland proved to be stronger and took a 6-2 victory.  Tomorrow´s Semi-finals will be Sweden – Czech Republic at 17:00 and Switzerland – Finland at 20:00.

The Czech team had one change of player before today´s match. Jana Korínková was badly injured in the match against Slovakia so the Czech team had to replace her with Martina Capková.

The arena was packed with over 1 000 noisy Czech and Swiss fans when the match started. Czech Republic played the ball a bit more straight forwardly toards the goal while Switzerland concentrated in finding a good place to score before shooting. Tereza Urbánková put the Czechs to the lead, but the joy was short as only two minutes later Flurina Marti evened the score to 1-1.

In the 2nd period Switzerland took more control of the match, partly due to fact that Czech Republic had three penalties. Corin Rüttimann scored first luckily when the ball bounced into the net from a defender and then she added another goal with an accurate shot. The third Swiss goal in the period was shot by Marti with a hard long-distance shot during a power play.

Marti completed her hat trick in the third period and the reducing  5-2 goal by Urbánková did not help the home team enough. With the final score 6-2 Switzerland confirmed the victory of group A.

The three goal scorer Flurina Marti (pictured) thought that the thorough preparation was the key to the victory.
– We had basically trained one year for this match. We knew that it will be the most important match in the group so we had studied the Czech tactics well. We have played quite many matches against the Czechs so we had the possibility to use videos and plan our tactics based on that.

There was almost a full house of spectators and Marti enjoyed to play in front of the noisy audience.
– I have played in the Swiss play-offs where the atmosphere is similar so for me this was not new. For some players who play in juniors this was a special situation, but I think the strong support to the opponent only gave some extra kick for us. We got angry and wanted to silence the Czech spectators.

The victory of the group A means that Switzerland will meet Finland in the Semi-final tomorrow at 20:00. Marti is looking forward to a tough match.
– I know it will be a hard fight against Finland. The Finns played well against Sweden and I have seen it´s a good team. But we are prepared to work hard to take the victory.

Hungary and Russia will meet in the B-division Final

The last group matches also in B-division were played today. Hungary had already confirmed their place in the Final and the other spot was decided in the match between Russia and Germany. The decisive match was tight and the teams had the lead in turns.

The score was 2-2 after first period, but in the second period power play goal scored by Frederike Scholz took the lead to Germany. The breaking point of the match was however seen in the first minute of third period, when Russia scored twice. There was only 38 seconds between the goals of Natalia Kameneva and Armine Nersesyan and the 4-3 lead remained to the end.

In the second match Hungary beated Austria 16-0. The most effective players were Krisztina Rékási (4+2) and Nóra Suszták (3+3) who both collected six points.

B-division placement matches will be tomorrow:
12:00 11th place Austria – Germany
14:45 Final Hungary – Russia

Slovakia will stay in the A-division

It was Slovakia, the team that was promoted to the A-division for these Championships that took the command when Slovakia and Poland played for the 3rd place in group A. Slovakia won their first match in this tournament with 11-2 and at the same time the team secured that they achieved their goal in the WFC; a place in the A-division for 2012.

Slovakia´s Michaela Vrsková scored the first goal after a nice performance as she rounded the goal and lifted the ball into the upper corner. Slovakia´s 2nd goal was a one timer scored by Klaudia Valjentova, Vrsková now giving the assist. When Denisa Ferencikova scored the 3-0 goal it was time for a Polish time out.

There were seven goals scored in the 2nd period, but when five of them were Slovak goals the game was settled. Valjentova continued her good performance and scored a hat trick and also Vrsková played a really good match collecting 2+2.

Poland never got into the same level as Slovakia and the A-division newcomers proved to be a tough team in the WU19 context. Poland´s placement in these Championships will drop from the top year in 2008 when Poland was 4th.

Slovakia will play for the 5th place against Norway tomorrow at 14:00 and Poland will play for the 7th place and for staying in the A-division against Latvia tomorrow at 11:00 CET.