After five days of competition there were, in the end, no big upsets or surprises. The two top-ranked teams, Hungary (11) & Estonia (12) were undefeated and have qualified for the 9th Men´s U19 WFC, which will be held in Växjö, Sweden in May 2017.
The final day saw four matches, two that decided final placings in the group, and two that decided the qualifiers. Hungary & Slovenia were both undefeated going into today´s game and with a superior goal difference, Slovenia were in the better position of only needing a draw to qualify. In the first period the teams traded goals and it was Slovenia who held the lead at 3-2. A 5 minute penalty awarded at the end of the first period gave Slovenia the opportunity to move ahead further, but they wasted their extra player advantage with a very passive powerplay, only making three or four shots in 5 minutes.
The Slovenians gave away penalties of their own in the second period and it was during one of these that Hungary finally drew equal. A decisive goal with just a few seconds left on the clock for the second period put Hungary into the lead for the first time and proved to be a vital blow against the Slovenian confidence. The score stayed tight early in the final period, but the Hungarians started to dominate the possession and the attack. They finished strongly and won 8-4. For Hungary, Tamas Hoffmann was unlucky not to have been selected in the All-Star team, but it was also a sign of the fact that the Hungarian´s success came from playing as a team, rather than having just one or two standout players.
The second of the ´qualifying´ matches was between Estonia & Netherlands. This group was not quite as clear as the other, because if Netherlands had managed to win then three teams would have finished on the same points (EST, NED & ESP). In this scenario, it would have been Spain who qualified with the best goal difference, but in the end, Estonia gave Netherlands little chance of causing this upset, winning clearly with 10-2.
In other matches, Belgium got their first win of the tournament, defeating Great Britain 7-3. No doubt that for all of these players this week was big learning experience. The Belgians may have hoped to have some better results than they did, but with limited international games and a lack of opportunity for really tough games in their own leagues, they did quite well. The British team strucggled against the stronger and older teams, and they also faced some off-court distractions with one of their players being hospitalised, but despite these problems they always played with good spirit and did the best they could with their limited resources and experience. Both of these countries will look ahead to build on their team towards the next qualifications in 2018.
The final match of the event was a neighbourly rival match between France & Italy. France have been the surprise team at this event, playing well above the standard that was expected from a team playing their first ever international event. There was a large French support group and the competition was just as fierce in the stands as it was on the court. The French showed greater individual & team skills to take a strong lead in the game, and by the end of the second period it looked like they had the game in the bag with a 9-3 lead, but Italy showed some great determination in the final period to make a huge comeback and give the French a scare, scoring 5 unanswered goals. However, the Italians left their run too late and the French got their first ever win with 9-8. A great game to close out the tournament.
Congratulations to Estonia & Hungary on qualifying. Thank you to all the teams who participated and of course a big thank you to our hosts in Celano. We will look forward to being back here again in February for the Women´s WFC qualifications.
For all of the match results & statistics visit the IFF Event page. All of the matches are being streamed live and replays of the games can be watched on IFF YouTube Channel 1 and photos can be viewed on IFF Flickr.
