Poland were aggressive and had a good fighting spirit from the beginning and made it hard for Finland to score. In the third period, Poland weren’t as energetic as before and Finland started to find the net more efficiently. The loud home crowd had to go home with a small disappointment as Finland won the match 5-0.

Photo: Martin Flousek

The home team Poland started their The World Games journey with a match against Finland. Even though Finland are the reigning World Champions whereas Poland came 13th in the WFC in Riga, the first period showed that nothing has been won yet. The home team played energetic and aggressive floorball and were ready for fast counter attacks. Whenever they crossed the centre line, the almost full WKK Sport Center broke into cheers.

Both teams had several scoring chances, but the first goal was scored by Finland at 11:38 as the Polish made a bad passing error in their own defensive zone. Thirty seconds before the end of the first period the Finnish made the score 0-2.

No goals were seen during the second period. Finland had several scoring chances but all the players in the Polish team sacrificed themselves for the team. Every player took the extra steps in order to block the shots and cut passes. And if the shot made its way to the goal, the Polish goalkeeper Maciej Bogdanski did excellent job in keeping the net clean.

Finland started the third period with a goal as Krister Savonen scored from a pass from Eemeli Salin. Five minutes later Mika Kohonen was left alone by the back post and he scored from a rebound making the score 4-0 for Finland. In the end Finland won the match 5-0 and made their way to the Semi-Finals as Group winners.

Best players:
#28 Maciej Jastrzebski
#9 Eemeli Salin

Check out the post-game interview with Sami Johansson (FIN) and Alexander Dahlstrom (POL) below