Czech Republic is to join Finland from Group A in the semi-finals of The World Games 2017 after an impressive 12-1 victory over hosts Poland. The Czech are to face either Sweden or Switzerland for a place in the final as Poland will have to settle for the game for fifth place.
Photo: Martin Flousek
The audience on WKK Sport Arena had all grounds to expect a dramatic fight for the second place in the group but the Czechs turned out to be rude enough visitors to kill the drama already on the first minutes of the game. Milan Tomasik got the ball in the midst of four opponents to open scoring and in the next shift, Radek Vales tipped Patrik Doza’s high pass in. Daniel Sebek’s 3-0 was a tip-in at the post and at the 10-minute mark the Czechs already had a comfortable four-goal lead.
It all looked like the Polish came out with great passion and energy but were left chasing the ball as the Czechs moved it quickly and, then fatally for the Polish, to an unmarked player. After the initial goals, the Czech team got to play relaxed and enjoy their obvious talent.
After Jiri Curney’s 5-0 goal the game was definitely killed as Filip Lukaszewski took a five-minute penalty off an unfortunate leg tackle in the corner. Czech Republic ended the first period with a power-play goal by Radek Vales and after the intermission they punished the hosts with two more. Maciek Sienko opened Poland’s scoring in The World games 2017 with a short-handed goal but that meant little comfort for his team as the Czechs went on to score three more times in the middle period. On the final quarter, the game evened and its only goal was scored by Patrik Doza at 40.57 to settle the final score.
Before the game the question was whether Poland had recovered from their brave but energy-consuming fight against Finland. Tonight, it looked like they definitely had not. The Czechs again seem to be on their way to a positive trend after a rather mediocre performance in the EFT tournament in Finland in April.
Best players:
#19 Patrik Doza Patrik
#11 Michal Sienko Michal
Watch the post-game interview with Daniel Sebek (CZE) below:
