The 2017 EuroFloorball Challenge began today in Trencin, Slovakia, with 8 men´s teams competing. This is the second time that the EFCh has been held and teams from Hungary, The Netherlands, Italy, Slovakia, Ukraine, Spain and Great Britain are participating. The winner of the event will qualify for the 2018 EuroFloorball Cup.

FLOORBALL L´Aquila – UFC Utrecht

Italian champions Floorball L´Aquila faced Dutch champions UFC Utrecht in the first match of this year´s event. The teams were evenly matched early on but with a three goal blitz to begin the second period Utrecht stamped their dominance on the game and took the match 13-6. The Dutch players have a lot of national team experience and Jeroen Bart (3+2) and Niek Hovius (3+3), in particular, proved too good for the Italians. L´Aquila captain, Andrea Iezzi, topscored for his team with 3 goals.

Match statistics can be found here.

FBC SKALA MELITOPOL – LONDON SHARKS

FBC Skala Melitopol are the first Ukrainian club team to participate in an IFF club tournament and they started well against the very international Great White Sharks. The make-up of the London team is a good reflection of the cosmopolitan mix of the city itself, with the players coming from six different countries. The Sharks were behind on the scoreboard for nearly the entire match but a late rally saw them take the lead with just over a minute left on the clock. Niko Salo played the perfect pass across the face of the goal for Viktors Pockajevs to touch in at the far post – it was Pockajevs third for the period and looked like it would be the game winner. However, the Ukrainians got their chance with a penalty given in the last minute of the match. The equaliser came with 13 seconds left to play and the teams shared the points with the 4-4 final score.

Match statistics can be found here.

Dunai Krokodilok – Tsunami Zahorska Bystrica

Tsunami´s success in this year´s Slovakian league was their first title win and they faced Dunai Krokodilok, 7-time Hungarian champions. The match secretariat were put to work early in the game with 5 goals in the opening 10 minutes. Tsunami had a 6-1 lead to start the second period but Krokodilok started stronger and narrowed the gap. Tsunami eventually got their defence back on track and once that was sorted out they had no problem to keep the scoreboard ticking over to their advantage. The Slovak champions lived up to their name and it was a tsunami of goals in the end with a final score of 15-4. Maros Koval top scored with 4+1.

Match statistics can be found here.

CUF LEGANES – FK AS TRENCIN

The home team, FK AS Trencin, had great (and loud) supporters for their first match against Spain´s CUF Leganes. The Spaniards looked competitive at the beginning, and were close to scoring with some good shots on goal, even hitting the crossbar once or twice, but not taking those early chances really cost them. Trencin settled into the game and once they found their rhythm they were hard to stop. Four goals in four minutes in the first period virtually sealed the game for them. To their credit, the young Spanish team fought hard for the rest of the match but the experienced and strong Slovaks had done the damage with the 7-0 first period. Final score was 10-2.

Match statistics can be found here.

For all the tournament results & statistics visit the EFCh event page

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