Viking Roma and FC Milano Bombshells champions in Italy 2019

The finals of the Italian Championships have been played on Sunday May 12th in Lagundo in the north of Italy. Viking Roma won the men’s final and FC Milano Bombshells the women’s gold this season.

Men’s final 2019

The match offered a great show between two teams having both played an excellent regular season. The home team, Sterzing Gargazon, arrived to the final beating Floorball L’Aquila, while Viking Roma won against SSV Diamante Bozen in the semi-final.

The more than 200 spectators could witness a spectacular match, where Viking Roma had a perfect start with the goal scored by Nicolò Zanella on a backhand shot after only 47 seconds. The away team continued to keep a very high pace all through the first period. Viking Roma wins the shooting stats with 17 against 7, but thanks to the home team’s tight defense and the good performance of the goalkeeper the match is very tight. The first period finishes with a small lead, 4 to 3, in favour of Viking Roma.

Also in the second period the white and blue team has a smashing start with a goal realised on a well performed free shot variant after 2 minutes. A couple of minutes later the captain, Daniele D’Anna, scores on a counterattack in box play. Sterzing Gargazon does not give up and in the middle of the period they find first the 4 – 6 goal and then a minute later 5 – 6 scored by Michal Matuscewicz on a penalty shot. The teams each score once more and the result is 6 – 7 with 20 minutes to play.

Only 30 seconds have passed of the third period when Simone Sorte shows his excellent dribbling skills and then finds the upper right corner of the goal with a brilliant shot. The match goes on with a very high rhythm and signs of tiredness can be seen on both sides. The Roman team proves to have a better stamina and with goals by Christoffer Persson and Francesco Zanella they manage to acquire a 4 goal lead with only 8 minutes to play.

The home team doesn’t give up, but their efforts are all in vain and the minutes pass by. The last minutes they get a power play opportunity and play 6 against 4 without goalkeeper. Despite the pressure the Roman defense manages to keep tight and at 32 seconds from the end Davide Farina scores 6-11 at distance in the empty goal. Final whistle and the players of Viking Roma can celebrate their third championship (previous titles in 2006/07 and 2010/11) together with the many Viking supporters, who had chosen to do the long trip to support their team.

MVP: Michal Matuscewicz (Sterzing Gargazon), Christoffer Persson (Viking Roma)

Women’s final 2019

After a spectacular season without any losses the team from Lombardia, FC Milano Bombshells, finally conquers the title for the first time. During the season they have beaten twice the reigning champions Floorball L’Aquila and all the other opponents. The last weekend in Rome was no exception, once again they left no doubt that they are the worthy champions this year.

Last year the team ended up second behind Floorball L’Aquila and it was clear all along the season that this year they wanted a different outcome. The team, headed by the coach Accursio Graffeo, has a number of strong players such as Luisa Battezzati and Marta Latini of the Italian national team, Caroline von Allmen from Switzerland and Katarina Karaskova from Slovakia.

On second and third position we find Floorball L’Aquila and Black Lions.