The group stage and playoff rounds are now complete at the Men’s World Floorball Championships 2022. We had some upset wins and close matches between many sides! The Quarterfinal matchups are now set!
Group A:
Hosts Switzerland opened up the tournament with a 4-4 draw against a fighting Norwegian side. They rebounded however with a huge win against 2020 Runners Up Finland in front of a raucous home crowd of over 12,000 in the Swiss Life Arena. Finishing off their group games with a 9-2 win over Slovakia to finish on top after a shaky start. Finland didn’t let the disappointment of the Swiss loss harm them as they rebounded to beat Norway and Slovakia convincingly and stamp their ticket to the quarter finals. Slovakia took 3rd place in the group by beating Norway in a close match-up 7 goals to 6. Norway fought hard in all 3 matches with only a -6 goal difference with 2 losses and a draw. Switzerland and Finland head straight to the quarter finals whilst Slovakia and Norway went to battle in the playoffs to make it there.
Group B:
Defending World Champions Sweden came into the group as strong favourites and ended up topping the group with 5 points and superior goal difference. Throughout 3 games they scored a huge 33 goals with 19 goals against Germany and 11 against Latvia. Their final group game against the Czech Republic was a very close match indeed. Sweden held on for the 3-3 draw meaning they finished ahead of the Czechs on Goal difference. This young and hungry group of Czech players beat Latvia and Germany to draw level on points with Sweden but finish 2nd. Germany surprised many with a strong win against 2020 5th place finishers Latvia to finish in 3rd in the group, scoring 16 goals whilst Latvia ended the round robin games with 0 wins. Both Germany and Latvia headed to the playoffs with the Swedes and Czechs progressing straight to the Quarterfinals.
Group C:
Estonia took group C by storm scoring a minimum of 12 goals in all 3 matches! They breezed past their competition and into 1st in the group with maximum points. Canada took 2nd with some strong offensive showing from a number of different players to beat Thailand and Singapore and end up on 4 points. Thailand beat Singapore in a close AOFC rival matchup to finish 3rd and head to face 4th place from group D whilst Singapore finish 4th despite some good showings against Canada and Thailand to face 3rd from group D.
Group D:
Denmark were the favourites coming into group play from group D and showed their might and strong defence by conceding the least amount of goals of any team in the group stage. Strong showings from Rasmus Engelhardt and 2014 All-Star team goalie Mike Trolle helped them to 3 wins from 3 and 1st place in Group D. Poland were the closest test for Denmark in a 6-3 loss and had to battle hard themselves to beat Australia by 4 goals to 3. Poland dispatched the Philippines however to finish on 4 points and head to the play-off round. A heartbreakingly close loss to Poland meant Australia could not achieve the playoffs but finished with a win to achieve 3rd place with Philippines unable to achieve a win finishing bottom of the group.
Playoffs:
The playoff round to decide the final Quarter-Final spots had an intense opening match between Denmark and Norway. A back and forth matchup with Norway scoring with 3 minutes left in the third period to force the game into overtime. Norway struck and broke Danish hearts through Marius Pedersen in OT and head to face Sweden in the Quarter Finals. Denmark would go into the placement playoff matches for 9-12 place.
Germany and Canada were next up in Swiss Life Arena. The Germans had been free scoring in their tough group and had the most dominating offensive performance of the World Championships so far scoring 21 goals against a Canadian side who struggled to fully get going in the match losing 21-3. Germany will take their impressive showing at the WFC2022 so far into a big quarterfinal match against Finland on Friday whilst Canada will face Denmark in their 9-12 placement match.
Slovakia faced Poland in the first game of the day in Winterthur. The Slovaks were strong and controlled the game throughout, the Polish attack unable to get fully going and eventually falling 9 goals to 1. Slovakia booked their Quarterfinal spot to face their neighbours, Czechia whom they actually beat in their last meeting in qualifying for WFC 2022 this May. Poland head to the 9-12 playoff matches.
The final playoff match between Baltic neighbours Latvia and Estonia finished off the day’s action in Winterthur. Latvia who had not won yet at WFC 2022 started off slow going 2 goals to 1 down after 40 minutes. Estonia couldn’t hold on to their lead however as 2 goals each from Rolands Kovalevskis and Janis Ragovskis helped Latvia overcome a nervy start and end up as 5-2 winners going through to the Quarter Finals to play hosts Switzerland on Thursday.
After the Playoff round your Quarterfinals look as following:
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