Finns upset by feisty Swiss team at Floorball World Championships

Semi-final meeting now set up with World Champions Sweden

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It was not supposed to happen quite like this. Finland’s national team was cruising towards victory in its group at the World Floorball Championships in Switzerland, and to a probable meeting with Sweden in the final to determine the address of the gold medals, but then the wheels came off. Finland lost rather unexpectedly 4-3 to Switzerland in their last group match. Now they finished second in the group, and must play the Swedes already at the semi-final stage.
      Finland and Sweden are undisputably the kings of this relatively young sport, and hence it can only be a good thing that new blood has come into the game, but the defeat to Switzerland was an uncomfortable shock. In four previous Floorball World Championships, the Finns have never lost to the Swiss in normal time. In 1998 they did go down in a penalty shoot-out in a semi-final match.
     
In Thursday’s game, all that was needed was a draw, since the Finnish team had amassed an almost embarrassing 46-3 goal difference in their previous matches (16-1 against Russia, 14-2 against Latvia, and 16-0 against Denmark), while the Swiss had a goal difference of "only" 29-9 from their three round robin games against those teams. These numbers point up the emerging nature of the sport, in which matches can be extremely one-sided: Sweden beat Germany 25-0 earlier this week, and their goal difference was an emphatic 65-6 in four matches.
      The Swedes naturally won their group, being followed home at a respectful distance by the Czech Republic, who were expected to be Finland’s next opponents until the Swiss stepped in.
     
The Finland-Switzerland match, played in front of a passionate sell-out Swiss crowd, had a dramatic climax. The home side pulled their goalkeeper with just over a minute remaining, and they scored the winning goal just 16 seconds before the buzzer. The Finns, who never really got going, had led the match on three occasions, but they were pegged back each time.
      Now they have a mountain to climb. In any event, Sweden would have to be defeated in order to win the World Championship, but at least in the final there would have been the certainty of a consolation silver medal. Finland has twice won the women’s World Championship title, but in the men’s event the Swedes have an unblemished record of four straight wins. The Finns have three times taken the silver medal, but in 1998 they were placed third.
     
Floorball at this level dates from 1986, when the International Floorball Federation (IFF) was founded in Huskvarna, Sweden, by the floorball associations of Finland, Sweden, and Switzerland.
      The game itself, known in Finnish as salibandy, is an indoor sport similar to hockey and played with plastic sticks, in which the aim is to put a light (23 gms) ball with 26 holes in it into the other team's goal. The game is played mostly in Sweden, Finland, and Switzerland, but it is becoming increasingly popular in several other countries. Teams are of five players and a goalkeeper, who is stickless.
      The playing surface is 40 metres by 20 metres and is enclosed by a board (50 cm high). A game consists of three 20-minute periods.
      Initially floorball was seen as a good leisure game in which teams of mixed gender and ability could get exercise, but gradually the bar has been raised, and recently the IFF was admitted to the General Association of International Sports Federations. The IFF will also be applying for recognition by the International Olympic Committee at the Athens games.


Links:
  2004 Floorball World Championships, Switzerland
  International Floorball Federation

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