Finns win Floorball World Championships at the seventh attempt

Extra-time win inflicts first-ever defeat on Sweden

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Finland's national floorball team won the sport's World Championship gold medals in Prague on Sunday, defeating Sweden 7-6 after extra time in the final.
      This was the first-ever victory for the Finns in this small but fast-growing sport, which originated in Sweden and is expanding across Europe and also gaining a foothold in Asia and across the Atlantic.
     
Until now, the Swedes had been invincible on the floorball court, and this loss to the neighbours and arch-rivals was their first-ever defeat in the World Championships: they had won six straight world titles since the Championships were launched in 1996.
      If the Swedes used to be number one, the Finns are equally familiar with getting among the medals, for they have been on the podium (four silver medals and two bronze medals) in all previous Worlds.
     
This time they went one better, though the script looked at one trime as though it was going to be annoyingly similar to 2006.
      Finland raced into a 4-0 lead, just as they had built a 3-0 lead two years ago, only to see the Swedes come back and overhaul them, even to the point of leading the match 6-4 midway through the third and final 20-minute period.
      However, the Finns were not about to lie down and die, and two goals inside a minute from Lassi Vänttinen brought the scores level with four minutes left on the clock.
      After 5:12 of extra time, Tero Tiitu broke the deadlock and the Swedish stranglehold on the trophy with a sudden-death winner. There was something very fitting about Tiitu's scoring the winner, as he had been unfortunate enough to see a shot hit the post in extra-time in 2006, when Sweden squeaked home by 6 goals to 5. Now the tables were turned, in what all but the most partisan Sweden supporters must recognise is a good thing for the young sport, if it is to expand further.
      Finland will have a chance to repeat the dose in 2010 when they host the next tournament in Helsinki.
     
Ten teams took part in this year's finals, from Sweden , the Czech Republic, Latvia, Russia, Italy (Preliminary Round Group A), and Finland, Switzerland, Norway, Estonia, and Denmark (Group B).
      The Finns won their group much as expected and then beat the Czechs 4-2 in the semi-final. Sweden overcame Switzerland to reach the final, and in the bronze-medal game the Swiss proved the stronger against the Czech Republic, winning 5-4.
     
Floorball is an indoor ball game featuring two teams of six players (including a goalkeeper), and was developed in the late 1970s, initially as a purely recreational exercise, though it did not take long for the competitive urge to rear its head.
      Since it has been influenced by ice hockey and the sport of bandy [like field hockey on ice], it is not that surprising that the top countries should be ones who also play these sports actively.
      Fortunately, the massive differences in skill and lop-sided results at the top level are gradually levelling out as time goes on and more people and countries take up the sport.
     
One telling sign is that the International Floorball Federation has recently applied for the sport to be included in the Olympic Games, and there is a possibility that it could be introduced at the 2020 Summer Olympics.
      Another is that increasingly many of the newcomers have no background to speak of in ice hockey, but rather - in the case of countries like Australia, the Netherlands, India, and Pakistan - are traditionally strong field hockey nations.


Links:
  Floorball (Wikipedia)
  Floorball World Championships, 2008

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