Helsinki, Dec. 4, LETA. The Latvian national team played in a draw with Denmark in the second match of the World Floorball Championship in Helsinki on Saturday.
Latvia agreed on a draw with Denmark with a score of 5: 5 (2: 2, 2: 0, 1: 3).
The result was revealed by the Danes, after a walk against the goalkeeper Jānis Salcevičs, Lukas Elholm, who blamed the ball over the goalkeeper.
The Danes continued to play better, in the 13th minute after the shot from the center of the field in front of the goal, Jonas Nordheim got the ball in the goal – 2: 0 in favor of the Danes.
After the loss of the second goal, they started to attack more actively, which ended in the 19th minute with two goals scored in 42 seconds. First, in a quick attack with a quick play, Kevin Schmid played for Edgar Puriņš, who was hit by an empty corner of the goal, becoming the second debutant in the Latvian national team, who scored in this championship.
42 seconds later, equalization was achieved by Rolands Kovaļevskis, who was perfectly crossed by Pēteris Trekše. Kovalevski had to hit the corner of the goal from the right – 2: 2.
On the 26th minute, Latvia took the lead in a similar style. Another sharp pass to Treks, and before the opponent’s goalkeeper Mike Trolle managed to move to the opposite corner of the goal, there was already a ball sent by Kovalevsk – 3: 2 in favor of Latvia.
97 seconds before the second break, another debutant Schmidt scored 4: 2 with a shot from the front.
In the 43rd minute, the Danes scored the third goal in the counterattack, re-emerging for Elholm – 4: 3 in favor of Latvia.
In the 47th minute, Latvia reached 5: 3, after another third pass from Trekše, another debutant Jānis Ragovskis emerged in the match, after which the ball hit Andreas Klečevskis in front of the goal and arrived at the goal.
4: 5 In the 56th minute, Kaspers Kajgārds reached the majority, against whom Kārlis Petrovskis also broke the rules.
5: 5 In the 18th minute after the standard situation, Mikel Skov Nielsen reached with a throw-in in the far top corner.
The Latvians scored 36 times, the goalkeeper Troll was later recognized as the best player of the Danish team, but the Danes blocked Salcevičs ten times, scoring a goal every second time.
In the first game, the Latvians were the first to score on Friday, but lost one of the tournament favorites to Sweden with a score of 1:11. The Danes acknowledged Finland’s superiority with 0: 7.
On Sunday, the world champion Finland will face Latvia.
Latvia plays in Group A, where it is the four-time world champion and the owner of the last two titles, Finland, the eighth-time gold medal holder Sweden and Denmark, which once made it into the top four.
In the B group, the Czech Republic, Switzerland, Germany and Norway are strong. In the second echelon, Poland, Slovakia, the USA and Thailand measure their strength in Group C, while Singapore, Canada, Estonia and the Philippines intersect in Group D.
In a group tournament, teams play with each other. The owners of the first two places of groups A and B will immediately enter the quarterfinals, but the owners of the third and fourth places will have a duel with the two strongest teams of each group in the second echelon.
In the qualifying tournaments, a total of 35 teams had the opportunity to win 13 tickets. The current Finnish champions had already secured a place in the World Championships, but Canada and the United States also won automatic races in North America to promote the sport.
The head coach of the Latvian national team, a Finnish specialist Rīhimeki, has included two goalkeepers, seven defenders and 11 attackers in the national team’s twenties.
The largest representation is from the Cēsis “Lekrings” unit – five players, followed by three players from “Lielvārde” / “FatPipe”. Two players are from Talsi NSS / “Krauzers”, but each player is from four teams – “Oxdog Ulbroka” / LU, “Kurši”, “Ķekava”, “Ogres Vilki”. Three players are from the Finnish team “Koovee”, and two more from other Finnish teams – “Nokian KrP” and “LaSB”, as well as one player from the Swiss team “Jets”.
The Latvian state unit currently ranks eighth. In the previous world championship, which took place in Prague in 2018, Latvian floorball players won fifth place. The Latvian national team has participated in all 12 World Championship finals so far. The highest achievement that has been won is the fifth place won five times.
Composition of the Latvian men’s floorball team for the world championship:
Goalkeepers: Jānis Salcevičs (“Ogres Vilki”), Markuss Plūdums (“Lekrings”);
Defenders: Armands Savins, Oskars Tūtāns (both “Lielvārde” / “FatPipe”), Morics Krūmiņš (Finnish “Nokian KrP”), Jānis Ragovskis (Finnish “LaSB”), Kārlis Petrovskis (“Oxdog Ulbroka” / LU), Ralfs Orste (Koovee, Finland), Artūrs Jurševskis (Lekrings);
Forwarders: Edgars Puriņš, Andris Rajeckis, Krišjānis Tiltiņš (all three – “Lekrings”), Rolands Kovaļevskis, Pēteris Trekše (both – “Koovee” in Finland), Toms Bitmanis, Artis Raitums (both – “Talsu NSS” / “Krauzers”) , Toms Akmeņlauks (“Kurši”), Kevin Šmits (Swiss “Jets”), Klāvs Jansons (“Ķekava”), Aivis Kusiņš (“Lielvārde” / “FatPipe”).
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