Puhis
Nah.
Ladies and Gentlemen, it's time for the biennial floorball World Championships! In tonight's final game, it will be two very familiar countries competing against each other once again.
So, it has come to this. Finland. Sweden. Two countries with a long history and who will provide a good match-up against each other in ANY sport. It's a heated rivalry in floorball, as the countries have faced each other 6 times in the finals, starting with the very first floorball World Championship in 1996, which ended in a Swedish 5-0 victory on their home turf. In fact, Sweden was the undefeated king of the tournament for a very long time, including the 2006 games when they dealt Finland a heartbreaking, 7-6 overtime loss in the finals. However, come 2008 and the Finnish squad was playing with a bit between its teeth. It was a hard-fought struggle, it was full of surprises, pretty goals and gritty plays, and once again it went to overtime, but this time it was Finland dealing Sweden their first loss... 7-6, once again. It was an emotional victory to Finland, who had tried to beat Sweden for the last 10 years in vain. The momentum carried over to the home games in 2010, where the Finns were able to deal with the Swedish threat more comfortably, winning 6-2 and their second World Championship on the row.
Will the Finnish squad prove to be unbeatable and handle the Swedes their third loss in the row, or is it time for Sweden's revenge?
Sweden will be looking at their first real challenge in the tournament, after getting a "free pass" to the finals by beating Slovakia in the quarter-finals 18-1 and then demolishing the hopes of Germany, who played a very good tournament but were no match to the Scandinavians and ended up 0-13 in the semi-finals.
Finland, on the the other hand, has already played two tough games. First, they were already pitted against #4 seed Czech Republic in the quarter-finals, but the Bohemian rhapsody ended up 4-1 for the Finns. However, in the semi-finals, Finland were facing a tough challenge: Switzerland. Playing a really good tournament and in front of their home crowd, there was nothing cheesy about the Swiss squad as they were ready to face the defending world champions. It was a hard-fought struggle, but it ended in the overtime when Finland's MVP Juha Kivilehto was able to defeat Switzerland's MVP, Daniel Streit and thus lead Finland to the finals.
Watch it LIVE:
Yle Areena (Finnish)
Line-ups incoming.
So, it has come to this. Finland. Sweden. Two countries with a long history and who will provide a good match-up against each other in ANY sport. It's a heated rivalry in floorball, as the countries have faced each other 6 times in the finals, starting with the very first floorball World Championship in 1996, which ended in a Swedish 5-0 victory on their home turf. In fact, Sweden was the undefeated king of the tournament for a very long time, including the 2006 games when they dealt Finland a heartbreaking, 7-6 overtime loss in the finals. However, come 2008 and the Finnish squad was playing with a bit between its teeth. It was a hard-fought struggle, it was full of surprises, pretty goals and gritty plays, and once again it went to overtime, but this time it was Finland dealing Sweden their first loss... 7-6, once again. It was an emotional victory to Finland, who had tried to beat Sweden for the last 10 years in vain. The momentum carried over to the home games in 2010, where the Finns were able to deal with the Swedish threat more comfortably, winning 6-2 and their second World Championship on the row.
Will the Finnish squad prove to be unbeatable and handle the Swedes their third loss in the row, or is it time for Sweden's revenge?
Sweden will be looking at their first real challenge in the tournament, after getting a "free pass" to the finals by beating Slovakia in the quarter-finals 18-1 and then demolishing the hopes of Germany, who played a very good tournament but were no match to the Scandinavians and ended up 0-13 in the semi-finals.
Finland, on the the other hand, has already played two tough games. First, they were already pitted against #4 seed Czech Republic in the quarter-finals, but the Bohemian rhapsody ended up 4-1 for the Finns. However, in the semi-finals, Finland were facing a tough challenge: Switzerland. Playing a really good tournament and in front of their home crowd, there was nothing cheesy about the Swiss squad as they were ready to face the defending world champions. It was a hard-fought struggle, but it ended in the overtime when Finland's MVP Juha Kivilehto was able to defeat Switzerland's MVP, Daniel Streit and thus lead Finland to the finals.
Watch it LIVE:
Yle Areena (Finnish)
Line-ups incoming.
