Finland takes Swedish floorball lesson

Finland's head coach Karo Kuussaari yesterday said Sweden would probably like to teach them a lesson in the final game of women's EFT in Helsinki and he almost certainly did not know how right he was. Sweden beating first Switzerland with 11-6 and then Finland with 11-2 left little doubt about which team is the strongest favourite to become World Champions in St. Gallen in a month.

In tonight's game Sara Kristoffersson and Amanda Larsson gave Sweden an early 2-0 lead but after that the 1,609 audience thought Finland was back at it. Little did they know as in the last six minutes of the period five more balls flew in behind Liisa Kokkonen between the Finnish posts. The Finns made one elementary mistake after another giving up the ball in their own zone and the Swedes spent no time passing it around but went straight for the net instead.

For the second period, Finland changed goalies and improved their play being able to win the period with 1-0 after Eliisa Alanko scored. In the third, Finland looked like they were going to save some of their pride when Alanko slammed in her second of the night but their nightmare was not over yet. In the dying minutes of the game, Sweden scored another four making the Finnish players shake their heads in disbelief and frustration.

The weekend's final penalty shootout went goalles for five of the six shooters until it was Emelie Lindström's turn. She deked right, left and again right rolling the ball into the net with a controlled backhand move. All three points for Sweden and everyone knew who the winners for this weekend were.

Finland's head coach Karo Kuussaari admitted the first period was the worst thrashing he'd been a part of during his coaching career. "We made every mistake in the book, missing our markings, missing the ball and doing every wrong thing one can think of." He said not only the players but the coaches, too, were out of it in the first period. "We decided not to take the timeout or change goalies too early as we thought we would make it to the first intermission but we had no idea there would be yet another three Swedish goals". Kuussaari said one victory was all his team was worth this weekend and that was what they got. The players being tired had to do with it. "We had just had the hardest and most exhausting training camp ever and I don't think the players had completely recovered from it. In the coming WFC we will appear with rested legs and heads again but of course results like this give us all a lot to think about right now."

Match summary

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