Women WFC 2017 Finals: Sweden - Finland 6:5 SO

Writing that match report as one of the start-up (and testing) article entries on flyctory.com felt so easy to me: even exactly three months after the final, I still felt to remember any moment of that remarkable floorball match happening on 9th December 2017 in Bratislava, Slovakia.

To tell the story of the match, you likely should tell the story of the tournament before: Sweden dominated the tournament. In the group phase, Switzerland, Poland and Germany had no chance to hold them – even the Swiss finally lost their match with a 3-12 score. 6 points, an average goal difference per match of +15(!) – the Swedish team just felt to be titans in Group B. In group A, the Finnish team did win their matches, but with comparably close scores like a 5-1 against strong Czech in their first match. Also in the Quarterfinals, where Finland faced the hosting Slovakian girls in an amazing battle, they just had a very close 6-2 score, while their neighbour country destroyed Latvia 21-0. Seminfinal: same story: Finland did it (3-1 vs. Switzerland), Sweden dominated it (7-1 against the Czech who again showed a great performance).

So the tournament went into the Scandinavian showdown (as always, you somehow like to add…) – and everything seemed to take the same route: Sweden dominated the first period and put huge pressure on Suomi’s defense – but they just could not convert their chances: the score after twenty minutes of 2-1 felt to be very close. Finland played much stronger in second period, but Sweden just did it better. Two Amanda Johansson Delgado goals gave them a 4-1 lead after 30 minutes, Nina Rantala could close up short before the second intermission.

But then, Finland came back: they dominated Sweden in the third period, tied the score and could even find the right answer on Moa Tschöps power-play score in the 58th minute, when Veera Kauppi scored her second goal of the day with Tiltu Siltanen being on the bench already for the sixth attacker. Both teams had their chances in overtime, with Finland feeling stronger – but finally, this match lead to the epic decisions in the shoot out. Rantala gave Finland the lead, but then, after a series of failed attempts on both sides, Sweden could turn the scoreboard with goals by Emelie Wibron and Johansson Delgado. They did it again – in the likely best women floorball match I have ever seen in my life.

The full Unihockey-Pics.de / flyctory.com gallery of this event may be found in the Gallery Sections.