(Tämä artikkeli ilmestyi alunperin Gothia Innebandy Cupin blogissa.)
Finland is the second biggest floorball nation, but this year there are not so many teams who have made the journey over the Baltic Sea too Gothenburg and Gothia Cup. One of the five teams is Hukka-Pallo in the B14 category. They lost a exciting 1/8-final with loads of chances after penalty shootout.
Their opponents, Swedish Svenljunga IBK, was in the lead by 2–0, 3–2 och 4–3, but every time the fighting Finns came back. At the end they looked to be the stronger team, but the game went to penalties and the victory to the Swedes.
But the Hukka-Pallo players wasn’t too disappointed after the game.
– I think we did our best game in the tournament today, we played exactly as we hade decided. It was too even teams and it was a fun game to play, says talented captain Topi Leppänen.
Topi thinks it is a quite big difference in the tactics if you compare Swedish and Finnish teams.
– There are more long balls here and the forwards start in a higher position. We prefer to keep our team more compact and maybe we have a more speed.
Facts: Hukka-Pallo are from the city Varkaus, not too far away from the Russian border. They are the easternmost team participating in this years tournament. They play in the second division in their age category in Finland.
Innebandy i Finland
Teams in Gothia Cup: 5
Association founded: 1985
Clubs: 842
Licensed players: 53 633
Boys under 19 years: 23 230
Girls under 19 years: 4 215