Sweden have regained the title of Men´s U19 World Floorball Champions with a 6-2 win over Switzerland. Switzerland won against Finland yesterday in the semifinal and had their spot in the final for the first time in MU19 WFC Final Round since 2001. Sweden on the other hand has always been in the final.

A new spectator record was also made in the MU19 WFC Final Round. The previous record was from Weissenfels two years ago and now the new number is 16 477. There were over 2000 spectators in the arena to see the Final match.  

Switzerland has played very well in this tournament especially in the so-called ´important´ matches. They were able to really challenge Sweden during the group phase and Sweden was better in that match only by one goal. The Swiss didn´t show any fear of the Swedes and the Swiss fans went ballistic, when Dan Hartman scored the first goal for Switzerland at 10:35.

The Swedes were a bit surprised by the opening strength of the Swiss and it took some five minutes for them to re-gather their composure. Markus Enkengren from team Sweden then took the initiative and realised that something had to be done in order to wake the team up and his decision was to score a goal. It´s good when one sticks to their plans and the situation was even 1-1.

In the end of the first period Tobias Lindström score the second goal of Sweden and now the Swiss had to start to think what to do. After the third goal for Sweden the nature of the match changed. Both teams were really careful, but still they both had their opportunities. With any turnover ball immediately being moved into attack, the play moved from goal to goal at a frenetic pace. 

Swiss defense was somewhat careless and that gave the Swedes few excellent spots to score butRuven Gruber in the Swiss goal was able to make the crucial saves. After two periods Sweden was leading 3-1 and nothing was yet decided.

Getting a good start to the third period was crucial for Switzerland, but when Isak Julkunenscored his first ever international goal, followed by a second in the match for Enkengren at 47:19, it looked like Sweden had sealed the match. Switzerland never looked like giving up andClaudio Mutter scored one more for them, but once Sweden has one hand on those winner´s cup there are few teams in the world that can take it from them. 

This win means Sweden are Men´s U19 World Floorball Champions for the 5th time. Switzerland, although disappointed with losing today, will most likely be pleased with their overall performance at this tournament.

​Best Players:

Switzerland: Nils Conrad
Sweden: Adam Persson

Story Originally published at http://www.floorball.org/

Photo by M Kuch