Same procedure like every second year: time for the World Championship of Floorball! Of course, this event is a must for me anyway, but of course it is an extra value to report from Sweden, the godfather of floorball, who hosts the 2006 event.
Wednesday in Solna was the first day for me, as I just was not able to go to Sweden earlier due to my job. Nevertheless, the day in Solna in Greater Stockholm offered two very interesting matches - first, Italy faced Russia, a match which very likely decided which team will stay in Group A and which one will face Germany in the relegation, and secondly, Latvia wanted to make their way into the semis by beating the Czech team.
Italy started very concentrated and got the lead by Terlizzi. Russia was penalized for five minutes two minutes later, which Italy took advantage of and scored two more goals. Italy saved the lead until the first break and even scored their fourth goal early in second period. There was one goal each until the end of second period, in which both teams neutralized each other very well. In third period, Russia played very weak which made it easy for the South European team to secure their and and very likely stay in World Group until the next World Cup.