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Floorball ball Photo: “Pixabay”
The Latvian U19 men’s floorball team won Germany in the fight for the fifth place on Saturday and finished the fifth place in the Czech city of Brno. Latvia with 8: 1 (1: 0, 4: 1, 3: 0) in the fight for the fifth place convincingly won its peers from Germany. Jorens Malkavs took the lead in the sixth minute of the first period. In the first six minutes of the second third, Jēkabs Keišs, Daniels Jānis Anis and Armands Savins already passed 4: 0, but Ralfs Polis scored the fifth goal in the 34th minute of the match. Oskars Tutāns scored three minutes before the end of the second period.
In the third third in the Latvian national team, Polis stood out again with a goal, Andrejs Šķerbergs reached 7: 1 in the majority with a shot from the distance, but Malkavs scored his second and eighth goal in the 58th minute. Two goals in this game for Polis and Malkavas, but a goal and a pass for Anim, Savin, as well as Keys, who received the award for the best player.
Latvian floorball players took the third place in Group A with one victory in three games, the Finns took the first place with three victories, the Czech Republic took the second place with two victories and Slovakia took the last place without victories. It has already been reported that in the first match Latvia defeated Slovakia with 14:10, in the second with 4:14 conceded from their peers from Finland, but in the last match of the group tournament with 2:12 they lost to the Czech Republic.
The Latvian U19 men’s team has managed to win the fourth place in the world championship twice so far, but juniors have never been below the seventh place in the world. The 11th World Junior Championship was originally scheduled for this spring, but due to travel and safety restrictions caused by the pandemic, it was decided to postpone it to the autumn. At the end of June, the International Floorball Federation (IFF) gave the green light to the tournament in August.
At the World Cup, the 15 teams that previously played in Divisions A and B are divided into four groups. Three of them start with four national teams, but one with three. The two strongest teams of groups A and B will enter the semi-finals, but the third place winners will fight for the fifth place. The fourth-placed teams in groups A and B will meet the leaders of the other groups in the elimination tournament, and the winners of these matches will later fight for the seventh place. In groups C and D, the teams that won second and lower place will not be able to rank higher than the 11th position.
Composition of the Latvian U19 team
goalkeepers – Klaid Maltsev (Kocēni “Rubene”), Kristians Ralfs Lavendels (“Talsu NSS” / “Krauzers”);
guards – Gustavs Griezītis, Mārtiņš Puķīte (both – Liepāja “Kurši”), Reinis Rudzītis, Rūdolfs Vilmanis (both – “Apelsīns” / ”Oxdog Ulbroka”), Armands Savins, Oskars Tutāns (both – “Lielvārde” / ”Fatpipe”) , Ralfs Matīss Balodis (“Valmiera”), Markuss Dumpis (Kocēni “Rubene”);
attackers – Jorens Malkavs, Krišjānis Tiltiņš (both – Cēsis “Lekrings”), Ralfs Polis, Sandis Lēvalds (both – Liepāja “Kurši”), Daniels Jānis Anis, Valters Lapiņš (both – “Apelsīns” / “Oxdog Ulbroka”), Jēkabs Keišs (Kocēni “Rubene”), Valters Kalnietis, Andrejs Šķerbergs, Mariss Bergmanis (all – “Talsu NSS” / “Krauzers”).
