Mladá Boleslav, Czech Republic – Classic, Finland starts the Champions Cup on Saturday straight with a semi-final spot. The world’s top 4 teams are invited to play against each other. What used to be a five day tournament is now cut down to three days of high class floorball. The teams that are 1st and 2nd in ranking, get a direct spot in semi-finals. These teams are KAIS Mora from Sweden and Classic from Finland.
Quarterfinals are held this Friday. Home team Florbal Chodov will go head to head with the ruling EFC-winner Sveiva IB from Norway. The winner of this match will play against Classic on Saturday.
Classic, as the name suggests, will take on this challenge with a classic style. In the semi-final we’ll see a familiar roster from the Finnish league. The starting lineup is dangerous, effective and aggressive in offense. In a game played last Sunday, Classic won 8-2 over PSS. The athletic center Ella Alanko served two goals for her wingers. Nina Rantala and Eliisa Alanko made sure that the ball found in the end the net. This lineup was responsable for 4 goals and two assists.
”Ella Alanko does an unbelievable amount of work in both, defense and offense. She wins all the duels”, Nina Rantala says.
The Finnish champions are equipped with an experienced defensive line. Anne Suomalainen and Hanna Sipiläinen gave a storm warning of the teams current form by scoring 2 goals and assisting 3 in their last game. The head coach has faith in his players experience in international circles.
”Especially the national team players know what kind of floorball they play in Czech Republic”, says the head coach Veli-Matti Koivunen.
The players are preparing themselves for the tournament by focusing and hard work. No point of speculating the adverser since we’ll find it out only on Friday. Nevertheless the coaches will take off to Mladá Boleslav already on Thursday evening.
”We’re going there to see the quarterfinal between Chodov and Sveiva IB. We put a high value on these international games. Not every team gets this kind of chance, so naturally we will treat this opportunity with the seriousness it deserves”, says Koivunen.
Champions Cup is an excellent chance to see other top teams from Europe performing. At the same time Classic gets to improve their game for the Finnish courts. As a cherry on top, the winner of this tournament gets prize money in the amount of 9000€. In the growing and succeeding women’s floorball scene, this will be a welcomed aid. It gives the players a chance to focus more on playing.
All the Champions Cup matches are on IFF YouTube-channel 1.
The Champions Cup event site and results are on floorball.org/cc2015/
Text: Soraya Aradj
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