The third World Championship took place in Norway from 14th to 21st May 2000. The towns of Drammen and Sarpsborg hosted the group stage, whereas the play-off matches were played in Oslo. The Swedes recorded their first golden hat-trick at this tournament, winning all their matches along the way. The Czechs failed to reach the play-offs for the second straight time.
Group A was dominated by the defending champions from Sweden. The battle for the second qualifying spot into the semifinals followed the exact same scenario like two years before. Norway again drew with Denmark and ended third due to their worse score.
In Group B, the Czechs sensationally drew with Finland 2-2. Before, they defeated Russia 5-1 and lost to Switzerland 2-3 in a very close match. Not even these good results and performances helped them reach the semifinals. Finland advanced from the first position, accompanied by Switzerland from the second.
The Czech Republic, therefore, again faced Norway in a 5th place game. Unfortunately, no vendetta took place and the Czechs didn’t succeed. The Norwegians won clearly 5-2 and consigned the Czechs to the 6th place.
The semifinals featured the same teams as two years ago, only swapped in the pairings. Sweden faced Switzerland, but didn’t let anyone thwart their plans to defend the World Championship title. They didn’t leave anything to chance in the match, thrashing their opponents 8-2.
The other semifinal featured Finland and Denmark. There were no doubts about the match favorite and no surprise happened here either. The Danes scored only once while conceding six times themselves and so Finland joined Sweden in the final pairing, which later became a rather traditional one.
Switzerland beat Denmark 4-2 in the 3rd place game. Following the silver medals from the previous championship they took bronze this time. They indeed started their journey through the World Championships in high style. To compare, the Czech team ended once on the 4th position and twice on the 6th position during the same period.
The final match between the defending champions from Sweden and their challengers from Finland was extremely tight with interesting score progress. Finland went into the lead, but their rivals later turned the score around to make it 4-1. The blue-and-whites managed to close the gap to one goal but the Swedes confirmed their 5-3 victory with a last-minute goal, recording their first golden hat-trick.
The Czechs could see a
small comfort for their disappointment in Radim Cepek’s very good final
standing in the individual statistics – he fought his way up to the 9th place
in the huge competition of Scandinavian floorball stars, just two points short
of the winning trio – Karppanen (Finland), Olofsson, and Hellgard (both
Sweden).
Useful info for fans coming to Prague – 10.9.2018
Data Analysis: Overview of the EFT in Pardubice – 7.9.2018
Data analysis: Czechs played quick and it paid off – 2.9.2018
Data Analysis: Second period not enough for Finland – 2.9.2018
Data Analysis: Finland in pure control over Czechs – 1.9.2018
Analysis: Slow attacks generate most goals but they are not the strongest weapon of winners – 29.8.2018
Media accreditation process launched – 22.8.2018
WFC 2018 Eshop launched! – 22.8.2018
Language lessons with Czech players – 6.8.2018
Floorball is coming to Prague – 20.7.2018
Enjoy WFC with your children, who have a big discount for VIP upgrade – 1.6.2018
Join the TEAM 2018 – 25.4.2018
Compete for World Championships Tickets during the Superfinal – 18.4.2018
Attend the Championship with a Bunch of Friends – 28.3.2018
Buy Your WFC Tickets Now – 15.3.2018
Test Your Floorball Knowledge and Win Tickets for the WFC – 14.3.2018
The World Championships to Start at a Cracking Pace! – 13.3.2018
Tickets for World Floorball Championships 2018 from March 15 – 6.3.2018
WFC 2018 Groups – 1.3.2018
WFC Prague Teams and Group Ballot – 27.2.2018