Qualified for 2004!
The next Men's WC is 2004 in Switzerland, but only the top 20 teams from the 2002 WC are qualified, the others will have to qualify in some form (yet to be decided) for the 2006 WC. The WC in Switzerland will contain 20 teams (opposed to the 24 of 2002), with 10 in the A group and 10 in the B group (where Team USA will play).

14th in the World, best outside Europe!
After our final game of the WC 2002 was played we could stand with our heads high as nation 14 of 24 with several more established B division teams behind us. As soon as it is possible pics and other info will be posted. For starters we have some game notes by a brother to two of the players, Jonathan Brown, who has done some great writing, enjoy!

Greetings all!

18/5-02 vs Belgium 10-2
The first ever floorball match for team USA is now over, surely a great, spirit-lifting opener for all of you who have worked so hard to make it all happen, and for all who have come so far to play and put it all together!
The results were a resounding 10 - 2 victory for team USA, huzzah!! Go guys!

I thought it would be fun to write about the games for the team, alas without a real audience, I'll just put in my two cents about what the game looked like from the bleachers. I don't have the real stats from the game, so I'll just recap what I can remember and make some free-form comment on what I saw. Forgive me if there are errors in the text, I can't remember everything even though I watched attentively.

The first goal was scored by Jan-Erik Paris, who looked extremely at home on the court, giving our team an amazing boost in morale, which didn't seem to die down much after that. The second goal came soon after, also by Paris. "This guy is amazing", I thought to myself, little knowing that he would continue to score a hat trick later on.

The tempo of the first period set the music for the game to come, as USA dominated both halves of the field, having an unsettlingly high possession average, no stats available, but Belgium didn’t seem to get much ball-time in the first period, and in fact, in the latter periods this phenomenon became even more pronounced. Nevertheless, as our group 1 watched in disbelief, only 15 or so seconds before the end of the first period (I think) the Belgians managed to score a touch-and-go goal to the bottom right corner, even though Adam did a split to try to save. This brought the score to 2-1. USA quickly re-established domination in period 2, scoring goals 3 and 4, but after that Belgium got extremely lucky and flipped a bouncy shot towards the goal, and it slipped in under Adam's legs, even though he was catching it in a seemingly controlled fashion. I was not phased much by this, and as I studied the coaches bench for a reaction, they didn't seem to be much affected either, not even flinching. Adam was clearly upset, however probably gaining good focus from the mishap, he had a perfect revenge, performing splendidly while he proceeded to completely shut Belgium out of scoring for the rest of the whole game. Go Adam!

The smack down that team USA proceeded to deliver Belgium after this was quite severe, I felt that USA was playing better and better every minute for the whole 1st and 2nd period. As I recall, during the second period USA received the first penalty, and Henrik Kok went to sit it out. "Oh-oh, now it gets interesting", I thought, worrying slightly what would happen as we now had 2 minutes of penalty killing to do.

The coaches set out with a modified group 1, substituting Steve with Chris to try stop Belgium, and to my joy all my worries were for nothing, as USA continued to dominate play even during Belgiums powerplay! During this period USA even scored a goal, with 4 on 5. The whole section of the crowd around me seemed to be laughing joyously as USA scored, I think David made the pass, but I forget who scored.

USA managed to get another penalty later on, but nothing happened during it. Belgium also got a penalty which occurred just before the third period, so first minute or so was powerplay.

The second period was the best for USA, several players scored goals. In fact, I think that apart from Paris' amazing hat trick USA displayed marvelous evenhanded play, as all other goals were scored by different players.
All the goals were excellent, but a few stood out in my eye.

Chris Wright and Steve scored a fabulous goal together, Chris doing some great hard work getting past 2 defenders, passing to Steve who almost miraculously touched the ball into the net.

Another excellent goal was scored by Dave, during a quick offense he shot at the goalie, who saved directly back at David, who proceeded not to err a second time, firing it beautifully at much closer range now, past the goalie into the net.

Still another great goal occurred, Jan-Erik Paris proceeded to show his prowess once again along with the hard-working Chris Wright, as Paris passed beautifully to Chris who made a fast breakaway, feinting to the right, and taking the ball all the way into a very late curve to the left. As the goalie sprawled to cover all the lower parts of the goal, Chris finally fired up high, from a seemingly small angle. This created extreme elation in the whole crowd, as it was a beautiful goal.

Slettemoen provided one of the top goals as well, during the 3rd period he fired a snap from considerable distance which sailed right into the edge of the goal, leaving the goalie without any chance whatsoever. In fact it was the first goal that was scored with a legitimate, fast hard slapshot, for team USA scored most others from close range after great passing or similar situations.

Some noteworthy plays, not directly related to goals happened as well.

Maloof played a furious game, being one of the hardest workers on the court. He was run into more than once by the Belgians, one of them resulting in the penalty suffered by Belgium. Maloof just bounced back, showing no signs of damage, on the contrary, even being 20 steps behind the Belgian offense that was already half-court bearing down on Adams goal, after being run into the sides, he boosted back to defend, much to the joy of the crowd who gave him an ovation. "Wow, he's fast!", we exclaimed. Great hard work the whole game through from Tom, solid defensive play.

Another solid defender was Ollie Rupp, providing several very nice fast passes up-court to Daniel or others, and more than once Ollie stole the ball from a careless Belgian forward, not guarding it nearly as well as one should near Ollie.

Captain Blankenship, though he didn't score, proved to be an amazingly solid defenseman, totally eclipsing all efforts of the poor Belgians who got too close. Jani also gave me a great laugh of relief when he played keep-away from 2 Belgians for over 10 seconds during a USA penalty, totally outperforming the Belgian offense which was powerless against Jani and the penalty killing squad, even with 5 on 4. Blankenship clearly showed what it means to play floorball on first-division level, passing defenders with frightening ease, on occasions.
Also Jeff gave the Belgian goalie at least one scare as the Belgian defense was asleep, Morris managed to fire dangerously.

Also Daniel Karvik scored nicely, but best of all for USA he was a rock-solid playmaker in his passes, also showing beyond a doubt that he knows what he's doing. Especially ball possession was one of his most positive feats, displaying a Blankenship-like ability to play keep-away when it was required.

Henrik Kok also played in a seemingly similar fashion, covering the ball from even 2-3 opponents at once, providing great flexibility and certainty to the USA offense, which was much freed up to make plays without really having to worry about losing the ball down-court from Henrik's stick.

One negative aspect was seen in the third period, as we seemed to notice USA getting ever so slightly lazy with defense. In fact in the third period, to no fault of any one player, but USA as a whole, Belgium seemed to have a slight come-back. Belgium proved it can indeed build a dangerous offense when the defense starts to get lazy, they actually put Adam to work a couple of times about halfway through the 3rd. From the bleachers it looked mostly under control, but a few balls were missed, and a few sloppy passes gave cause for a little scorn. The lead was already 9 or 10 against 2 at this point, so.. I suppose it's only natural.

Everyone played very well, and USA had a MUCH more professional look than Belgium. The USA coach bench seemed like they were DEFINATELY on top of the ball, the look was one of confidence and expertise. Murmurs heard among the players also pay homage to the coaching staff, saying that the work is good, and very professional, and that they are all well liked.

All in all I'm very proud of team USA, way to go guys! I am totally rooting for you in the upcoming games! I am very happy for you all, and thank you for helping all of us achieve such high spirits in the stands! Go USA!

20/5-02 vs Austria 0-5
Cutting to the chase: good game, guys. No matter what the final score, and no matter how well psyched or prepared someone tells me Austria was, I can't help thinking that team USA gave Austria a run for it's money, maybe even surprised them a couple of times with dangerous offensive plays. I remain hopeful that they didn't know that they were going to have to work as hard as they did to ensure a win.

The game saw a definite division into 1st, 2nd and 3rd periods in terms of our quality of play. The 1st period was quite good, I liked the way all of our lines played, and Austria’s single goal was a very skillful one, at least it looked like it would have been pretty challenging to prevent. Trailing only 0-1 at the end of the first was a good start.
The second period was not so successful. Suddenly Austria scored twice in a very short time, and their continued "roughing" tactics seemed to, unfortunately, get them a slight advantage in the second period. I think the turning point was when Captain Blankenship was injured in the mouth by a forward's shoulder (or head perhaps), and only seconds later bumped another Austrian, tackling him into the sideline. The penalty that ensued saw massive pressure on our penalty-killing foursome, and a goal was nearly inevitable. Emotions ran high with some other players as well, as the Austrians managed somehow to avoid penalties themselves, while constantly playing at the very razor's edge of what is allowed on the floor. Fortunately the only injuries seemed to be on the Austrian side, apart from Matt, who got ran into in a nasty-looking way. Matt was not the only one, though, almost everyone was taking big hits for the team, and some of the defense I saw from our side in periods 1 and 3 was really quite good. Steve, Andy, Jani, Henrik and Matt all took some punishment in turn, some of it resulting in some good as well. For example after Steve took a hit, the free-shot that ensued let team USA get a very dangerous shot on the goal.

The 3rd period saw a resurgence of that higher quality, team oriented play that everyone likes to see from a team that is down 4-0. USA played the third extremely well, disrupting the Austrian offense immensely at times. However when your opponent is considerably more skilled, it's usually only a matter of time.

Several players played very high quality floorball in the game, regardless of the end result. Of course Andy was impressive, Henrik and Chris D. as well. And naturally Jani played wholeheartedly just like everyone else.
The "what if" department is always an endless morass if one gets tangled up in second guessing. However one really can't help thinking that even one goal at some point in the second, or even third might have lit the fire again, maybe in time to turn the psychological tide enough to "do some damage" to the Austrian's otherwise fine (although rather rough) showing.

A low point in the game for Austria in my mind was when Jani, after his penalty, ran into Austrian MVP #20, resulting in a free-shot. Being a sportsman, Jani offered his hand in apology to #20, who just brushed on by, not accepting the gesture. Not so nice.

All in all a valiant effort, and by the time anyone reads this, I'm convinced that Austria will be water under the brigde. And that's the way it's supposed to be anyways, play hard, do your best, see what happens.

All minds are now surely on Tuesdays game vs. Australia. Considering that both have losses to Austria with very similar scores, this game should be quite interesting. I believe in you all, go USA! Let's show Australia that we never go down without a fight!

21/5-02 vs Australia 3-3
The only game in Group 2 with any real debate concerning the winner was team USA vs. team Australia. This much should have been known by anyone. The next question, of course, was: "So who wins?" The answer turned out to be: "Neither."

The match started out with an even period of mutual head-butting. From the stands it really looked like both teams were out to show the other that they were the harder, more physical of the two, and thus a sort of psyching process ensued. Not to say that this kind of psyching-game is necessarily won by either team, as in this case, where neither team really got much out of it other than irritated referees and a bunch of penalty shots.

In the first period Steve received a penalty, as did the Australian goalie. However, at the very end of the first, Australia took another penalty, and only about 1 minute before the buzzer Daniel Karvik put USA in the lead with our opening goal, giving the US a slight advantage coming into the second.

This advantage was nulled after about 8 minutes, as Australia scored with an insanely lucky, field-hockey-style sweeping ground shot that surprised Adam in a nasty way. Expert commentary (VIP guest Perttu F.) was heard saying that the shot was "one of the weirdest long-range goals I have ever seen, pretty lucky, too".

After that the second period proceeded in a tense, but goalless fashion, Ollie took an unfortunate penalty, but USA killed the powerplay nicely.

It's impossible to know what passed between team staff and players of both teams during the last intermission, but coming into the 3rd both teams were primed to explode, or at least that's what happened. It was fouls and penalties galore, as first AUS took one. Soon after that, during USA:s powerplay, Jani found himself fighting for the ball in the defensive corner with D. McKinsley, the undisputed Penalty King of the whole WFC tournament. The corner boarding exploded, and so did Mr. McKinsley, evidently, because not only did they both receive twin penalties for the situation, the Australian also received a 10 minute sit-out for unsportsmanlike conduct. Props go to Jani for knowing how to give hits and take hits so that the hot-heads get punished more severely than he does.

Not long after this, during evenhanded 4-4 play, Dave fired from the left side, missing the open bottom left corner of the goal by less than a foot. The shot naturally continued, ricocheted off the back boarding to the other side of the goal where D. Karvik was luckily waiting. Firing from considerably closer range than Dave, and with the goalie slightly thrown off by the missed shot, Karvik didn't leave the Australians any chances, scoring a 2-1 lead for our team.

Less than a minute later, though, Dave unfortunately took a penalty, which was a little bit silly, because it was a minor mistake compared to most of the antics being displayed by both teams at the time. It's possible that the referees had decided that they were fed up with the roughing and what not, and would give out a penalty to the next offense, no matter who, where and what. It had been painfully obvious to even a casual spectator that the refs were indeed pretty upset at times, they could both be seen shaking their heads in appeared dismay, and even cursing to themselves. Perhaps they were upset that the level of play and the skill shown by both AUS and USA was so high.. hmm.. you never know.

This penalty was the clincher, as during the powerplay AUS succeeded in scoring their second goal.
As if the fact that the game was now 2-2 wasn't bad enough, somehow our defense became phased by the setback, and only 9 seconds later lost the ball on an easy opening throw from Adam, and the 2 Australian forwards who were disrupting the impending US offense managed to score.

This led to a mad chase from team USA, who quite clearly shifted the whole game into beat down mode for the last 8 or so minutes. Considering that only one goal would be enough to secure a 2nd place in the group, lineups were rapidly changed to be as most offensive as possible, hitting AUS with as much firepower as we've got.
Chris D, Chris W, Dave, Andy, Jani, Karvik and Slettemoen saw a lot of play-time in the last minutes, as the US dominated the ball with a determined frenzy. However the Australians put up a frustratingly good fight, even disrupting the US assault with a good, dangerous counteroffensive whenever they got the chance. Exactly 1 minute before the buzzer, Adam ran in, to make way for Jan-Erik, who was to assist as an offensive goalie to help USA score. Just as Adam had jumped over the boarding, however, Drummond brought up the assault on the left, flanking a defenseman. Seeing a little bit of untended net in the distance he instinctively fired toward the goal. The ball sailed unerringly toward the upper right corner, according to some, right into the roof of the goal. The jubilation was unprecedented. Wow. What a goal, guys, and mad props to Chris D for being one lucky son-of-a-gun, and right when it counts.

The last minute saw fervent US defense, as Adam came back, and our defensive line held their own against a futile, 50 second Australian onslaught. Twice the US even got a shot on the empty AUS goal, but both missed.
The thunder from down under was defeated with a 3-3 tie, the group standings were finalized by the lackluster performance Australia had given against Belgium, allowing them to score 3 times, while scoring ONLY 8 times themselves, giving AUS a meager +5 goal differential.

(Since we had a +8 advantage from our own game vs. Belgium, and only a -5 from Austria, we budged ahead of AUS with one single point of scoring difference. WHEW!)

The game was sufficiently thrilling to merit a write-up from the Finnish staff on the WFC website, the article is quoted saying that: "Drummond's goal robbed the Aussies of their victory." My question is, at what point was it THEIR victory to begin with?

As a critical point I would analyze that the game showed once again, that as a team, USA could work on how to play hard and defensive, WITHOUT taking all those fouls and penalties. Not that we don't play well, but that so many of our players can't really avoid the fouls when they find themselves in a tight spot with an offensive opponent.
Having played competitive sport myself, (and a much more contact-heavy one, basketball), I know what it means when the opposition fouls you and the ref doesn't call it. Nevertheless in the long run those who manage to keep it cool and allow it to affect their own game as little as possible tend to be the better player.
Also noted in the game were some excellent hard working silent partners in team USA's victory: Ollie played exceptionally well, I noticed him making a few very nice steals. Steve ran harder than he did against Austria. Chris W was passing well, as usual, and Adam played a splendid game, once again. Jani was superb in the corners and as a massively disruptive force for Australia’s less skilled forwards, taking the ball away in many situations where it shouldn't have been his at all. Andy was also indispensable in many mid-court turnovers, using lightning speed to outrun the slower forwards and bring the ball back under either Adams control, or passing it right back up to Karvik or Drummond.

The best player awards were given to the goalies, Adam Troy and Andrew Cathie of Australia. To some this might have seemed a "diplomatic" solution, though, as equally deserving might have been Matthew Mullins, or Peter McKinsley of AUS, the players who scored goals 1 and 2, both of whom also avoided the penalty box altogether, which is not to be overlooked considering the style of play showed by the rest of the team. On our side Karvik might have easily deserved the same award, partly for scoring 2 goals, and partly for keeping his cool slightly better than our average forward.

However since Adam saved our skin plenty of times that afternoon, and everyone knows Mr. Cathie DEFINATELY saved the Australians from a much quicker defeat, the awards were certainly far from misplaced.

All in all a TERRIFIC thriller, and a good showing from team USA. Go guys! Good luck against Italy tomorrow!

22/05-03 vs Italy 2-6
I missed the match against Italy, but I studied all the press available, and looked at the stats to get some idea what happened. I kinda figured, and had also been told by various sources, that Italy is pretty tough, so the final score is not necessarily a surprise.

I gather from the finnish press coverage that it was a valiant fight, with only a one goal difference going into the 3rd period. Well, nevertheless, I rest confident that everyone did their utmost to win.

Pity to miss the game where one's little brother is awarded the best player, but such is life. Good job Dave.
I've read all the articles even remotely pertaining to team USA on the official site, and unfortunately we seem to have gotten press coverage only when we have lost. Namely Austria and Italy. The English articles are a little bit less unfavorable, they at least did a write-up on the hot Australia game.

For a moment I considered writing some sort of complaint to the organizers for such mediocre coverage on team USA, but decided against it. Since I believe in your guys' abilities, I rest assured that eventually people will figure out that overall as a WFC debutant, with a roster full of players with 0 games international experience.. that this type of success deserves some positive press, instead of just coverage from the point of view of the obvious favorite who proceeds to win without much surprise. (AUT + ITA) Well, ok, maybe not OBVIOUS favorite, but it would be foolhardy to say that the odds were not against USA in those games. It would have been nice to see at least a final paragraph that would have said something to the effect of: "Considering the margin of experience between the teams, USA put up one heck of a fight!"

Good job. On to Slovenia!


23/05-02 vs Slovenia 6-3
Early morning games were always difficult for me when I played basketball, I wondered before the Slovenia game whether any of the team was tired or stiff after getting up so early.

The game had barely started, when I got a pretty good answer to that question. Didn't seem so. Only 30 seconds had elapsed and the first decent offence had just begun, when Dave got the ball in the middle of the Slovenian defense, center court, about 5 meters from the goal. He proceeded to punish the Slovenians severely for being poorly situated, putting the ball into the left half of the net while the goalie appeared to be in a blind spot due to his own defensemen. Excellent start. "Zero-zero, guys, zero-zero." was heard from the bench, which summarizes the correct philosophy concisely: we have gained nothing, they will be back. Play hard, keep up the defense.

And they did return. In the latter half of the first period one of the 3 Mlinar brothers on the Slovenian team passed the ball from directly behind Loren's goal, right past the post, and the shot coming from short range surprised everyone, most unfortunately of all Loren himself. Tied game. I muttered to myself that "we have GOT to do something about those passes coming from behind the goal."

Slovenia took a penalty right before the end of the first, but nothing happened.

The second period began with 43 seconds of USA powerplay, and again, nothing happened. I did notice that our powerplay was starting to look very nice, the passing was nice and fast, and the shots that missed were recovered in a quick fashion, barely giving the Slovenians time to intervene at all. It looked good, but wouldn't start to pay dividends until later in the game.

5 minutes into the second the Slovenians punished a lapse in our defense, again. This time it was a more clear shot, and perhaps not as much an error, as simply Slovenian skill. However considering the way the rest of the match went, it was probably preventable as well. I was getting a bad feeling about the game with Slovenia up 2-1, but then I noted that our whole bench was almost totally unmoved by this. I have to admire your spirit guys, perhaps it's easier to feel confident when you're the one on the court, it's more of a challenge to believe in the team when you're totally helpless in the bleachers. "Where's my stick, damnit, I wanna play too!!" I thought playfully.

USA was starting to have a considerable advantage from it's defence already as the second period dragged on, I was guessing that the possession percentage was perhaps in the neighborhood of 65% for USA. Looking good guys, where are the goals..? please, come on, we need at least one goal now!

Then the proverbial shit hit the fan. For Slovenia that is. During a completely normal-looking offense with Jani at the helm, the refs suddenly stopped the game and started to confer with themselves and Slovenian players at the official's table. The audience (7 people?) was confused, and after 10 minutes Captain Blankeship bothered to clarify the situation, in his native Turku dialect, by letting us know that there was some double confusion with improper player listings, and then something about attempts of collusion, possibly. The details are still unclear, but evidently somebody higher up made a grievous error in the team-roster write-up. The end result was devastating: Slovenia received not only a regular 2 minute penalty, but also a 5 minute team penalty! Ouch.

Captain Blankenship proceeded to lead our powerplay strike squad against a measly 3 Slovenian defenders. This doesn't look good for them, I thought gleefully.

Only about 20 seconds of the powerplay was required to demonstrate what it means to have only 3 defenders at the business end of Jani's slapshot-cannon: David passed the ball to Jani, who finally managed to score with his half-court-fastball-slapshot. He fired beautifully into the upper left corner, causing all 7 in the crowd to go wild. Not to mention team USA.

Now, of course the fun part is that Slovenia's nightmare with USA powerplay wasn't even close to being over. (Hey, that rhymes, "USA powerplay"..)

Only about a minute later it was Dave's turn again, this time Karvik passed to Dave, who once again punished the Slovenian square defensive formation for being poorly situated. This goal was much more about poor Slovenian defense than Jani's goal, which was just downright bad-ass. However it's noteworthy that Dave scored from long range, just like Jani. In fact in my further analysis I would say that this is a telltale sign all in all of what team USA's strategy turned out to be: don't try to fight it out in the box, use long-range artillery to do the job. Putting us into a 3-2 lead, the game started to look MUCH brighter from the bleachers.

The second period closed with US domination, but now the Slovenian defense held.

However, never underestimate the effect of a defensive foul-up: Slovenia had it's revenge only 36 seconds into the 3rd period. A loss of the ball in our own zone was fatal, Loren was unable to stop multiple Slovenians at point blank range, and after all, that isn't part of his job description anyway. Slovenia was back in the game. "This is gonna get hairy", I though as the scoreboard blinked to 3-3. The guy who passed the goal was the same Mr. Mlinar who passed the first goal.

Jan-Erik took an unfortunate penalty for playing the ball while laying on the ground after he was tripped, and USA put out the penalty-killing squad, led by Ollie and Andy. They managed to even get a decent shot on the goal. Very nice, guys.

The third period saw the turning point of the game, although I would like to claim that the groundwork for this turn was being laid all through the second period as well. The 3rd was all about defense. Who's got, and who has not. And the correct answer is that USA has, Slovenia has not.

After a bit it so happened, that Jani passed to Chris D, who put the ball in the very center of the net, so fast and low that it hit the back bar, and bounced right out of the goal with a happy plinking sound. This began what was to be the final smackdown, and the tide of the game started to turn to our side.

After some evenhanded play, where Slovenia actually woke up slightly to start looking for that goal that would tie the game to 4-4, the 3rd(?) line managed to surprise the Slovenians. Karvik found the ball and performed an extremely fast turnover, seeing Jan-Erik upcourt, Dan passed the ball in a straight fast pass directly into Jan-Eriks line of fire. Since he still had a defender on him, Jan-Erik opted for a fast maneuver to fool the goalie. This succeeded beautifully, as Jan-Erik scored with his stick in only one hand, by nudging the ball directly at the goalies legs. The ball rolled lazily in between the goalies legs. Sweet.

Only 2 minutes later Chris W received a penalty, which allowed the Slovenians a much needed chance at powerplay. This time, however USA was completely dominant over the ever-tiring opponent. This was my favorite part of the game.

The penalty killing squad was superb, led in examply by Andy. In his finest play of the game Andy once again showed his lightning speed: when the ball bounced away from a forward, Andy lurched forward to claim it. Met by a stationary defender he accelerated past him, and found himself quickly closing on a still-heavily defended Slovenian goal. Not the least phased by this, and realizing quite clearly that possession of the ball was even better that a half-hearted shot on the goal, he just continued his blitz around the goal. Circling behind the goal he only found more defenders closing on his position. Continuing still he swerved back into US territory, the angry Slovenians simply could not catch him to take the ball away, he was way too fast. The crowd went wild.

The final nail in Slovenias coffin was hammered home by none other than Captain Blankenship. Jani stole the ball from a Slovenian forward who was not nearly careful enough with it. The player was immensely frustrated by Jani's successful steal, and whacked his stick to the floor in dismay behind Jani, as he had not only lost the ball, but saw that it was now impossible to stop Jani without fouling him, if at all. Jani's quick turnover was completed with a quick swerve to the left, in front of 2 Slovenian defenders, and a lethal slapshot into the upper left corner of the goal. 6-3 was the name of the game.

What a game. Great going, guys!

Special mentions go to several of our players today, who played, in my eyes, the best game of their tournament against Slovenia. Obviously the scorers were key, as they always are. But, even though I may not be an expert floorball analyst, I would say that today’s game was a LOT about defense.

Chris Hoag played at his best. While he in fact missed a pass or two, his defensive posture in critical moments cannot go unnoticed. I saw him stopping multiple shots with fast repositioning when the Slovenians were bearing down on Loren with little between them and the goal but Chris. A couple of nice disruptive steals also give me cause to mention Chris and his hard work today.

Ollie also deserves mention. I didn't see him against Italy, but today was looking very good all in all. Ollie made at least 3 steals that I recall noting specifically, causing a fast turnover for team USA. Ollie also got a mouth-watering opportunity to score, when an offensive pattern brought him close to the goal. He received a great pass, and fired the ball into the post, marked by that tell-tale "clink". But more than this I noted Ollies continuous hard work stopping Slovenian shots from longer range, preventing Loren from having to work much at all.

Or course Andy was awesome today as well, dominating quite a few situations with simple speed.

Steve made some nice steals, but due to the amount of powerplay seen in the latter part of the game didn't receive all the much game time as he sometimes has.

Jeff actually joins Ollie and Chris H in the hard work department, Jeff stole a few balls as well, and blocked some shots nicely, too.

All in all, I saw the game as being centered on defense. Either good defense, or lack of it. 2 of the 3 goals scored by Slovenia could have been stopped by simply being more careful when the opposition has the ball behind our goal. Perhaps the goalie can help the defensive formations by hindering passes from behind the goal, as one often sees goalies do. In the later part of the game I saw this deficiency patched up very nicely indeed, as especially Henrik could be seen disrupting passes past the posts of the goal whenever it was at all possible. Maybe the coaches reminded the players during the intermissions.

Also our ability to whether the storm was very important, for Slovenia did have some good, fast attack patterns every once in a while.

As player of the game Jani definitely deserved the award this time. Showing expert moves in defense again, he dominated more than his share of situations. And finally, his high caliber half-court cannon finally found its target in this game.

Well, the game was good fun to watch, and comment from you players also confirms that you had fun playing it. Excellent job, you make us all proud!

24/5-02 vs Poland 0-4
The USA Poland game was a hard fought affair with both teams having plenty of chances. Team USA was denied time and again by the goaltender for team Poland, who had an outstanding game. Despite the 0:4 result, Team USA was in the game and on the bright side, the third line did manage to shut out the
Polish attack during their shifts.