Continued Improvement at the Unihoc Riga Cup!

The US Men's National team faced off against some tough opponents at the Unihoc Riga Cup this past weekend but stood up well.

The first game of the weekend was Friday evening against Latvia, one of the top national teams of floorball ranked 5^th in the world against team USA ranked 10^th. The difference in ranking proved true as team USA got outscored 1-14. Despite the numbers team USA played well and kept fighting until the end of the game. Captain Ryan Winkler scored the lone American goal and Mikko Vähä-Vahe became Team USA's best player of the game.

You can read more about the game against Latvia here.

The team continued to improve on Saturday despite losses to Swedish team Lomma 2-7 and Latvian team Rockets 1-11. In the last game of the group stage Team USA stepped up against Bauska and played really well falling by only 4-5 in a game that could have gone to either side.

Since all four teams in the Elite Group qualified for the playoffs team USA got a second chance at the Rockets in the semifinal and put in a great effort. With only nine minutes to go in the two times twenty-minute game team USA was up by 3-0. The lead wouldn't hold though and the Rockets would win by 3-4 in the end.

In the final game of the weekend Team USA faced Bauska once more, this time for the third place in the tournament. As with the previous game against Bauska it was a thriller! Sunday's game ended in a penalty shootout and Bauska would take home the bronze by 6-7. You can see the game bellow about two hours into the video.

You can find the stats from the games at the Unihoc Riga Cup here.

All in all a great weekend for the team heading in preparation for the selection process for the World Floorball Championships. More on the process itself will be posted shortly.

Don't miss lots of pictures from the weekend at the USA Floorball Facebook page.

Photos by Adam Troy