Team USA to Face Off with Iceland and Serbia!

The Men's national team is scheduled to face Serbia and Iceland in a three nation's tournament in Alingsås, Sweden on the 11th and 13th of September.

The friendly tournament is a first step towards the coming World Floorball Championship Qualifier in February where Team USA will face Canada and Jamaica. Selections for the WFCQ will mainly be based on the AlingsÃ¥s event as well as the development camp in Texas in September. For more information about the development camp at the Nationals in September in Texas read more here.

The squad selected for the games is a mix of players that with a lot of experience for Men's national teams games as well as players that represented the U.S. at the recent Men's U19 World Floorball Championships and some newcomers to the US National teams.

You will be able to follow the event through our website and social media channels. For official stats check out the IFF website here.

We will face Iceland at 8 p.m. on the 11th in Stadsskoghallen and Serbia on the 13th at 16:00 in Stadsskoghallen.

Head coach Stefan Hedlund fills us in on the details.

Why you will face Iceland and Serbia?
- It is the first time we play friendlies during an international weekend and of course we will do our utmost to have out best World Championships showing ever in 2016 and hope to reach the World Games in 2017. We hope an extra gathering will take us one step closer to the top ten teams in the world, reveals.

Why in Alingsås?
- All young floorball nations look to the floorball paradise that Sweden is. Everyone talks about floorball, floorball is the media and there are floorball stores so it isn't that strange. Serbia is the organizer and we didn't take long to accept their invitation and then added Iceland to the mix.

What is the reasoning behind the team selection?
- We have decided to convene the European-based players, the following week there is a development camp in in connection with the US Nationals we will be following closely. Following that we will select the squad for World Championship qualifiers against Jamaica and Canada in February. We have chosen to continue with the backbone behind the success of the 2014 World Championships but also begin the transition of young players. Several players that played with the U19 WFC team will now be channeled into our Men's national team, Stefan Hedlund continues.

It is important to win games?
- Yes! Is all I need to say! Losing to the top 8 countries in the world we can accept. Although we did really well against Norway, the score was 2-4 and we had power play well into the third period. As well as against Germany, we lost in overtime. But against the nations that are ranked 9 and below we see a chance to show that we are a floorball nation to be reckoned with. Serbia and Iceland are new national teams and have exciting players - but we wouldn't gather a team from all over Europe to not go for the w, he concludes.

For more information about the development camp at the Nationals in September in Texas read more here.

The squad chosen to represent the US in Alingsås are:

Adrian Arbil
Adrian Hiram
Alexander Granvald
Alexander McVey
Alexander Miller
Eddie Payton
Felix Ström
Janik Günthert
Jesse Andersson
Kalle Förare
Keven Glanzmann
Kristian Caldwell
Marc Fischer
Marc Webb
Mattias Hansen
Maurin Rüegg
Mikko Vähä-Vahe
Randall Aa
Raphael Möri
Reed Hearns
Robin Brown
Ryan Winkler
Terence Frank

Photos by Jussi Panula