Weak playing led to disappointment – Veera Kauppi: “I wasn’t able to raise us to a high enough level”

Ostrava

Floorball the women’s World Cup stage in the Ostravar Arena turned into a boiling cauldron of witches on Saturday.

It melted the Finnish women’s national floorball team perfectly.

The Ostravar arena proved to be a difficult place for Finland in the semi-finals of the World Cup. The host country, the Czech Republic, spurred on by a fanatical home crowd, crushed the blue and whites’ World Cup gold dreams and advanced to the final match with 1–0 goals.

Talk about a witch’s cauldron cannot be considered an exaggeration. When the home team striker Michaela Kubečková scored the winning goal in 58:41, the hall exploded into deafening screams.

The jubilation is not surprising, because the result is historic. The Czech women have not previously reached the World Cup finals or defeated Finland at the World Cup level.

Finland, on the other hand, was last left out of the World Cup final at the Neuchâtel Games in Switzerland in 2019. At that time, Sweden won the semi-final with 5–4 goals.

The Czech Republic also defeated Finland in October in Switzerland in the most recent EFT tournament with a score of 7–2.

Immediately From the start of the World Cup semi-final, the home crowd strongly encouraged their own. Screams and applause were accompanied by a group of drums and wind instruments. Finland’s persistent but small fan group remained Finland, Finland– with shouts unhelpfully second.

The best places in the rink were also created by the Czech Republic, which rattled Finland’s posts several times. At the end of the second period, Kubečková had a chance to give the Czech Republic the lead with a penalty shot, but the Finnish goalkeeper Miia Maaranen repelled.

In the final set, Finland consolidated the line-up and tried to equalize without a goalkeeper after Kubečková’s goal, but to no avail.

In the previous one In the World Cup match in Singapore two years ago, the twins Veera and Oona Kauppi led to the downfall of the Czech Republic. That’s when Veera Kauppi scored 4+1 and Oona Kauppi 1+4.

In the World Cup semi-final in Ostrava, Finland could not find a single decider. Captain Veera Kauppi described the result as a big disappointment. He couldn’t think of any other word to describe Finland’s performance than lackluster.

“We didn’t really get into the game at any point, and it shows on the scoreboard. If you don’t manage to score any goals, then it’s too weak of an execution,” Kauppi said.

In his opinion, Finland gave up the ball far too quickly and did not create long enough periods with the ball. The game seemed difficult for him as well.

“I didn’t get to the places where I should have been. I wasn’t able to raise us to a high enough level,” Kauppi fin.

He already turned his eyes to Sunday’s bronze medal match.

“After the disappointment of this is shaken off, it’s still a big match for us. We want to leave here with a medal.”

The organizer announced the audience for the semi-final as 5,934 spectators. At the same time, it was reported about the new audience record for the Women’s World Cup, which is now 47,942 spectators. The previous record, more than 44,000 spectators, was from Neuchâtel, Switzerland, in 2019.

The World Cup bronze medal match starts on Sunday at 1:45 PM Finnish time. The opponent will survive the semi-final between Sweden and Switzerland later on Saturday.