2015 Worlds of Roller Hockey: The Senior Men Enter the Competition
After the Junior Men and the Senior Women, it's the turn of the 15 senior men's teams to battle for the title of the 21st world championships of roller hockey. First day...
Par alfathor
15 Teams for the Words
The senior men’s worlds of roller hockey started on Tuesday June, 16th with the group phases. 15 teams take part in this 21h edition. It’s far less than the 24 of last year, but many countries were not available for this date in June. It opens the door to new nations who may now claim for the Top-3…
Heterogeneous low seed
In the low seeded groups, there are several team levels: The beginners like India and Macau, those who have improved a lot over the last seasons like Chile and Venezuela, and last but not least those who aspire to reach a higher level like Argentina, Mexico and Brazil.
South America is very present this year, and rightly so. Score gaps are large in the low seeds. Venezuela won 21-0 against India, Argentina 15-0 against Macau, and Brazil finally took off 9-0 against Brazil.
Spain surprises Italy
Many twists and turns happen in the top seeds, making it hard to forecast the rest of the competition. While the Czechs, the ultra favorites, quickly got the upper hand against France, imposing themselves 4 to 2, Switzerland was defeated by Latvia. Much stronger than the previous years, Latvia seems ready to fight for a medal. As for Switzerland, without their historical coach, they will have to gather around their excellent goalie, Mathias Muller, and pull themselves together as soon as tomorrow against France.
In the other group, Spain confounded all forecasts beating Italy 2 to 0. The young Spanish team didn’t tremble and perfectly held on to their game plan. In a very open group, this victory is important and may allow Spain to consider the 1st place at the ranking.
The other game confirmed that the USA will have a hard time trying to keep their title. The latter struggled to dominate Colombia, only breaking the score 2 to 0 at the end of the game.
Many clashes are expected tomorrow. The Czech-Latvian game at 11am will set the tone, before Italy-USA and France-Switzerland at 5:10pm.
Results of the first day
June 16th, 2015
- India 0 / 21 Venezuela
- Argentina 15 / 0 Macau
- Switzerland 2 / 5 Latvia
- Czech Republic 4 / 2 France
- Spain 2 / 0 Italy
- Brazil 9 / 0 Chile
- USA 2 / 0 Colombia
Useful links
Check out our page on the 2015 Worlds of Roller Hockey
Translation: Chloe Seyres
Photos : Eddy Wegrzyn
