Participants of the World Floorball Championships 2014 will be decided in qualifications at the end of January. One of the six regional qualification tournaments will be played in Valmiera, Latvia on 28th January – 1st February 2014. Five teams will take part in this tournament – Norway, Latvia, Hungary, Italy and Liechtenstein. As the fifth participant we introduce – Team Latvia.

 

Latvia is currently ranked 6th in the IFF Rankings which are based on standings in two previous World Floorball Championships (WFC). Only Norway has higher ranking in this qualification group. In WFC 2012 Latvia lost to Norway in 5th place match (5:7). It will be interesting to see how the situation in both pre-tournament favorite teams has changed since then. Historically Latvian Men’s National team has showed very consistent results in WFC. Since winning B-Division in 1998, Latvia has never finished lower than 7th. In the last WFC Latvia missed a great opportunity to make semi-finals for the first time, but now the team is ready to rehabilitate with a successful qualification tournament in front of home supporters.

 

Head coach of Latvian National team Iiro Parviainen: “Our main objectives in this tournament are to improve our game and go forward from the qualification group as a winner. In the preparation process we had three training camps. Last training camp was in January, just before the qualification. Four nations tournament in September was also a significant part of our preparation. Since the last WFC our team has changed a bit. We have quite many new players on the team plus the old core group is still going strong.”

 

17 players on the National team are playing in Latvian Championships, with the most representatives coming from reigning National Champions and “EuroFloorball Cup 2013” winners “Lekrings” (6 players). 3 players are playing in foreign leagues. This season Mihails Kostusevs is trying his luck in Swiss NLA, but Artis Raitums and Morics Krumins are amongst Finnish 1st division club PSS leaders.

 

Team roster:

 

Number	Player	Position	Club
1	Anrijs Vents	Goalkeeper	Lekrings
2	Oskars Firmanis	Defender	RTU/Inspecta
3	Andris Malkavs	Defender	Lekrings
4	Artis Savins	Forward	Lielvarde
5	Martins Rajeckis	Forward	Lekrings
9	Davis Vilders	Defender	Lekrings
10	Atis Blinds	Forward	RTU/Inspecta
11	Ingus Laivins	Forward	Lekrings
13	Ainars Juskevics	Forward	Ulbroka/FS Masters
14	Karlis Bulans	Forward	RTU/Inspecta
15	Morics Krumins	Defender	PSS (FIN)
16	Aigars Belasovs	Defender	FBK Valmiera/VIA
18	Gatis Akulovs	Defender	Rubene
19	Janis Jansons	Forward	RTU/Inspecta
21	Artis Raitums	Forward	PSS (FIN)
23	Juris Gribusts	Forward	Lielvarde
24	Toms Akmenlauks	Forward	Lielvarde
26	Mihails Kostusevs	Forward	UHC Grunenmatt Sumiswald (SUI)
27	Janis Rajeckis	Defender	Lekrings
31	Andis Blinds	Goalkeeper	RTU/Inspecta

 

Head Coach: Iiro Parviainen

Coach: Kristian Bjorksten

Coach: Artis Malkavs

Trainer: Ivars Cakurs

Doctor: Lilita Lazdina

Physiotherapist: Baiba Rajecka

Equipment Manager: Olegs Grosevs

Team Manager: Maija Zemele

 

Latvia will play the first match on 28.01. against Hungary. Full game schedule can be found here.

 

In each qualification group teams play each other once. In European groups two best teams from each qualification group and the two best 3rd placed teams will qualify for the Final Round played in Gothenburg, Sweden on 5th -14th December 2014.