Men’s U19 World Championships Preview

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Due to the ever evolving covid-19 pandemic across the world, the IFF board of governors has made the hard decision that all remaining qualification tournaments are to be canceled for the upcoming Men’s U19 world championships. Due to these cancelations, Canada and USA will not be able to compete against each other in the Americas qualifiers that were set to be held in Texas in the coming weeks. However, based on previous world rankings, our U19 men’s team will directly qualify for the 2021 World Championships that are to be held in Brno, Czech Republic April 28 to May 2, 2021. Canada has directly qualified for the upcoming tournament alongside; Australia, Japan, New Zealand, Poland, Russia and Slovenia, who all had their respective qualification tournaments canceled as well due to covid-19. 

 

The coaching staff which consists of co-head coaches; Tyler Brush, and Matthew Smith will begin the process of selecting and training a new crop of players with the help of 7 returning players from the 2019 tournament. The tournament, which was hosted by Canada in Nova Scotia, saw the Canadian team struggle out the gate losing their first two matches against Germany 19-9 and Slovenia 11-4, but then saw them bounce back by finishing their round robin games off with a win against New Zealand 7-1. Finishing in third place in their respective pool, it lined up the ever so classic matchup between Canada and USA in the 13th placement game. The game saw back and forth action until Canada ultimately pulled away with a 11-7 victory to finish their tournament out on a winning note.

 

This year sees the U19 tournament follow the format of its men’s and women’s senior level counterparts. Rather than being placed in an “A” and “B” division all sixteen competing teams are placed into four pools with the world top eight ranked teams placed in the “A” and “B” pools while the bottom eight ranked countries in the world are placed in “C” and “D” pools. This will allow, as it is at the senior level, for the teams in the bottom two pools to try and advance through the ranks and make the championship side of the bracket upon completion of pool play. By placing first in their respective pool a team within the “C” or “D” pool would have the opportunity to play in playoffs against a team that is in the “A” or “B” pool. 

 

Canada has been placed in “C” pool and are scheduled to play New Zealand, Slovenia and Russia respectively. The coaching staff is hopeful that the seven returning players will bring a certain level of maturity and understanding of what it takes to compete at this level of play. In addition to allowing a calming presence as a good number of players on the Canadian team will be competing in their first ever international tournament.

If you are interested in trying out for the team, or getting involved in any manner feel free to reach out to the men’s national team program general manager Stuart Bowden at stuart.bowden@floorballcanada.org. Also, don’t forget to follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Tiktok for all the up to date information about floorball all across Canada.