BY TICKETS ENTRANCE IS RETRIEVED
After the first day of the tournament, when it was -20 in Kemerovo, warm weather came to Siberia and the thermometer has been at zero for the third day. Good weather - fewer problems for spectators and organizers, because everyone knows what kind of drinks bandy lovers warm up during matches.
Nevertheless, attendance at the Khimik stadium, the main arena of the championship, in the early days became the number one problem for the organizers. Before the matches and during the breaks there were several stampede, more than ten people were injured. And people with tickets in their hands could not get inside. Referring to the fact that the stadium was already full, the police sent fans to watch hockey at home on TV. It is clear that these incidents occurred during the games of the Russian team.
LIKE AT HOME
To the credit of the organizers, this is their only problem. Coaches, players, referees, foreign and Russian journalists unanimously claim that this championship is the best in history and that it is organized just fine.
At the Shakhtar stadium, where Group B matches are held, the home atmosphere reigns. The Americans became universal favorites here, who also give autographs without problems, and take pictures with the children, and they play hockey better than the rest of the teams in this group. Post-match press conferences here last thirty minutes, in contrast to too formal and short ones at Khimik.
Coaches of all national teams are willing to contact, so those journalists who know English can easily interview them. And the players do not really resist.
FIRST BATTLE, FIRST SENSATION
Bendy is professionally engaged in only three countries - hence the too obvious difference between the teams in the class. Therefore, the tournament has a lot of passing matches, and the first serious match in Group A, which would keep the audience in suspense from the first to the last minute, had to wait two and a half days or eight matches.
The match between Sweden and Finland finally gave the audience a real confrontation, an uncompromising Scandinavian derby. Before this meeting ended almost without a fight, for the clear advantage of one of the teams. This time everything turned out differently. The Swedes, who spent almost the entire match in the score with a difference of one goal, in the end unexpectedly turned out to be catching up and could not cope with this mission. The Finnish national team, in whose ranks at this tournament Sami Laakkonen from Zorkiy plays excellently, presented the first sensation. Despite the fact that the Finns in the championship look very good, in the main match the meeting of old friends from the last final is still expected.
ROMANTICS AND PRAGMATICS
The question that these days haunts neither fans nor journalists is whether the Swedish national team is playing at its full potential. The Scandinavians have a reputation as pragmatists who start the tournament prudently and carefully. “Tre Krunur” usually holds its best matches in the final stages of the tournament. Moreover, one or even two defeats at the preliminary stage still make it possible to play in the semifinals. And given that the teams have to play seven matches in eight days, the desire to save energy seems quite normal.
The Russian team does not play prudent hockey - this is not in the style of Sergey Lomanov. And it won’t succeed: the stadium, which is full to capacity, drives its hockey players forward from the first to the last minute, despite the opponent’s score.
Rehearsal of the finals
The veteran of the Swedish national team Magnus Muren believes that the Russian national team has a lot of strong individual hockey players who, at a difficult moment, cannot act as a single team. Muren has been playing in our country for a long time, and at the beginning of this season he played for Dynamo Moscow, on the basis of which the Russian team was formed.
Yesterday's match of the favorites of the championship was this test words. At the 25th minute of the game, Alexei Chizhov, the captain of the Kemerovo “Kuzbass”, entered in the application instead of the injured Vasily Granovsky, rudely attacked the opponent and received a red card. The Russian national team remained ten of them and proved that the team is united, and hockey players play in the attacking line, capable of deciding the outcome of the match alone. Of course, these are two Sergey - Obukhov and Lomanov, who scored all the goals of the Russians in this match. And what about the Swedes? At the post-match press conference, the head coach of the national team, Anders Jacobson, was in a good mood, and he smiled as if nothing had happened.
After all, it was just a rehearsal for the finale, which will take place at the same stadium on Sunday.
Alexander CHERNOV