April 19th, 2009
SV Wiler-Ersigen is Swiss Champion for the fifth time after 2004, 2005, 2007 and 2008. Wiler-Ersigen won over Tigers Langnau which is from the ‘Emmental’ region, too. Five matches were needed to decide the final series. On Saturday Wiler-Ersigen got the trophy because of a 6-3 victory in front of 2425 fans in the Brünnli ice hockey arena in Hasle-Rüegsau. If you want to see all the statistics follow this link to swissunihockey
Lassi Vänttinen lost his long hair after winning the Swiss Champion title with Wiler-Ersigen
Information: www.swissunihockey.ch
Photograph: Matthias Dudli
February 28th, 2009
Nobody thought this would be possible, but it happened on Tuesday February 24th. The roof of the ‘Tal der Demut’ sports hall in St. Gallen, Switzerland collapsed! Fortunately it happened at 6 am, when no one was there. What if the accident happened one and a half hour later when the students of the industrial school were having their sports lessons? The victims of a catastrophe could also have been floorball players and fans. ‘Tal der Demut’ was built only three years ago and is the home of Swiss Mobiliar League club UHC WaSa. Now they are looking for other locations where they can practise and stage their home matches. First the canton of St. Gallen wants to find out why the collapse happened. Later they are going to decide whether to repair or rebuild the sports hall. If you want to see pictures follow this link to St. Galler Tagblatt
There’s also a piece of good news coming from Switzerland. During a meeting of the presidents of the Swiss Mobiliar League clubs they arrived to the decision to introduce play offs for the top eight teams of SML. That means that the usually boring Master Round of the top six teams was played this season for the last time. Between the nineties and today only the best four teams were qualified for the play offs. Beginning in 2010 there will be quarterfinals, semifinals and the final.
Picture www.uhcwasa.ch
February 1st, 2009
A long tradition has come to an end. On Saturday January 31st the Swiss national team faced the World Stars for the last time probably. 1820 fans came to Zurich to see the ‘Stargames’. The World Stars consisted of players from five different countries playing for Swiss Mobiliar League teams. There were four players from Czech Republic (Ales Jakubek, Ales Zalesny, Radek Sikora and Martin Ostransky), one player from Germany (Andreas Gahlert), one player from Denmark (Joakim Larsen), three players from Finland (Saku Lehti, Lassi Vänttinen and Olli Oilinki) and four players from Sweden (Matthias Wallgren, Johan Anderson, Christofer Pergelius and Kalle Berglund. This year the Swiss team was surprisingly strong. The match was decided in the last period, when the score was 7-1! At the end the World Stars were defeated 10-3. Among the strongest athletes were Simon Stucki and Andreas Cadisch, two of three players that announced resignation from the national team. Stucki scored three times and Cadisch was chosen best player of the match. There was also a ‘Stargame’ for the women’s teams. The Swiss team won over the female World Stars 7:5. For further information use this link to swissunihockey.
January 22nd, 2009
Roger Tönz, goalkeeper of the Swiss national team, became father for the first time recently. Only a short time after his announcement of resignation from the national team his son Diego was born. After a match of Swiss Mobiliar League Roger Tönz talked to worldfloorballnews.com about the world championship in Prague and Ostrava and about topics.
wfn: Congratulation for the bronze medal you won with the Swiss team in the Czech Republic. Are you satisfied with this result?
Roger Tönz: At the end I am. But our goal was actually to reach the final and win the gold medal. After the semi final our aim was to get the bronze medal which we finally did.
wfn: Everybody in the O2-Arena saw your disappointment after the semi final. How do you think about the Sweden match now?
Roger Tönz: It’s still bugging me that we lost. We have never been so close to a victory over Sweden. Defeating the Swedish was one of my career aims.
wfn: What about your future in the Swiss national team?
Roger Tönz: I announced my resignation after winning the bronze medal.
wfn: How long do you continue as goalkeeper of UHC Alligator Malans?
Roger Tönz: I always decide at the end of a season whether I want to carry on.
wfn: When you played against the Czech team in the match for the bronze medal the whole arena was against you. Only a few hundred Swiss fans were supporting you. Describe your feelings.
Roger Tönz: It was terrific! It’s great for all the players. Only very few times in your career you can experience an atmosphere like this. This is the best motivation to play even better.
wfn: Could you hear your fans in this unbelievable noise?
Roger Tönz: From time to time.
wfn: Now you play in sports halls in front of a 300 or 400 spectators. Is it difficult to handle that?
Roger Tönz: We must accept this because we simply can’t change it. You can’t compare a world championship with the Swiss Mobiliar League. I can also be attractive to play in small sports halls. As soon as a hall is sold out the atmosphere is good, too.
wfn: Today four countries are dominating the floorball world: Sweden, Finland, Switzerland and Czech Republic. Which nations could become strong opponents in the future?
Roger Tönz: This is a difficult question. Some countries in the east of Europe have been catching up. Estonia was a strong promoted team, maybe the best team coming from B-Division ever. They will carry on progressing.
wfn: What do you think about teams from other continent?
Roger Tönz: At the moment they are not strong enough to keep up with the best teams. But I hope that will change.
wfn: How many years does it take until floorball will be an Olympic sport?
Roger Tönz: It won’t take as long as it has already taken. It depends on the number of federations. If archery is an Olympic sport why shouldn’t floorball be?
Interview by Matthias Dudli
Photographs by Johnny Németh and Matthias Dudli
