2016 Under-19 Canada vs Japan Women’s World Floorball Championships in Belleville, Ontario, Canada. Photo by Aaron Bell/ActiveImages.ca
Written by: Martin Durkin
Under the conquering lights and the famous Yardmen scoreboard, Japan fell 5-3 against Canada in game one of the Women’s Under 19 World Floorball Championship.
After a 20 hour flight and arriving in Belleville 14 hours before the ball was to drop, Japan came on strong and dominated most of the first period.
“We had a rough start,” said Canada team manager Simon Roethlisberger. “They were very disciplined and the better team during the first 17 minutes of the game.”
Despite being outplayed for most of the first period, Canada opened the scoring with a penalty shot goal by Kathryn Kennedy.
During the second period, Canada was once again outplayed by Japan and found themselves down 2-1 by the end of second period and in obvious need to get back to their dressing room.
Finally during the third period, exhaustion started to appear in the play of Japan and Canada controlled the game in front of a record setting crowd. With a 3-2 lead at the 10 minute mark, Canada dominated the last half of the opening game and won 5-3, which included a goal by Rachael Smith with six seconds left on the clock.
“During the third period we started to play more like a team. We were more aggressive and Japan lost their concentration and couldn’t get it back,” said Roethlisberger.
Kennedy, who scored three goals during the winning effort for team Canada, was amazed by the attendance and support shown by the Belleville community.
“I’ve never played in front of a crowd this size before, and I’ve never played in front of my parents like this either,” said Kennedy. “We had no idea what to expect, but we fed off the crowd.”
As far as going forward into game two against Thailand, Kennedy said, “We have to work as a team if we are going to win this tournament. We have to play every game the way we played the third period, do what we’re told and just play together.”
