The Philippine National Floorball Team beat a tough Australian side, 5-3, at the Philsports Arena in Pasig City on Friday to advance to the finals of the Asia-Oceania Floorball Championships as well as book a ticket in the world championship of the sport.
Aside from being guaranteed a silver in this year’s AOFC, the Philippine National team secured one of three qualifying spots in the World Floorball Championship scheduled from 7 to 15 December in Malmo, Sweden.
At 3 p.m. Saturday, the Philippine team will face spotless Thailand, the only team in this AOFC tournament to beat the home team. A win over Thailand will be sweet revenge for the Philippines, which lost to Thailand in the gold medal match at last year’s Southeast Asian Games. In the group stage, Thailand drubbed the Philippines, 8-3.
Floorball, a sport akin to hockey and played in the 20-minute periods, has a growing fan base in the Philippines, with a national league played by several teams distributed in several divisions that includes women and children.
Australia drew first blood scoring the first point within six minutes of the match, courtesy of Daniel Gartner.
Just past the 16-minute mark, Melvin Alm Mendoza equalized on an assist from Lucas Werelius, who was adjudged the best player for the Philippines during the match. Mendoza scored the last goal in the closing minute while Werelius found the back of the goal twice.
Liam Perry and Christian Newland each scored a goal to pull Australia within a point of the Philippines, 3-4, at the end of the second period. Ludvig Hemmingberg Porral added a point to the Philippine side in the second period to help preserve the lead.
Australia tried their best to score, but the Philippine defense back stopped by goalkeeper Patrik Nessbo frustrated the Aussies.
For most of the last six minutes of the match, the Philippines was a man down after successive 2-minute time in the penalty box were slapped on Simon Sicat Laraño for pushing an Australian player and John Alicante Embile for entering the court resulting in too many players for the Philippines.
Mendoza scored the final point on an assist from Kim Varga Franz in the last 20 seconds of the game, sending the entire team and the home crowd in a frenzied celebration. That goal secured the trip to the WFC set in Sweden where some of the National Team players reside.
