It was goals galore on the first day of the Women’s World Floorball Championship (WFC) 2023 on Saturday (2 December), as hosts Singapore thrilled the crowd at the OCBC Arena after coming from behind twice to defeat WFC debutantes France 5-2 in their opening match. The home team dug deep to close out the win with goals from Shannon Yeo, Daphne Tan, Yee Yun Shawn, Nasha Jeffi and captain Michelle Lok.

Says Pauline Meneust, France captain: “So many emotions… it was a lot for us to handle. We were quite okay in the first two periods and our goalie really saved us, especially in the first period. After that, maybe we were a bit tired and our goalie as well. The Singapore team were accurate in their shots so they were better. We did our best but it didn’t go the way we wanted. The game goes very fast and we need to communicate a bit more with each other and stay focused through all three periods. I would like to say thank to all our fans who were there. It’s the first time for us in the world championship and there are quite many that followed us and they are enjoying Singapore as well. It helps us because in France, floorball is not that developed so it’s important for us to see that we have support so a huge thank you to them.”

Says Shannon Yeo, Singapore: “I’m feeling a lot of emotions, because coming in, we didn’t know what to expect from France. When they took the lead against us, it was honestly quite scary. But it was a team effort – all the goals were scored by different people so it was a team win and I’m very happy. (Winning on home ground) is very different, because we’ve been training all year long and people don’t usually see all the hard work behind the scenes. So this competition was a platform to let our fellow Singaporeans see what we do, and that helped us feel a lot better. We thank our supporters, we know that you’ve got your backs and that’s very reassuring to us. We’ll continue to do the best that we can.”

The first match of the day saw Germany record a decisive 10-0 win over Australia at the OCBC Arena. Says Vanessa Austin, Australia: “It was a super tough match, Germany is a very good team with really good team skills. What we can learn is that we were letting the balls pass through our centre. Perhaps we can step up and try to own that middle bit so that it doesn’t happen for the next few games. There are always nerves coming into a big match like this. This is the first time we played Germany, at least for me anyway. They are a really solid team and we gave it our all, unfortunately we didn’t get it this time. For the next match, we’ll take on the home country, so that’ll be always be an exciting match. We played Singapore a few times and it’s always back and forth. It’ll be good to see how they’ve improved over the break and especially because we missed the last WFC, so it’d be good to play them.”

Says Anna-Lena Best, Germany: “We had a little bit of a slow start, but we pushed from period to period and in the end, it was a very good game from us. I was happy with my performance and that I could get two goals and one assist today, but the most important thing is that we won as a team and we scored in high numbers. This win definitely gives us confidence going into the rest of the competition, especially since we had such a good defence today and didn’t concede any goals. I think we can build on that.”

Meanwhile, defending WFC champions Sweden were in imperious form with a 20-3 win over Slovakia. Says Katarina Klapitova, Slovakia captain: “We started the game very well and we tried to make the play a bit more offensive, but it’s a very strong opponent for us from the beginning and there were just so many mistakes. We will try to avoid it for the next game. We will concentrate more for the future games. I’m very proud of the team but it’s also a pity because there could be way less goals on their side and a little more on ours. Every mistake is punished. When you create a chance – we had like four or five breaks – we could easily score from that and unfortunately we didn’t and in games like this, you will not get another chance. After a game like this, we need a bit of rejuvenation. Some massages and probably in the evening, we will go to explore the. city a little bit and clear our heads before the game against Poland which is very crucial for us and we will try to win it.”

Says Moa Gustafsson, Sweden: “It was really good that we scored many goals and it was a good start. We have been here in Singapore for a couple of days, so it was very nice to play a match today. It was a good team effort, we scored a lot of goals and that’s very important for the other games that we will play, like against Czech Republic (on 4 December). Of course we were a little bit nervous, but we know we can do it, we know we can play floorball. Of course there’s pressure, everyone wants to beat Sweden but I think we can handle it well. So we’ll just do what we can on the field.”

Other highlights on Saturday include Switzerland’s Corin Ruttiman becoming her country’s most-capped floorball player after featuring in her 136th international match – an 8-2 victory over Norway. Says Corin Ruttimann, Switzerland: “We had a lot of chances but we didn’t take them. Tomorrow we are going to play against Finland so I hope we will be much more efficient. We need to improve our efficiency especially as today we had a lot of chances that we didn’t take. Tomorrow, I don’t think we will get that many chances so it’s important that those chances we get, we make them count. Of course I have to score goals because I want to help the team and the team that wins is the one that scores more goals. So it’s one of my exercises or part of my work to get the goals.”

Says Maiken Ellis, Norway: “They are good players and we tried to keep up the tempo but it’s hard to defend against such a good team. But we tried and they had such good strikers. We tried our best and I think we did a good match this time, it’s just that they scored a lot of goals. (We will) keep our hopes up. We are a good team this year and I feel like we just need to keep on going with the same tactics.”

The results for Saturday, 2 December, are as follows.

Game Score
Australia v Germany 0-10
USA v Estonia 3-9
Latvia v Finland 1-14
Switzerland v Norway 8-2
Slovakia v Sweden 3-20
France v Singapore 2-5

The schedule for Sunday, 3 December is as follows.

OCBC Arena Hall 1
2pm: Denmark v Japan
5pm: Finland v Switzerland
8pm: Australia v Singapore

OCBC Arena Hall 2
1pm: Germany v France
4pm: Norway v Latvia
6.45pm: Czech Republic v Poland

Photo Credit: International Floorball Federation

The Women’s World Floorball Championship 2023 will take place from 2nd to 10th December at the OCBC Arena and the Singapore Indoor Stadium. Full schedule, more information and event updates available here