Kazhes pierakstu burtnīca

Until now I had managed to avoid writing about the Ice Hockey World Championships but now when Latvia is out I can finally write about a theory of mine.

This WC is "special" because in quarter-finals teams from one group play against teams from the same group and not from the other, so obligatory the opponents know each other already. Every pairing (apart from Norway-Canada) has some potential of turning into an instant classic yet I find the Russia - Switzerland match the most interesting in terms of strategy. The Russian tanks who have been the most convincing team of the tournament so far against the Swiss underdogs - the latter don`t have any stars, lack the attacking power of the Russians, yet with Ralph Krueger they have a very masterful head coach and they certainly have no problems with morale and discipline. What will win - talent or discipline?
Now I`m almost sure that the Swiss don`t stand a chance as they blew their biggest possibility to beat Russians yesterday. It was like this - before yesterday`s game it was nearly decided that Switzerland would play Russia again in two days. I the Swiss had lost to Russia with a score of 1-9 or something similar it would have given Russia slightly too much confidence in their own powers which Krueger and his team could have used to best results. Plus there was another part of this story - the Swiss also could play as rough as possible in order to injure some of Russia`s stars so they would miss the quarter-final game. Yet what did the Swiss do? Nothing. They lost with a rather low result and even made a comeback in the third period, showing the Russians that they aren`t that easy to beat. Yet it is exactly what the Russians needed. So I don`t understand Mr. Krueger and his tactics. Does he really think that his team can beat Russia in a fair and regular game? As far as I`ve noticed from my hockey-following experience, there are two ways to beat the Russian nation ice hockey team - one way is to outwit them, the other - to play as rude as possible.
Now the USA-Finland game can turn out to be the most interesting pairing - exactly because the Finns did play as rough as possible against the States last time.