vlajka vlajka vlajka vlajka vlajka vlajka vlajka vlajka vlajka vlajka vlajka vlajka vlajka vlajka vlajka vlajka vlajka

 

Slovak players make their first appearance in WC

Slovak players have played for the first time in their history of in-line hockey at the world championship. They were defeated by Americans in the first match 0:8.

Only two teams from the list of this world championship`s participants have never played at such event before - China and Slovakia.

On Saturday`s evening, Slovak players debuted at the championship against the top favourites – Team USA. They tried very hard but the game turned out in a quite disappointing defeat 0:8. Slovak girls play regularly ice hockey, they have a minimum experience with in-line hockey. “In our first match we paid our newcomer’s fee, because we didn’t know our opponents, we didn’t know what were we going into. We wanted to play offensively, but it wasn’t worth it,” said Slovak player and coach Ivana Gajdosova.

You do not need to go deep in history to find origin of Slovakian in-line hockey. In Slovakia the in-line hockey female national team was born at the start of year 2010. “We all play ice hockey and field hockey, so we told ourselves why not to start playing in-line hockey as well,” she smiles.

The majority of Slovak players are from the female ice hockey league, especially from MHK Martin. In Slovak team, there is no typical in-line hockey player. Gajdosova confirmed that it could be some stumbling block. “We play ice hockey or ball hockey during the whole year and we are used to our rules, our opponents play in-line hockey and they know it well. If they played ice hockey against us, I believe, we would defeat them,” she let them know boldly.

There are some players in Slovak jersey, who fought successfully on the last year’s ball hockey world championship. Among them the goalkeeper Daniela Zuziakova, sisters Gajdosova and players Pavlovicova, Petrovicova and Zetkova. All of them have their own experience from international competitions, but they have never tried in-line championship before.

“We enjoy it, it is awesome, the only problem is with the rules. Actually, we got to know that there are “no rules” in this championship. We have to put up with that,” says Slovak leader.

And what are the goals of the newcomer? “We came to play equal games, definitely we don’t want to resign. Our main aim is to finish up to the 4th place.” The team, led by the coach, can approach this aim in the next game against Team Spain. “The important is not to resign and fight, everyone is beatable,” she encourages.

The match against Spain begins today at 4pm and you can watch Slovak team’s performance on the onlajny.cz website.