Somalia national team: we will not leave without a goal!

The second match for the 9th place of the world bandy championship among the teams of group B between Switzerland and Somalia was held on March 6 at the Shelekhov stadium "Builder". On the eve of the first meeting, the Swiss outplayed the representatives of Africa (10:0), so the question of who will take the last place at this stage, and who will take the penultimate place, became almost rhetorical.

Photo By Anna Pyanova

The only intrigue was whether the Somalis would be able to open the scoring account – they had lost all the previous matches dry. In Shelekhov, the team held its third match and felt almost at home, which gave some hope. The Swiss first descended on the city of metallurgists, and they did not have time for" acclimatization " at all. And the result achieved earlier did not inspire any concerns about the nature of the meeting.

Perhaps all these factors (and maybe other circumstances) played a role: the entire first half was neither shaky nor Valko, although the Swiss had an undoubted playing and territorial advantage, attacked a lot and gave five times more corners than the Somalis.

On the 15th minute, the first removal of the match took place-the Swiss hockey player Guillaume Buff went to rest for 6 minutes, and a minute later there was retribution: the Somalis conducted a quick counterattack, which was completed by Abdirahman Mohamed Barkhadle. You had to see what joy this first (and, as it soon turned out, the only) goal of the Somalis caused: for a few minutes their reserve bench buzzed and thundered, marking this event.

The Swiss tried to increase the pace, but again earned the removal, and this circumstance, it seems, was not part of their plans: the head coach took a time-out. The respite allowed the players to calm down and take control of the game. The first half ended with the score 1:0, and this was the only time in the entire tournament in which the Somali team won.

After the break, everything fell into place: the Swiss equalized in the third minute of the second half, took the lead in the fifth, and created a comfortable two-goal gap in the ninth. With this result, the meeting could have ended, if the Somali goalkeeper had not accidentally released the ball from his hands after a harmless long-range overhang. A brisk ball slipped into the goal, setting the final score-4: 1 in favor of the Swiss national team.

As usual, the Somalis were warmly supported by the stands, so the African guys left the ice almost happy. The only thing that was upsetting was the huge number of injuries that the Somalis received in almost every game. Each skirmish with the enemy ended with the fact that the ice was usually a Somali. And sometimes it did not even need the "help" of rivals: black hockey players in the heat of battle were happy to face each other, after which the team had to adjust the game again for a long time. All the cases when an ambulance team went to Shelekhovsky ice were connected with Somalis: these guys did not feel sorry for themselves. In the first match, they lost the goalkeeper in this way, and all the remaining meetings were held with the field player in the goal.

This was told after the match by the head coach of the Somali national team Magnus Carl Eric Muir, who, however, did not hide his satisfaction.

– On the last day of the tournament, we managed to play our best match, we even led after the first half, – he said, " and so we leave in a good mood.

Swiss head coach Pierre Rus said that the second game for his team was almost a training session, so there were no special sports tasks in it. Nevertheless, the team managed to break the unsuccessful course of the match and win a second victory.

The best player of the match in the Somali national team, of course, was named the author of the only Somali goal, Abdirahman Mohamed Barkhadle (# 10), and the Swiss – Remi Giloz (#15).

Press center of the V girls world championship U-17