Ice Hockeybeijing 2022 olympics
FISG
In the qualifying tournament in Riga, Italy yields 6-0 to the hosts: the race towards the Games becomes very tough, today a challenge to France.
Friday 27 August 2021 5 minutes reading time
Beijing is further away for Italy than ice hockey. The Azzurri, in the opening match of the Olympic qualifying tournament in Riga, bow with the clear score of 6-0 to the hosts of Latvia, great favorites of the quadrangular of Riga who is giving away a single place for the next Olympics winter.
For the national team, after this defeat, the road is definitely uphill and it will be necessary to immediately reset the legs and brain for the Friday afternoon match (face off at 15 Italian time with live coverage on olympics.com) against a France that at debut beat Hungary 5-3. Only in the event of victory, in fact, would Frank and his companions retain some residual hope of catching the five-circle pass at the last minute. “Italy still believes in it - comments coach Greg Ireland at the end of the match - we want to show everyone our pride and team spirit. We have to turn the page and play more compactly, with greater discipline and physicality ”.
A shocking start to the match for the Azzurri, who suffered from the very high pace imposed by the hosts right from the first change. Bernard is likely to capitulate after a few seconds, but Italy tries to retaliate blow for blow and also manages to put pressure on Punnenovs. After less than three and a half minutes, however, Jaks hits from distance with a shot in the traffic that surprises the blue goalie and gives the Latvians the advantage, who sink the shot again two minutes later. The Italian forechecking is too high and leaves the field open to the restart of Bukarts closed in the net by Abols. Five and a half minutes, and Italy down 0-2: not exactly the start that was in the plans of coach Greg Ireland.
The good opportunity to go back seems to come from a numerical superiority: the possession of the puck is good, the circulation as well, and there is no shortage of conclusions. However, there is no talk of unblocking the scoring. “We knew they would have a strong start - underlines Ireland - and we probably weren't ready enough from the start. In the first half, however, we had some good moments to get back into the game ”. We rely on the second fraction to reopen the match, but Latvia definitely puts the arrow. The trio is signed by Rubins, Glira (in the end awarded as mvp) goes one step away from the net for the blues, but in double numerical inferiority here is Indrasis's poker that in fact closes the match already at the halfway point of the match.
In the third half, Miceli starts a personal challenge with Punnenovs going very close to the 1-4 goal twice, then the game slips away towards the end credits, with Latvia further rounding the score up to the final 0-6 . "We got crushed and we had too much respect for our opponents - comments Daniel Glira - we must have more courage and believe more in ourselves".
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