The 2022 Hockey World Championship is full of scandals, starting with the working level of the referees, who apologize for their mistakes after almost every match in Tampere, where the fans are infuriated with the support of the MPs, and end with beer prices. at the stadium (9 euros per glass). .4 liters).

A new reason for the scandal was the final match of the group stage between the national teams of Finland and the Czech Republic. The Czech victory took them to the quarterfinals for the Canadian team, and even before the game many Czech observers openly said that defeating the Finns would be a mistake and a worse outcome. The defeat brought the Czech team to the German national team, which was much easier to resist.

Additional intrigue – two Finnish coaches at the head of both teams as they are led by the Finnish “Lions” Jukka Jalonen, and the Czech national team – colleague Karl Jalonen, and this harmony led the supporters to different thoughts. However, the possibility of a direct collusion was ruled out, but since Finland’s victory was beneficial to both Jalonen, the opportunity to “play your way” was fully accepted by many: the win brought Suomi to humble Slovakia.

Finally, it happened. The Finns won confidently (3:0, two goals in the first period), while the Czechs were surprised by the choice of the starting goalkeeper, as a nominally third goalkeeper appeared on the ice from the first minutes. Marek Langhamer. Czech defender did a good job Jan Schotkahis unsuccessful game (he was present in all his opponent’s goals) was noted by specialists of Swedish television.

The already not well-off Swedes became the main victims of this result – it was the Three Crowns, who came to Canada in the 1/4 final. The headline of the Swedish newspaper Expressen was “It’s a Tre Krunur nightmare – Canada has already reached the quarterfinals”.

“I didn’t notice anything strange in the game. It was an ordinary match, there was a lot of intense struggle, a lot of excitement. The game was enough. At least I didn’t get the feeling that the opponent didn’t want to fight. We understood that victory brought us to Slovakia and we tried to reach the result.”– Refused all scorer assumptions of the Finnish national team Teemu Hartikainen.

“Did the Czechs deliberately play badly? Were we really so good that no one could get to the bottom of it? Strange Assumptions“, – with the same spirit expressed Tony Rayala. And Langhamer’s choice was explained by the fact that he was the main goalkeeper. Karel Veimelka He took a rest because he played the previous day and will play in the next game.

“It is clear that Kari Jalonen will prefer Germany to Canada as her opponent in the quarterfinals. Is it worth talking about the deliberate defeat? Sweden has been successful in the last 10 years with tactical losses, but now they will have to deal with Maple Leaves.”, – said the Finnish edition of Iltalehti.

Of course, it will be difficult to prove whether there was a conversation between the two Jalonen and whether the Czech team was really playing at full strength.

“It was important for Kari Jalonen to beat ‘his’ Finland. But it didn’t work. He was disappointed and again blamed the referees.”– Czech writer objected to Blesk Ondrej Cucharz.

However, looking at the current Canada, it’s still not entirely clear whether it’s worth so much fear.