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World Championships preview

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The World Championships begin on the 24th April in Switzerland. As usual there are 4 groups in the pre qualifying based on World Rankings. Groups B and C will play their games in Berne and groups A and D play in Zurich. Here is a preview of the early games and my thoughts on how the groups may end up. The top 3 teams in each group progress to the second round, taking their accrued points with them. The bottom team in each group play in a round robin relegation round with the bottom two teams moving to division 1 for next season.

Group A

Canada (World ranking 1)
Slovakia (World ranking 8)
Belarus (World ranking 9)
Hungary (World ranking 20)

This group should be a walk in the park for Canada and I cannot see any of the three teams troubling them. Canada are notorious for their slow start but they are so far ahead of their group opponents, they should progress with maximum points. Second place could be close with nothing between Slovakia and Belarus. The Slovaks appear to have got their act together after a disappointing champs last season and I would expect them to edge Belarus. Hungary are definitely the underdogs in the group and it would be a major surprise if they were anywhere other than in the relegation round come the end of the month. They are, however an improving nation and their major club sides are now playing outside their own country.

Group B

Russia (World ranking 2)
Switzerland (World ranking 7 )
Germany (World ranking 10)
France (World ranking 18)

The mean red machine that won last year’s tournament march on regardless and are in top form going into this competition. The dream line of Morozov, Zapirov and Zinoviev will be hard to beat yet again,even though Zinoviev fell out with his Kazan team mates and left the club. I would expect Russia to go through comfortably with Switzerland also progressing on the back of home support. Germany should be able to avoid the relegation round leaving France once again in the relegation round.

Group C

Sweden(World ranking 3)
USA (World ranking 6)
Latvia (World ranking 11)
Austria (World ranking 16)

This group will be much closer than the first two. Sweden are so inconsistent at the moment, USA will fancy their chances of an upset in the preliminaries. Latvia are unpredictable but should not trouble the big two in the group. Austria are just as unpredictable and the match up with Austria could produce fireworks. I would say that the Austrians are more than capable of shocking the Latvians to take third place.

Group D

Finland (World ranking 4)
Czech Republic (World ranking 5)
Norway (World ranking 12)
Denmark (World ranking 13)

This group is the hardest of all four to predict. Finland are the form team in Europe at the moment and will be on a high after beating Russia in a pre tournament last weekend. The Czech republic had a dreadful time last year and they are in a bit of a crisis at the moment. They will be too strong for Norway and Denmark but might struggle against the Finns. The fight for third place and avoidance of the relegation round will almost certainly be down to the Norway v Denmark game. I would put Norway slight favourites but they have not had the best of preparations, losing heavily to the Czech Republic last week in two games

That’s it, pre competition games are nearly over and teams are finalising their intitial squads for the competition starting on Friday. Some teams will be without their top stars who are still plaing in the Stanley Cup but they will be secretly hoping they will still make the championships at some stage. Teams have pre listed 20 players, leaving up to 5 slots still available for the big boys.

The competition begins with Germany taking on Russia, Canada playing Belarus, Slovakia v Hungary and hosts Switzerland playing France.

Let the jamboree begin.

Tambo