Data Analysis: Czech Republic vs Finland 2-7 – 09.12.2018


Shot attempts 45-29 for the Czech team against Finland. Shots on goal then quite even with 16-18. Czechs deserved…


No, no, no, no, this is why we analyze floorball games not only by using data but also testing its significance for the result. Shot attempts and even shot on goals does not tell the story of the game. Look at what are crucial metrics and in what areas was Finnish team better in their 7-2 semifinal win.


From 45 shot attempts only 16 ended with shot on goal for Czech Republic. It was not due missing many shots going wide but 21 of them were blocked. Next graph reveals shot blocking in each period for both teams.



As researched earlier stiff defence highlighted by shot blocking appears to be a strong weapon. And there might be no better performance in this area other than Finland is semifinals against the home team.


It was not only ability to block shots but also getting into defensive positions preventing dangerous situations against was a big strength for Finland in the game. This is clearly seen when accounting for dangerous possessions. These consists of odd man rushes (1-3 in the game at even strength) and possessions with clear path opportunity (3-12). Great differential all together for Finnish team here and next graph is also advising that Finland was in control throughout the entire game.

If a game plan was to shut Czech offence down in front of home spectators then it was executed pretty well.


Score at even strength was 1-5 and another difference was execution of quick attacks. These are situations in which ball is transitioned up the field very fast in order to finish quick (odd man rush situation are excluded though).


Czechs had some difficulties in preventing danger from similar situations against Switzerland and it happened again. 0-3 was the score from quick attacks despite both teams creating even numbers of these attacks (17-18). Next gif is an example in which there is a gap between Czech forwards and defence.

Pylsy (no. 19) with his quick feet uses the gap when he does few steps to the middle and fires a shot. What a shot, hey?


So how can you score against a good Finnish defence? It needs some offensive creativity and movement for sure. Next gif is an example to do so.

Doza (no. 66) receives the ball along the side boards, does few steps to the middle with faking the shot. He has ball behind his body to protect it and when right handed shooter Ondrusek (no. 25) gets ready on the other side Doza passes him cross field for not clear but solid chance.

Moving to performances of players we can look at graph showing which players and lines were able to create dangerous possessions as well as shot attempts.

Isn´t this pretty clear? Third Finnish line (Leikkanen, Kivilehto, Kotilainen, Pylsy, Lastikka) was dominant and took over faith of the game with their +8 differential in dangerous possessions. Third Czech line was victimized the most but all Czech players ended with negative dangerous possessions differential. We see some promise in performance of few Czech players regarding shot activity. Prazan, Ondrusek, Doza and Delong were on the field when Czechs were significantly outshooting Finland.


Last graph focuses on players who finished the most offensive plays with shot or assist and blocks.

Czech team blocked only three shots in the game and these shots were blocked by one and only player. It was not a defender. It was Sebek. This leaves Czech defenders with 0 blocks in the game. In contrary all Finnish defenders blocked at least 2 shots with Vaananen leading the was with 4. In total 11 Finnish players recorded at least one block.

Horizontal axis shows that it was Ondrusek who was attempting to finish plays at the most frequent rate.




By Petr Malina