Poland surprises Belarus
Poland show a better organization and win the opening game of Olympic Qualification Tournament in Bratislava
Belarus and Poland opened the qualifying
tournament for the Beijing 2022 Olympics today at the Ondrej Nepela Arena in
Bratislava.
As was to be expected, the group is confirmed
to be very balanced and each match will probably be decided on a detail. And
Poland causes the first surprise by snatching the three points from the favoured
Belarus
The Belarus of Canadian coach Craig Woodcroft
is on the ice as the most difficult opponent for the hosts of Slovakia, but
Poland, accredited with small chances of qualification, showed an excellent
organization and a lot of discipline. The Belarus roster is certainly of higher
quality, but on the ice, it has proven to be more of a series of individuals
than a team.
After a first period without many emotions, the
game becomes interesting in the central period, with two goalkeepers, curiously
both naturalized North Americans, engaged on several occasions and Belarus
surviving two numerical inferiorities.
In the last period the balance is broken when
there are 5 minutes to go: Filip Komorski finalizes a counterattack by
collecting a pass from Alan Lyszczarczyk, beating a not perfect Taylor. As
mentioned, it is a match that is resolved for one detail: there is no more time
to recover and the Polish defence resists the final onslaught of the
Belarusians who finish the game without a goalkeeper
MVP: Danny Taylor - John Murray