Philippines books return trip to Men's World Floorball Championships

MANILA, Philippines – The Philippines will be making a second consecutive appearance at the Men's World Floorball Championships (WFC) after bulldozing their way through the competition at the qualifiers organized by the Asian Oceania Floorball Confederation held in Singapore.

On Thursday, the Philippines edged Australia, 4-2, to top Group G and clinch an outright berth to the WFC set in Switzerland this November.

It was poetic for the Filipino athletes as they were able to play in the previous edition of the WFC because of Australia as well, with the latter pulling out of the competition due to COVID-19 restrictions then.

Now that they have rightly earned their place in the qualifiers, Philippine skipper Lucas Perez said that this year's berth will be more special.

"It’s so cool, it’s like a dream. We played in the World Championship last year in Helsinki, but that was like a free ticket. This time we earned it, so I'm very proud of all our players and our country as well," he said.

The Philippines fought from a goal down in their match against Australia before ending the first salvo with the scores level at 1-all.

They pulled away in the second half to take a 3-1 lead then Kim Franz Varga added the icing on the cake to lead to the 4-2 victory.

Also clinching a spot in the WFC were Thailand who steamrolled hosts Singapore, 9-1, in their match.

Australia faces off with New Zealand while Singapore locks horns with Korea to determine the last two entrants to the WFC from the qualifiers.