This past week the U20 Division 1/B World Championships were held in Dunújváros, representing the IIHF as the chairman of the tournament was Christer Englund from Sweden, with Arto Jarvela from Finland who was responsible to the match officials. Englund officially is coming from the IIHF with Jarvela having the same position with SM-Liga, the top league in Finland.
During the past week icehockey.hu had teh opportunity to sit down and talk to both gentelmen.
Christer Englund:
How have you seen the organization of the world championships in Dunaújváros?
The organizing has been very well, everything has been going very smoothly none of the teams have been complaining to me and if the teams are happy then I am happy.
Vilmos Galló from Hungary plays in Sweden, what does a player like him bring to a tournament like this?
I would say that it depends if they play abroad or not and it depends on where they play and how much they can play, we have a very good junior league in sweden and he has probably developed a lot, if a player decided to stay at home they have to be playing at a high level to develop. Vilmos is a good player he is a hard worker he creates a lot of situations, but you need more players not just one player.
What did you think of the Hungarian team’s performance?
Sometimes in the game they play well but they make mistakes, they are too offensive once they have lost the puck which gives the opponent odd man rushes. They are playing at home which gives you pressure to win. Over all they were close in all their games but in they lost and unfortunately they lost.
How could Hungary take from the Swedish junior system?
You can’t really take from the Swedish system since we have so many more players in our system, what I think could be done is that having two or three juniors playing regularly in the senior teams, and I don't mean to sit all game but to actually get regular shifts and getting them to develop. I think it would be better than having old imports. If there are five Hungarian teams that 10 juniors who are playing regularly.
Arto Jarvela:
How have you seen the World Championships, and also from the referees point of view?
This is a very good tournament with a lot of good hockey, I am coming from Finland where the level is somewhat higher but there are a number of good individually skilled player here. The players have been respecting each other there have been no major penalties or misconducts only minor two minute penalties, which means we are very happy, very good hockey games and very exciting hockey games, so far nothing bad to say.
Recently more and more Hungarian players are going abroad, for example North America, how do they have to adjust to the officiating?
France has a player playing in Finland, there are a number of players playing outside of their home country where they can develop their skills, which brings different types of hockey together, however each team needs to have their own style. This is a physical game there will be hits but we have not really have a had a problem with it at this tournament, luckily the game is counted with goals and not hits.
Could you see Hungarian junior players fitting in the Finnish junior leagues?
They should have no problem fitting in overall but it depends on what position. On defense it might be a little bit harder compared to as a forward, if you are a skilled forward that can move the puck then you will not have any problems fitting in.
Photo: László László - MJSZ