Latvia wins bronze medal over USA

Today marks the conclusion of the World Hockey Championships, with bronze and gold medal matches taking place in Tampere, Finland and Riga, Latvia respectively.

First up this morning was the bronze-medal match between the United States(upset yesterday by Germany) and Latvia.

Here’s what the US line-up looked like for this match.

Of course, the Americans were the favorites for this match, but since the start of the tournament, Latvia has shown that it can compete with anyone, as it proved yesterday when it put up a stiff fight against Canada in the semi-finals.

In short, we had every right to expect an excellent field hockey match, and that’s exactly what we got.

Latvia opened the scoring on a power play midway through the first period.

The United States, however, quickly retaliated through Rocco Grimaldi.

Then, at the end of the first period, Latvia regained the lead thanks to Janis Jaks.

But once again, Grimaldi created the tie moments later for the United States.

This tie persisted until midway through the third period, when Matthew Coronato gave the US the lead for the first time in the game.

At the time, many thought that this was it and that the Latvian story would come to an end, but Kristian Rubins had not said his last word.

The 25-year-old defenseman tied the game with just over five minutes remaining, sending it into overtime to the delight of the fans on hand.

And in overtime, Rubins quickly came back with the winning goal after just 1:21 of play.

Rubins gave Latvia its first-ever medal at a professional field hockey tournament.

It’s really quite a story and quite an achievement for this nation, which has once again proved that it has a place in the field hockey world.

The reactions and celebrations of the players and fans really said it all.

This medal is worth all the gold in the world for Latvia, who can truly be proud of their incredible tournament, where they could very well have found themselves in the final by beating Canada yesterday.

Imagine if we’d had a final between Latvia and Germany, with Canada and the USA fighting it out for bronze.

In short, hats off to Latvia, who fully deserve this first medal in their history.

The final between Canada and Germany is scheduled for 1:20 p.m. on RDS.

En Rafale

– Read more.

– The Blue Jays have lost some big defensive pieces recently.

– Heat fans thought Miami had won the game.

Miami Heat fans thought they took Game 6!

🎥: IG/corygarrastazu pic.twitter.com/3EJIkn2xHU

– TSN (@TSN_Sports) May 28, 2023

– Nice response.

– Deserved.