Kim Varga broke out of his slump to steer the Philippine men’s national floorball team to its second straight win in Group G of the 2024 Men’s Floorball World Championship Qualifiers, defeating South Korea 12-4.
In front of a relatively larger home crowd on Wednesday at the Philsports Arena, the Linköping IF forward turned in four assists to help the Nationals inch closer to the semifinals with a 2-0 win-loss record.
“We saw the South Korea match and saw that they play very low on defense, so we needed to shoot that much and play the ball before the defense came back,” shared Varga on how they prepared for the East Asian side.
With this mindset in play, the 21-year-old standout made an impact from the get-go, assisting on the second and third goals that set the tone for the hosts.
Varga found Mattiece Cortez for the second goal before Simon Sicat Larano converted a decent pass for the 3-0 lead.
The Koreans breached the Philippine defense twice in succession in the second period to come within four, 4-7, at the 35th minute with goals from Lee Eu Seung and Ryu Gwan Mook.
Michael Hedblom and Melvin Alm Mendoza restored order for the Philippines with their goals, bringing the count to 10-4 by the end of the second period.
The Nationals will take on regional rivals and fellow 2022 Worlds side Thailand on Thursday at 4 p.m. in the same venue, in what might be a battle for the group’s top spot.
“We know that we need to come up with no less than a win. We have a game plan, but I don’t want to say too much,” Varga concluded.
