Canada prepared in Plzeň before the start of the championship.

It turned out that Canada knows how to play with great movement

Vít Čapek, who will be coaching the Czech U16 Red Team at the World Championship, led the Plzeň men's team in the matches. "The game against the U23 team was better from our side, we performed well. The second game was weak from our side, and it showed that Canada knows how to play with great movement, calmly, even under pressure they don't give up the ball, which is something our players lack," reveals Čapek. "The same goes for converting goal opportunities, which I think we had in the first game but didn't convert. In the second game, our legs didn't work as well, we were always second and it was a poor performance from our side," reflects the national team coach on the match against the Canadian U20 team.

Prior to the senior categories, the Plzeň juniors took to the field and measured their strength against the U16 West and U16 East national teams. As the head coach, Čapek will meet the Canadian U16 East team in Group B at the World Championship, so he had the opportunity to see the opponent's game a few days before the start of the tournament. "I watched both games, and I must say that the first part was better from the Plzeň side. In the second game, it was evident that the squad had changed, and Canada once again showed its strengths and mainly played in a simple manner. But the matches were evenly matched," adds Čapek.

The experience for the future is definitely great

The matches against the Canadian national teams were a highlight for the Plzeň players at the end of the season. "They were certainly valuable experiences, the guys were skilled, fast, strong, clever, and it was evident that they were well-coordinated and maximally prepared. We didn't have much chance to prepare with the boys, but even though we were tired in the second game, we gave them a tough challenge, and the experience gained will definitely be valuable for the future," says David Němčák. In the opening game, the Mečouni team was already trailing by three goals but managed to close the gap to just one goal. "Once we scored two goals, we believed that the opponent would be under pressure, get nervous, and we tried to score one last goal to equalize, but unfortunately, we conceded an unlucky goal, and we couldn't equalize anymore," evaluates Němčák the opening match.

In the second game, they couldn't overcome the Canadian goalkeeper. "I think we had chances in that game too, but unfortunately, we couldn't convert them. I don't know if it was due to lack of strength or simply because things didn't go well for us, but we had chances, and we even found ourselves in front of the goal several times, but unfortunately, we couldn't score. I think the opponent left us with very few opportunities. It was evident that they outplayed us in most cases, so we really enjoyed the game, but the opponent was better in the second game, at least in the second half," adds Němčák.

I'm glad we had the opportunity to play against the Canadian teams

The Plzeň men's team then faced the U23 and U20 national teams. "It's a great experience; I don't think such an opportunity comes up often, so I'm glad it worked out and we had the opportunity to play against the Canadian teams," says Jakub Vobruba, who won gold medals with the Czech U20 national team at the Junior World Championship five years ago. Now, with the Plzeň team, he returned to the matches after a longer time. "We had a slower start after two months; we were still searching in the first period, but it got a bit better in the second period, and that led to two goals, which equalized the game. Unfortunately, we let it slip away in penalty killing, and despite the pressure at the end, we couldn't equalize, so it's a pity," laments the Plzeň forward.

The second match also went better for the Canadian U20 national team. "It was evident that we occasionally held onto the ball too much against the U20 team, which was more energetic and ran a lot. We lacked speed in decision-making, and we lost a lot of balls either in the defensive or neutral zone because they returned well and tried to regain the ball immediately after losing it, and we had a bit of trouble with that," says Vobruba. Canada scored one more goal in the second period and won all the matches.