Semi-finals coming - What's gonna happen?

It's time for Semi-finals in these World Championships. There's been many exciting games so far, and even some surprises (Like Norway in top-8, their victory against Germany, France's good games, Canada and Sweden out...). I'm going to rate the remaining teams and make some predictions about the final results..

1. Russia
2. Czech Republic
3. Finland
4. Slovakia

1. Russia

Well, Russia.. The "Red Machine", the killing machine etc. They have played very convincing games so far. They have been A Team for first time in many years. Everyone seem to play together, and there hasn't been any soloing so far. The only dark cloud on them is A.Ovechkin; Can he really play for the team, or is he going to be the Diva again and ruin the whole teams game, like so many times before? He is the x-factor in team.

Russia will probably make a solid performance against Finland and advance to the Finals. And they will go on unbeaten to the end.

3. Finland

One of the hosts in these games. Finland has played quite well so far, lost only two games ( against Canada and USA), and they seem to have a fine team there. But I'm still not convinced. Even if their Team Spirit is good and the fans are supportive, the material can't just bear good Russia. The only hope is that their goalie sucks on semi-finals, or that Russia starts to play as individuals.

My guess is, that Finland loses, but beats Slovakia in the Bronze medal game.

2. Czech Republic

They've done it again! The "underdog" (if you can use that term on a team which has many world-class stars) won Sweden and advanced to the semi-finals. They are just too good, and Slovakia won't be able to break their game. In final, well.. Czech's hope is their counterattacks, which are deadly and rather effective. If Russia lets them do that, they might be able to take the brightest medal. Maybe.

4. Slovakia

Well done beating Canada, but there were many things that helped 'em to do it. First of all, Canadians were too arrogant and thought that they are already in the Final... But no, it's hockey, and anything can happen. Slovakia resembles a bit of Finland's team last year - A good combined mix of youth and experience, good team spirit, hard belief in their abilities... But I still can't think that they could win the cold. If they advance to the finals, they might have a slight chance to take the victory as a team, but I can't believe that they would do any good at bronze medal game. The flow must be used, before it's broken for good...

Stockholm: Latvia made the biggest surprise so far

Latvia was able to beat Germany on 6th May with 3-2 numbers. The victory was probably the biggest surprise for Ted Nolan's group so far. Losing this game was clearly a big disappointment for the German team, and it makes their way to the top 4 a little bit harder.

Best players of the game were from Germany Kai Hospelt (#18), and from Team Latvia Mikelis Redlihs (#24). Latvia was the underdog during the game, but they were able to score the necessary goals.

Both goalies were quite good, Masalskis was one of the top reasons for Latvias win; on the contrary, with Endras, Germany was given the chance to tie this game or even win it.

Ticket prize well out of control in Finland

In Finland the biggest issue and part of every discussion has been those high ticket prizes. The cheapest ticket in Finland's game costs over 140 euros, and in other games over 70.

An average Finn usually earns c.a 2500 euros per month. They have to pay bills and taxes, buy food etc, like we all have to, and after that we could assume that an average Finn will still have about 200-300 euros for other purposes. One ticket to the game costs 140euros, and average hockey-father takes 2-3 family members with him to a game. So, in total, for the worst places, the game will cost 420euros-560 euros. If they want actually see the game, ticket costs c.a. 200euros, in total 600-800euros. That's just discusting amount of money, to be honest. And if you would want to see two games, you would have to pay almost one month's salary for that. It's sick.

In an original Finnish league (SM-liiga) game, the tickets for the best places are about 20-30 euros, in some places a bit more. In Play-offs you could see a game from ice level with 30euros. The finals were under 50 euros. Now, in Finland, the finals are at least 500euros for the worst positions. 500! That's just amazingly expensive and prevents every regular citizen from watching these games at all.

Kalervo Kummola

Of course, Finnish Ice Hockey Federation doesn't see a problem here. They think, that these games are expensive to hold and Finland has won the games last year, so it's more than reasonable to ask these prizes. The truth is actually quite different, according to the Finnish people. Halls have been quite empty so far, and even Finland's games haven't filled stadium totally. FIHF announces other way, of course, because they are telling us very high viewers rate. For instance, the first games have attracted only 1000 spectators, but officially there were 8000 people there. Most of them were school kids, who had had free tickets and were seated in the worst places.

The scandal had became a disaster due to the actions of hockey federation. They have refused to lower the prizes for the games, and they have even declined selling tickets with any sales. In Sweden, the prizes were lowered dramatically after first games disastrous spectators rate, and after that, people have been very satisfied on their federations actions. In Finland, the organizators were quiet, and actually asked Swedish federation to be quiet about ticket sales. They asked them to talk about rearrangements with prizes. Swedish federation didn't accept that, which saved their credibility and skin.

The worst is yet to come. In Finland, the communism has started to arise among the federation. Any flags, canvas or something, that says something negative about the ticket prizes or criticizes the federation's acts or Kalervo Kummola, are removed from the audience. They are strictly forbidden, and officially it is about fire safety in the games. Those flags might cause dangerous situations. Yeah, right. Who truly believes that?

This scandal has arisen a kind of a insurgency in Finland. People are looking for free broadcasts on the web, refusing to buy tickets and are taking their opinions to the games. We were taken away the free wc last year, when Mtv3 took the rights for these games. Now we can't see the games live nor from TV(for free, to say), which pisses us off.

This communist system should be brought down. Once for all.