The last of the four preliminary groups of the men's elite has strong Czech representation. The Swedish Falun and the Swiss Zürich are joined by the third team of the past Extraliga season, Mladá Boleslav, and the reigning Czech champion, Tatran Střešovice.
Tatran from Prague is the last Czech team that triumphed in the men's elite category of Chance Czech Open. But that was eleven years ago. Two years ago, Střešovice got within the reach of another triumph again, but they lost in the final game against Sirius from Sweden by one goal. A year ago, Tatran was eliminated in the semifinals after a one-goal loss against Pixbo.
Last year, Mladá Boleslav was also eliminated by a Swedish team. In the quarterfinals they lost to the Stockholm team Caperiotäby 2:5 and the tournament was over for them.
This year, Střešovice will set out on their way towards success with the help of Milan Garčar, who has returned to Tatran, the experienced national team goalie Tomáš Kafka, the Swedish centre forward Johan von der Pahlen, the captain, motivator and prolific scorer Milan Fridrich, or the defender Marek Deutsch, who received the title Defender of the year from the editorial team of Florbal.cz for the past season.
On the other hand, Mladá Boleslav will traditionally rely on the individual skills of Petr Novotný, alertness and quick saves of the goalie Jakub Koráb, the tough defender Štěpán Slaný, or the versatile captain Jiří Bouška.
)
)