Bandy World Championships 2008

Although you are probably unaware of it the bandy World Championships are currently underway in Moscow. (To regress, if you are unfamiliar with the sport of bandy see the Wikipedia definition here to answer all of your questions.) The winners of the WC are basically a rotation of Sweden (8), Russia (18) and Finland (1). However, a number of other nations do compete (the event was even held in Roseville, Minnesota in 1995). In this year's competition (besides the big 3) there are the likes of Kazakhstan, Holland, Hungary, Norway, Latvia, Estonia, Belarus, Mongolia, and perennial outsiders the US and Canada.

So far in the tournament (see terrible Russian homepage here for complete results) Sweden is pretty much clobbering everyone, as is Russia, the two will face each other today to find out who doesn't have to play Finland again in the semi-finals. Of the non-indigenous bandy playing countries (Group B) the US and Canada are doing surprisingly well. Canada has beaten Mongolia (6-0), Holland (6-1) and Hungary (10-0). The US has pretty much followed suit Hungary (9-0), Estonia (11-0) and Latvia (11-1). (More info can be found on the respective sites for both teams: usabandy.com and canadabandy.ca. The two will face each other on Friday at 9PM Moscow time which is 8 hours ahead of EST (1PM). I Have my doubts anyone is sending it on TV in the US, but if they are that would definitely be the match to watch for those if you in North America.

The way it works with bandy is that the previous year's WC determines where team's fall for the following year. Group A (the good teams) and Group B (the not so good teams) only meet in one game. That game is played between the winner of the Group B tournament, which is likely to be either the US or Canada this year, against the last place finisher in Group A (most likely Belarus this year). If the Group B team wins then they will be moved to Group A for next year's tournament and have the chance to compete for the World Championships. It would actually be quite cool to see the US or Canada get the honor as I don't think either of them ever has. This particular game is scheduled for 10AM on Sunday.

Complete rundown of games and standings can be found in English here. That is a Swedish site and probably the most informative when it comes to having everything in English.

Now that I have thoroughly confused you...watch some video of the event:
Sweden vs Finland yesterday.