Latvia celebrates team morale after the victory against Sweden in the Hockey World Cup

It didn’t take long after the final whistle in Arena Riga before the ground in front of the Swedish embassy began to be filled with flowers.

Victory-elated Latvian fans gathered, celebrated and screamed along to Abbas’s “The winner takes it all” – and teasingly enough, also Finland’s Eurovision entry “Cha cha cha”.

Along with one blombukett someone left a note with the text “Thank you for a good game”.

The Latvian team defeated Tre Kronor 3–1 in the quarter-finals. It is the first time that Latvia has made it as far as the semi-finals of the World Cup.

– It is an enormous pride and perhaps I have not yet fully understood that it has really happened. I have never played with a team like this before, says forward Rodrigo Abols – who after three seasons in Örebro is now ready for Rögle in the SHL – to Diena newspaper, among others.

He continues to pay tribute to the Latvian attitude and team cohesion, which he believes made the decision against Sweden.

– It doesn’t matter how skilled or good players you have … if you don’t have the team, the soul, you can’t win. We have it, and we are the ones moving on.

Union captain Harijs Vitolins calls what the team achieved “a small miracle”.

– This will be written in Latvian history with golden letters. But the championship continues, he tells sportazinas.com.

Basketball star Kristaps Porzingiswho plays for the Washington Wizards in the NBA, was present in Arena Riga and witnessed the “miracle”.

– In the last two matches, I have experienced absolutely incredible emotions. It is an unimaginable joy and pride to be led, says Porzingis to Latvian television.

Goal scorer Miks Indrasis, who scored the 2–1 goal for Latvia, believes that the team is now aiming even higher ahead of Saturday’s semi-final against Canada.

– It has only just begun. Now we’re driving, he says according to Latvian LSM.

Read more:

Malin Fransson: Tre Kronor risks losing its role as a popular national team

Reigning champions Finland lost the quarter-finals