A crowd of 50,000 people in Latvia is roughly 3% of the country's population, which is nothing to scoff at. A small country with a huge heart for the sport.

I am from Czechia and usually spend nearly whole World Championship with friends in pub. Latvia is for a long time our second favorite team and seeing them grab bronze in OT made us probably even happier than bronze for us last year. Needless to say, we got hammered right after and found out the score of final next day from the news. Congrats to Latvia, they played well and it's fully deserved medal

With how little us Canadians usually care about that tournament it's heartwarming seeing Latvia enjoy it so much

Latvia win brought tears to my eyes. I love things like this in hockey!

As an American I was overjoyed when Latvia beat us. I really wanted them to beat Canada and perhaps Germany for gold, but I’m so happy they got their first medal and I want to see them keep developing

never been so happy for a team thats not my own. im a czechia fan but honestly seeing latvia win and also just how HAPPY they all were brought a tear to my eye, its so heartwarming

As a Latvian myself seeing these other Countries greeting Latvia is truly heartwarming, goosebumps just never ending.🇱🇻🇱🇻🇱🇻❤️

I always root for Latvia at every international tournament. Every time they come to Canada for the World Jrs they're everyone's 2nd favorite team. I don't know why but they're so likeable .

Honestly, I was absolutely selfish and greedy for the Americans to win it all. But I cannot say enough for the love the Latvians had for their medal winners. "It's just a bronze medal." Shut up. They earned it. Absolutely earned it. Well done, Latvia!

I’m from Canada and I’m more happy that Latvia got there first medal the Canada winning again.

I don't care about Canada's performance in this, but it was amazing to see Germany and Latvia play so well and medal

Hockey is Latvia, Latvia is Hockey. I cried for like half an hour when our boys scored that OT goal. And taking part in the parade was awesome, everyone was cheerful, singing, crying emotions were sky high.

During this years tournament, I w as really amazed of the amount of support other countries showed to our little Latvia. Finland, Chechia, Slovakia,US, Canada, Slovenia, Sweden and Norway, our sisters and bros in Estonia and Lithuania, and countless others - thank you so so very much! Your support was amazing! There jas never been anything like that in any sport for us. We are hockey nation in heart, and it feels truly amazing to be united in such passion with the rest of the world! We celebrated for everyone who supported Team Latvia!!❤

I love it. I'm so happy for Latvia. I wish them more success in the future

had a friend playing hockey in the states and he had a latvian guy on the team and me and him ended up getting really close, low key was cheering for latvia in the semis but he is still absolutely over the moon with the bronze. He grew up playing at home so he knew a ton of the team and even got to facetime them for beers and cigars😂 got to see firsthand how much that meant to them and it’s so fucking cool

I was in that crowd and let me tell you - it was just as electrifying as each goal our Latvian team scored during championship. It was such an uplifting and unexpected event our country truly needed! You can feel joy and proudness in the air! After welcoming our team back home, city got in to a celebration and I got a couple of messages from friends about team players popping up in different bars during that day! and lots of my friends got to take pics with those medals!

I was waiting for you to make this video! For us Latvians it means a lot. Like, for me it was a childhood dream to play ice hockey, because I liked the sport and what it meant to us Latvians. I finally started to fulfill it last year, by joining a beer league team. Also during the holiday, many Latvian players were walking around the city and me and my buddies met the player that skates alone and held his head #13 Rihards Bukarts( 2:07), made a few photos with him and me holding the medal. Chugged a beer and he said this medal is not mine, it’s all of ours, all of the people, because of the support shown and all the efforts we’ve made as a nation togheter, to make this happen. This medal means even more to Latvians than you can actually comprehend, because it is a way of gaining our national unity and the confidence back as a nation after all the events that happened during and after WW2 with the Nazi and Soviet occupation of our country. Many people were crying with joy during this win. Also fun or not so fun fact, Latvians were the ones that taught Soviets about ice hockey(also one of the main reasons that Soviet Union existed, after WW1) as ironic as it may seem.

You missed a point that Latvia nearly didn't qualify for quarter finals, having lost to Slovakia and being even on points with them meant that if Latvia doesn't gain a point against undefeated Switzerland they do not qualify. They played their hearts out that game against Swiss. That game was just as noteworthy as the win against Swedes.

I loved seeing how happy these guys were man what a moment

Germany also got its first medal in a looong time and it's our first silver 🥈. So pretty cool to see latvia and us having such a great world cup. And yeah, honor where its due . It's still canada's sport.

The title is honestly incredible

I'm so proud of the German team. Here in Germany, Hockey is fairly small, but everyone I know who loves it just lost it when we made it to the finals. Congrats, Canada, you were the better team, but boy does that silver look good on the guys! Also, go Latvia!

Dude Kaspars Daugavinš used to play for the Bruins! He was a decent journeyman defenseman for the NHL. Kristers Gudlevskis (goalie) used to be third string for the Lightning. He also stopped like 53 shots vs team Canada one time.

Hate to see the US lose, but the pure joy from Latvia is awesome. Love your content, and your continuous highlighting the whole hockey landscape.

2:46 - "There are countries like Latvia where hockey is the most popular sport" I recently learned that this is the case in three countries: Canada, Latvia and Finland.

i've rewatched the moment of latvia beating usa in ot so many times, yet i still tear up from how proud i am of my country every time ;DD

To be fair, the Latvians keep calling the bronze medal "our little gold"

It is really nice to see that excitement from the Latvian team and fans! Congratulations on the medal!

Finally my fav hockey channel does a video on this! So proud to be Latvian! ♥️🤍♥️

This was incredible! It was like a dream. I'm so proud for Latvia! They are our heroes! 🇱🇻🇱🇻🇱🇻

This is the greatest latvia bronze metal celebration of All Time

LETS GOOOO LATVIA!!!

As a Canadian I wish we would've gotten a Holiday.

Wish you have included their game vs Switzerland on last day of groupstage where they had to get atleast OT to make it to quaters over Slovakia and in the end they won it and got themselves 3rd over us (czechia) That game was incredible heroics from them.

So cool for Latvia. Must have been so electric to there in person. These are some of the best stories in sports

Im from Latvia and yes everyone went nuts after that OT goal. 😃

We are still celebrating

No parade for Canada? Well I guess when you win the tournament in 5 out of 8 years its not quite as special as getting your country's first ever medal. Latvia was always one of those under dog teams I cheered for. I'm so happy to see them get a medal this year, maybe their junior team will also get a medal in this years tournament.

You love to see it. This is so awesome. GG, Latvia!

Wow a day off! I wish Canada had won bronze!

I was waiting for you to talk about this ☺️☺️ As a Latvian this was remarkable!!!!

silovs is a beast. now having some context of how massive this was, no wonder silovs is ice cold. He had his entire country behind him; the Vancouver playoffs is nothing compared to the weight of that tournament for silovs tbh.

Found your channel when I started watching NHL highlights regularly this season. So glad you covered this because this is a huge thing for us. I remember first seeing H. Vitolins as a kid when I first started watching the world championship. Now seeing him as a coach who finally brings our guys to medals is tremendous. Also as others have said considering that there are 80x to 100x times more hockey rinks and also registered players in USA than in Latvia it's not a small feat. But here's the thing that I think all these videos missed... If Golden Knights takes the cup then Teddy Blueger will become the second latvian to win the cup after Sandis Ozolins. So there will be another celebration. Cheers!

GG to Latvia. You deserve it, enjoy that medal. -An American

Had no idea you also did hockey content. Amazing stuff. Proud of my country Latvia :D

i was at the welcoming and the trains going into riga were packed i wish i could find a video of what it was like. In the capital it was very crowded my moms colleages went with us so we were there about 30 of us. it was hard to stand in the sun so we in a peacefull rugby way got out of the crowd into shade and moved to a corner of the street where we could see the bus arive and wave at them but sadly they were in a standard public bus. we went to stand on a hill and we shouldve brought binoculars but we didnt and we couldnt see anyone on the stage but we definetly heard the crowd and the people talking in the microphone. Personaly i loved it even if i never met them or saw them. But the unity was there and the atmosfere was amazing with everyone united and happy which our country in the past years has been kind of lacking in public events.

I want a holiday😭😭😭 after the Canadiens got there first medal, we didn't get a holiday. Congrats too latvia tho

Thank you for your videos @Eck, as they remind me, as someone who watches from a Canadian viewpoint, that there are countries like USA where hockey is popular ;)

Hey eck i hope you and the team are having an amazing day today. Love u guys

I am proud of the German team. the first medal in this competition in 70 years.

i wanted latvia to win the gold

Big congrats to Latvia 👍

I‘m always a bit sad to see that the German success is almost never mentioned because they lost their last game :(

Fantastic to see, and great for the development of the sport

As a Canadian I wish Latvia won the tournament cuz we don’t think of it as big deal but if they had 50,000 person celebration for a bronze medal imagine if they won

Crazy. Latvia rocks 💪 Very competitive games.

As a Canadian/Swede, I'm kinda sad but kinda happy

As A die hard Canadian Hockey fan, Im so happy for LAtvia and Germany finishing 2 and 3, I hope Hockey grows more and more to these countries.

There were so many people squished in one place that the entire city centre lost communications. No internet, no phone calls or messages.

Way to go Latvia!!!!!!!

Those celes remind me of Vancouver 2010 when the Men's and Women's teams both came up golden. Probably the proudest moments I've ever been as a Canadian.

In europe the WC is pretty much like your stanley cup playoffs in NA. To europeans its the pinnacle of the hockey season, great event to end it all on. In Europe we actually plan our leagues to fit in with IIHF schedule, kinda wish NHL did that one day. would be crazy to see the line ups. ofc people follow alot of NHL, but its hard to really get invested into a team thats on a different continent, compared to your home country. if i had to quess why its not as popular in NA its probably because europeans generally can be just way more patriotic towards their own country. expecially us finns.

That’s sweet I wish we got a day off of work when our team wins a medal

Im a Latvian. We are small, but bound. We love emotions. Our hearts are open. Sometimes this is not good, but this is life :)

As a Canadian, I definitely jumped on the Latvia bandwagon... except for when they played Canada lol

I had alot of fun with random Latvians in Tampere, we toured clubs until the morning :D

Well done Latvia 👏👏👏. Awesome to see the country get behind the hockey team like that. This tournament isn't what it could be , but it's still good hockey to watch. Germany has a good development team too, watch out for them on the international stage in a few years. Great seeing the game grow.

Way to go Latvia! Great to see a team/country that hasn't won a medal fight so hard to get the bronze. Well p-layed, well won, well deserved. Will we see them back next year??? 🤞Maybe for a silver???🤔

With the NHL taking a massive break mid-playoffs, it's nice to see something good coming out of hockey. Happy for Canada, but honestly it's more exciting to see Latvia win their first medal and be so hyped about it. As for the playoffs... what is the NHL thinking? Many of us have already lost interest with the final teams not really being teams that many people follow (LVGK are somewhat an exception to this, growing a large fanbase fairly quickly), and they throw in extra days between the finals in a sport that by no means should be played this deep into June? Doesn't seem like a good move if they want to keep people engaged.

Latvia have always been there but were never good enough to make a splash. Well, they delivered big time in this one.

I hope the tournament brings more attention to Michael Carcone, who absolutely deserves a shot at being on an NHL roster. He led the AHL in points, was good in his sparse NHL appearances including drastically reducing his penalties (the one major flaw in his AHL stats), and is a UFA this offseason. Not to mention the hunger he’ll undoubtedly have to prove himself at the NHL level. Unlikely he’ll ever see this, but if he somehow does… Mike, best of luck to you man, I’m rooting for you!

11 months later, the two goalies in the Latvia vs US game are Canuck teammates hoping to win a series.

Latvia, amazing

god tier title

The break is actually till Saturday not Sunday 😊

The is inspirational the was an amazing upset the is amazing

Unrelated but we need those ref cams in the NHL as well as having them do more camera shots from cameramen that go on the ice for cellys like they did for the juniors and this tournament.

Best ever 🇱🇻🇱🇻

I wish there were more nhl players competing but i understand that they probably want a break/dont want to risk injury

2 000 000 country win 350 000 000...this is amazing...Latvia is third on the WORLD...unbelievable Uz priekšu latvieši!🇱🇻 Par Mūsu LIELO, MĪĻO, STIPRO LATVIJU 🇱🇻🇱🇻🇱🇻 💕💪 🔥

👏👏👏👏👏❤❤❤❤❤🇱🇻

You love to see it

Wow that is a great story. Just goes to show you Canadians are just used to winning. I'm not a stats guy buy honestly surprised this is latvias first ever medal. I thought they would've had a bronze at some point.

Daugavins Iserlohn legend

“Playoffs are back saturday” dont miss it boyz

“The”?

i love me some good underdog story!

Sandis Ozolinsh I think is the best Latvian player

The?

sorry but you said the nhl playoffs were on break until sunday...is game 1 not tonight??

Latvia on top. #nopoidiumforcanada

cup final starts Saturday

oh my god no way

Silos was elected new Minister of Defence😂

Looks more than 50k

the game is saturday not sunday

He said tournament weirdly once and I let it slide. I heard it a second time and had to leave

reminder latvia has a population of 1.8 million , toronto has more people than the entire country of latvia

i dont think im a band wagon cause im latvian lol i was there with the 50000 people

👍