A choice of path in the EC qualifiers, a match without shapes and finesse. What did Finland do about it? They spat in their fists, won and fill an entire national arena with people and anticipation in June.
A smile says more than a thousand words?
In that case, I buy a frame, freeze the interview picture as Rasmus Schüller flashes the broadest, blue-white smile of the year and paint a picture with it as a motif. That’s how a victory feels that tastes blood in the mouth, causes pain in the body and bruises all along the shins.
What tame, poor football.
What a welcome, much needed victory.
Finland was actually at an early, slightly nasty crossroads in the European Championship qualifiers. The players have pumped up the expectations all by themselves, it has been a fresh breath of football and then it would not have been a good idea to fall behind directly in the qualifiers.
Finnish football can write theses about that, but we don’t need to do that today.
The EC qualifier in Belfast was played without orderly forms, without tactical finesse, without a clear structure. It became raggar football, there were lyres to defend, plays to send away, close matches to be won.
It wasn’t pretty or impressive, but somehow the Finnish national team dug into their pockets and found a convulsive warrior victory that means just about everything in this phase of European Championship qualification.
Was unbearable and unpleasant
A 1-0 victory against Northern Ireland in a football match is nothing to run laps around the house for. Northern Ireland is a very limited football team with many players from the English undergrowth, but regardless of level, they have got the duel game with the mother’s milk.
Finland, which in all honesty is not that much better known, needed to turn on the power, sharpen its fighting claws and be vigilant everywhere.
The discomfort traveled across the midfield early on as Northern Ireland plunged forward on the right, and then the unpleasant feelings came in waves. Benjamin Källman scored, Dion Charles missed, Finland led and Northern Ireland tested the national team’s fragile defence.
The football was of low difficulty, but Northern Ireland had no intention of lying down and surrendering. They hit posts, they got 1-1 ruled out by a minimal margin and it became terribly difficult.
Between minutes 52 and 64 it was immediately unbearable, the rest was unpleasant.
Schüller was invaluable
Rasmus Schüller was back from his cold and was as invaluable as usual. In this type of international match where everything is on the line, he is the shield that stands smart, thinks right and takes the fight.
In Copenhagen, the opposition was on a different level, but even then Schüller’s wisdom and ability to be the contact between defensive and offensive was lacking. Now the match picture was different, but the Dif midfielder’s contribution was just as valuable.
After ninety long minutes, Finland had won a match, the players chanted with hundreds of supporters and the rest of us can already start yearning for summer evenings at the Olympic Stadium.
The problems in Finland are many – the main reason is that the defensive material is thin, the defensive game is sometimes very confused and the national team managed only four shots on goal in two games.
It didn’t crack, there were no efforts that give diplomas.
But in June, Slovenia comes to the Olympic Stadium and the national arena is filled to the brim with people and anticipation. That’s how much three points mean in a bloody grueling match at the end of March.
