Last week, during my and Nils Öhrvall’s art exhibition at Casa de la Cultura in Almuñécar, a member of the culture house staff asked me from where I was. When he heard that I was from Finland, he said “Oh that’s the country playing against Spain in Gijon on March 22 in the World Cup qualifiers. Finland is not a big football country. I bet the game will end 6-0 for Spain”.
Well, that’s what I thought, too. Lately, Finland has been good at games needing protective helmets, like ice hockey, motorcycle racing, half-pipe, rally and Formula 1, but football has never been our strong point. We figure as the Benjamin in the qualifying, with only 1 point so far. Sweden with Zlatan, Denmark and even Norway are far better football countries.
Yesterday I hurried home after closing the exhibition hall, and switched on the television to watch the game, afraid of having to be embarrassed by the performance of my fellow Finns.
But the Finnish team had a very smart tactic against the Spanish World Champions. They just parked their bus within a 16-meter area and protected their goal like lions, at times defending their penalty area with 10 men. The goalie made many important saves, and the Finnish game was really disciplined with an absolute minimum of errors. The sports section of Ideal wrote that “the Finns being the number one in the world as far as education is concerned must be used to obeying orders and doing exactly what they’re told”. And this, it seems to me, was just what they were doing, strictly following the coach’s orders. This is, of course, not true for Finns in individual sports. Just look at Kimi Räikkönen’s headstrong and personal behaviour, not to mention that of Finnish ski jumping athletes. But team sports are different, with a more disciplined approach. No solo playing here.
At halftime the score stood at 0-0, but just after re-entering the arena, Sergio Ramos broke the deadlock with a header from a corner. After this, however, the Finnish wall did not fail. Young Teemu Pukki, who has been planted on the bench by German Schalke for most of last season, scored 11 minutes from full time to make 1-1 against Spain. This surely complicated life for the World and European champions. Pukki managed to fire past the Spanish goalie on a very rare counter-attack after the Finns had withstood waves of pressure from the Spanish hosts. This was a dull game to watch, the Spaniards controlling the ball 87% of the time and having 19 corners against 0, but nevertheless, the result is what matters and the tactic was intelligent. When Pukki scored, the Spanish audience went into shock. They could not believe what was happening, while the Finnish supporters went absolutely crazy. I can just imagine how the supporters in Finland behaved. For us, to make 1-1 against a giant like Spain is sensational! The draw leaves Spain under pressure to get a victory in Paris on March 26, when they visit their closest group rivals France. Finland’s score was 1 point leaving them in last position with a total of 2 points. But for us, this was history!
When I go to an event at Casa de la Cultura next time, I will certainly have a few words with my friend over there.