KOTKA. ‘s cameraman challenges Kotka Peli-Karhuje’s national team-level trio to attack him. Linda-Lotta Lehtoranta, Elina Koskimies and Anissa Pounds take up the challenge. The ball moves and the dog sock swings, as it should in a three-on-one game.
The goal has been achieved. A ball in the basket and a great picture for the TV broadcast.
Peli-Karhut plays in Europe’s second-tier competition in the season starting in the Eurocup. The aforementioned trio of 157 international matches would not be in Kotka now without this historic Finnish basketball project of this season.
Peli-Karhuje’s new confirmations at the national team level admit the matter directly. In his own words, Lehtoranta embellishes the matter so that the European Games had “a lot of weight”. They all wanted to make Finnish basketball history.
– It’s a big deal. I think it’s great to be a part of making history. What’s better than playing in one of the toughest leagues in the world and still at home, Pounds, who has played abroad for the last three seasons, says.
After a 25-year break, Finland will now see a women’s basketball team in a competition covering the whole of Europe. Tapiolan Honka from Espoo played in the fall of 1999 in the Ronchetti Cup, the second European competition at the time. No Finnish team has been seen in the current Eurocup.
Returning to Peli-Karhuje’s head coach after three years Roope Mäkelä is as excited as the players. He also admits that the most significant factor in his return was the European Games.
According to Mäkelä, the Eurocup did not yet have an attraction on the player market until it became clear that the Finnish team would go directly to the group stage of 48 teams. Peli-Karhuje did not have to be eliminated from their place.
– Then it really started to happen. We were quite strong then, especially when we started looking for domestic players, Mäkelä opens.
Continue to downwind
Lately, Finnish basketball has experienced a tailwind, especially on the women’s and girls’ side. The women’s national team, which has been talked about as the team of the future for a long time, has broken its losing cycle and started the EC qualifiers convincingly.
The under-16 girls’ national team, on the other hand, historically won the European Championship in the summer. That was the first ever European championship or overall EC medal for any Finnish team in basketball.
Mäkelä sees the Peli-Karhuje eurocup project as a continuation of the things described above.
– We must have club teams that dare to aim a little higher. Some people raise young people, but our job is to make it, says Mäkelä.
A couple of years ago, the then head coach of the national team Pekka Salminen envisioned in an interview with that the Finnish European Games team could also help the women’s national team become a regular visitor to the European Championships. The last time Finnish women were at the European Championships was in 1987.
Koskimies, one of the core players of the current team, signs his former coach’s opinion.
– When there are tough games and tough opponents during the season, it always improves. You can also see the level that is in Europe. They play harder there. I believe that this will help the national team as well, says Koskimies.
Funny situation after the draw
All in all, Peli-Karhuje’s lineup includes four national team-level players, because Rose Kosonen, 24, continues in the team. When the season started last year, there were the same number of national team players, but the current four have, for example, significantly more international matches in their cv.
However, Peli-Karhuje’s players are not coolies at all, but in their prime. Koskimies, 28, Pounds, 31, and Lehtoranta, 32, all played in the German Bundesliga last season. Koskimies and Lehtoranta silver team in Keltern.
Koskimies justifies returning to Finland after nine years with greater responsibility. The conditions in Kotka are also comparable to other experiences in Europe.
– There is a good hall here. You can throw there. There is also a throwing machine. A guardian is present at every training session. Things work better here than in many other places in Europe, says Koskimies, who has played a total of five years in Spain and Germany.
Linda-Lotta Lehtoranta’s own plan was to continue playing abroad. There were offers, but he became fascinated to play the Eurocup historically in his own hometown. Lehtoranna, who returns to Kotka after two seasons, has a short-term contract until the end of November and is now living one day at a time.
According to Lehtoranta, the level difference to Germany is that there are more professional players.
– Basketball is a little more physical there and the tempo is a little higher, says Lehtoranta.
The amusing situation is that Koskimies and Lehtoranta will face their teams from last season in the Eurocup. Keltern was drawn in the same group as Peli-Karhuje.
The two will smile at the upcoming encounter. Both highlight the fact that the team’s previous playmaker has become the team’s head coach.
– There is a very interesting pattern going on there, Koskimies characterizes.
A domestic favorite
Last season Torpan Pojat from Helsinki broke Peli-Karhuje’s five-year championship streak. ToPo forged baskets with even historical efficiency. On the domestic fields, Peli-Karhut is now the early favorite again. At the moment, there would be just enough room for one championship pennant on the wall of the Karhuvuori sports hall.
Will the championship trophy return to Kotka?
The new national team trio each sing almost exactly the same words separately. That would be the plan.
– That’s the goal, Koskimies emphasizes.
The Women’s Basketball League starts on Wednesday with a match between Peli-Karhuje and Tampere Pyrinnö. Peli-Karhut starts the Eurocup on October 9 with a home game against Romania’s Constanta.