Comment: Finland humiliated Sweden a lot and put on a show that was unbelievable | Sport

Finland’s situation is significantly brighter than after the first two matches, writes Urheilu’s editor Simo Arkko.

GOTHENBURG.

What the hell was fed to the Young Lions on the intermission day after the losing match against Germany?

This thought immediately crept into my mind when Finland humiliated Sweden in the opening set on their home court in Scandinavium.

In the beginning, Finland was active, energetic and hungry. It crushed attacks from three lanes, dribbled high, won one-on-ones and stayed on the puck.

Sweden had nothing to lose, while Finland played until the end of every situation. Finland’s pack was also tight defensively.

Finland’s coaching and team managed to prepare themselves against Sweden. The coaching reacted in an excellent way already in the opening set, when it decided to continue with the created goal Oiva Keskinen on the chain immediately after the commercial break.

This time too Kasper Halttunen delivered to the goal but now Tommi Männistö was able to hit the loose puck into the net. The 2–0 lead in the opening set was deserved.

The start of the second set was nervous for Finland and Sweden got on top of the game. It crushed long attacks, got the support of the home crowd behind it and ran away to a 4–3 lead.

Finland defended its own goal fairly well on an even field, but Alivoima created problems. Sweden hit two of its hits with superiority.

There is no need to prepare for a crisis from the second batch, but it is certainly worth learning from. How does Finland release the opponent’s hard pressure by dribbling?

Finland was in the game again in the final set. It got the reliable Kiri ready and managed to equalize in Ilves with a lot of goals for the finisher Jani Nymanin by hitting

Nyman fanned his first goal of the Games wildly. He also clearly “ripped” the monkey off his back.

Nyman’s and I flew to Hämeenahon the goals came to Finland as if by order, right on the eve of the playoffs. They, if anyone, needed them for their confidence.

At the end of the day, Finland put on a show that no one would have believed in with their 5-4 win in the Scandinavium.

Sweden hadn’t conceded a goal in these games, so four hits on the net of the junior kronorna was a great performance.

Finland’s situation is much brighter than after the first two matches. At that time, it seemed that the next quarter-final would probably be the United States.

Thanks to Latvia’s surprise victory on Friday, Finland now has a good chance to face Slovakia, which suffered a 2-10 defeat to the United States.

This will be ensured if Germany does not beat Canada.

Slovakia has played great games, but it would definitely be a much easier opponent for the Young Lions than the USA.

Finland has played at the World Cup level against Canada and the USA a total of eight times and won only one match. Finland, on the other hand, defeated Slovakia 5–1 in a practice match before the Games.

And so, why on earth did the Young Lions get off the bridge?

The captain probably gave the best reason Jere Lassila After the victory over Latvia. Spending Finland’s break day instead of ice training in meetings was surprising.

According to Lassila, the Finnish players certainly also had mental blocks, which were removed in meetings. Finland also talked about how it wanted to show the feeling and show how important these games are to them.

It seems that these discussions may give the Young Lions a chance to play for World Cup medals in Gothenburg.

Urheilu closely follows the under-20 hockey world championships in the application and on its website. Moods are also conveyed on Urheilurutu and Urheiluradio. The match program can be found here.