Comment: The European Championship place is no longer enough for the Huuhkajs

The Finnish men’s national football team starts on Thursday 23.3. EC qualifiers in a new situation. Huuhkajat is no longer seeking that historic first prize tournament place.

Of course, there were World Cup qualifiers in between, but getting to the European Championships is much easier.

When Markku Kanerva released his team for away games in Denmark and Northern Ireland on Tuesday, the head coach’s words and essence told that the goal is no longer the European Championship place. Now the goal is to make it to the European Championship in Germany in 2024.

– We no longer talk about dreams, but goals, tough goals, Kanerva began at the event.

– You could think that there is less pressure now. No. Yes, expectations have grown. It doesn’t relieve the pressure in any way. It measures the team’s mental edge, Kanerva underlined.

Read more: Huuhkajat starts the EC qualifiers, Jere Uronen is out – see the line-up

I asked Kanerva even more about this thought process. He responded by reminding, among other things, that they went to the previous EC tournament to experience something new AND to pursue a place in the first group.

After the European Championships in the summer of 2021, it was emphasized about the Finnish team that mere participation was not enough. It’s still sad to see that the next place has been lost.

In the name of honesty, it must be said that Finland was quite the opponent at the European Championship 2021 against Denmark, Russia and Belgium. The fact that Finland fought until the second half of the Belgium match for a place in the top two of its group was a huge stroke of luck considering the events of the game.

The cheerleaders are measured right at the beginning of the qualifiers

Losing the European Championship in Germany from Huuhkaj would be a huge disappointment after the upswing of the last few years.

Kanerva said that the group of the previous EC qualifiers and the group of the qualifiers starting now are equally tough. I don’t think that’s true, even though the Fifa rankings are indicative and before the last qualifiers, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Greece were confused.

Huuhkajat, however, played themselves with their performance in the Nations League to the second highest draw basket of these EC qualifiers. It automatically meant avoiding, among others, France, England, Serbia and Austria in the qualification.

In the draw for the EC qualifying groups, Finland avoided Ukraine, Sweden, Norway and Turkey from the lower baskets.

Sports expert, former Huuhkajat gambler Markus Halsti considered the luck of the draw to be favorable to Finland. The two best teams from the qualifying group qualify for the European Championships.

Finland starts the qualifiers with the two most difficult matches, away against Denmark and Northern Ireland.

Denmark must be reeling from their disaster at the World Cup. Finland last played against Northern Ireland in the 2015 European Championship qualifiers, resulting in an away loss and a home draw.

According to Kanerva, four points from the opening matches would be “damn good”, six points “day sleep”.

The first two games won’t decide anything, but especially full points from Northern Ireland would be a tasty start.

There will certainly be a lot of cross-play in the group. For example, Kazakhstan won their C-level group in the Nations League last year, taking, among other things, two victories over Slovakia.

Familiar question marks

For the Huhkajis, there has been talk for years about whether to play with a four or five defense line. Kanerva has preferred a line of five, i.e. wing-backs as wing players.

Jere Uronen the groin injury is the most significant reason why Kanerva named 24 players to the group that will start the EC qualifiers on Tuesday. The group will be supplemented to 26 more players in the coming days.

Kanerva wants to watch Uronen’s fitness until the end, having cemented his place in the starting line-up as a left wing-back in Huuhkaj.

New responsibilities have been added to the attack and midfield. Oliver Antman assured in the Nations League and immediately opened his goal account. Midfield Anssi Suhonen would have already debuted in the Nations League without injuries.

But who will replace Uronen? HJK’s 22-year-old Tuomas Ollila might be in Copenhagen’s Parken next week in a rather tight mankel.

Or will Kanerva raise Manchester City’s 18-year-old promise from the U21 national team to the A national team by Tomas Galvez? Or will AC Oulu’s 22-year-old join the group Noah Pallas?

Kanerva brought up the three names mentioned above, who were involved in the losing matches against Estonia and Sweden in the winter camp, when asked about the wing-back positions.

For the trio in question, the jump from the winter camp to the European Championship qualifier against Denmark is frighteningly drastic.

– There are 50 players on the gross list, so there are options, Kanerva assured.

When Finland started the European Championships against Denmark at Parken on June 12, 2021, the starting line-up from the group now designated for the qualifiers included Lukas Hradecky, Robin Lod, Glen Kamara, Teemu Pukki and Joel Pohjanpalo. They came from the exchange Rasmus Schuller, Marcus Forss and Leo Vaisänen.

In total, of the 26 players nominated for the European Championship, 14 players were now named to the European Championship qualifying group: in addition to those listed above Try Soiri, Nikolai Alho, Robert Ivanov, Robert Taylor, Fredrik Jensen and the goalkeeper Jesse Joronen.

– The renewal of the team happens naturally. Some end their National Team careers or some raise their stocks so that they penetrate the team with their hard displays. We always think about what the need is and where competition or young blood is needed for which playing position, Kanerva commented on the team’s renewal.

During 2022, Huuhkajat played ten national matches. Finland beat Montenegro twice, lost three matches and played five draws.

Before the 2019 “all-time qualifiers”, Finland had won seven, lost three times and played one draw in the previous year. Of course, then Finland played at the C level of the Nations League, in 2022 at the B level.

There are plenty of question marks, and Huuhkajie’s playing mood has not been particularly lively recently.

Still, talks about the “dream of generations” already sound like ancient history. Claiming a place in the competition would no longer cause the same kind of ecstatic, almost flooding the Töölö arena with a flow of happy tears like that memorable Liechtenstein match on 15 November 2019.

Now the European Championship place would be just one step in the Huuhkajie story. Minimum requirement. That’s what Kanerva herself is the first to underline – good.

– The bar has been raised higher.

Spectators are also waiting to claim a race spot. Spokesman Timo Walden was happy when announcing the team that more than 50,000 tickets for Finland’s five home matches and more than 5,000 season tickets have already been sold. 1,700 Finnish spectators are going to Copenhagen for Finland’s first match.