The owls suffered their first defeat in the League of Nations against Romania. Sport’s experts Miika Nuutinen and Markus Halsti sold out the most important things about the match.
12.6. 07:34 • Updated June 12th. 07:41
The Finnish men’s national football team lost to Romania in the League of Nations match in Bucharest 0–1. The only goal scored by the defender in the opening period Nicusor Bancu. Sports Experts Miika Nuutinen and Markus Halsti raised three essentials from the match.
1) Problems with boxing defense
Especially in the first period, Huuhkajat was unable to defend their own goal well enough. Romania cultivated concentration and that was the only goal of the match.
– Romania got into the concentration situation very well and waited for Finland’s mistakes. All three toppers were outside the front pillar, and Rasmus Schüller and Nikolai Alho were left behind. It felt like the players couldn’t find the right place, Halsti says.
– In the situation, Finland defended the box with superiority. Nevertheless, Romania was able to finish without the Finnish players even getting in touch with the player, Nuutinen continues.
It was defending boxing and winning the main balls in front of their own goal that have been the cornerstones of the success of the Owners in recent years. A lot is personalized Paulus Arajuureen and Joona Toivionwho have now finished on the national team.
– It is an interesting question whether defending in one’s own box will remain Finland’s strength now that a generational change has taken place downstairs. The team will now be rewinding a lot of videos and going through how to handle those situations better, because Finland definitely needs to keep this phase of the game strong, Nuutinen ponders.
Halsti also paid tribute to Romania’s large striker, the 188-centimeter To George Puscas.
– He was partly the cause of Finland’s difficulties, but only partly. If he’s about free, it’s worth thinking about how he’s positioned in defense.
In the next match on Tuesday, defending Owners’ own territory will be put to a tough test again, once again against Bosnia and Herzegovina’s star striker Edin Dzeko. On the other hand, he has never succeeded in scoring against Finland.
2) Back pressure and fatigue
Another problem for the Cormorants in Romania’s winning goal was the ineffectiveness of the counter-press. Finland is aiming for immediate exploitation with the counter-press after the loss of the ball, but the situation that led to Bancu’s hit showed the risks involved in the counter-press.
– A counter-press is an effective way of playing if it does well. The other side of the coin is that there will be big spaces left on the field if you don’t succeed. Finland revolves around this dilemma, Nuutinen says.
Nuutinen sees that Huuhkaji has a clear tendency to oppose it, but the implementation is not good enough at the moment. It retaliated against the Romanian finish.
– This is a weak phase of the game for Finland. There is no clear uniform action near the ball, whether to apply hard pressure or to return to shape. That’s when the middle ground situations arise, which are the best places to strike for a good counterattack team like Romania.
The crowd of the League of Nations match has spoken in June. After a long club season, playing four national matches is exceptional, and in Bucharest, a load of players began to show on the field.
– There were moments in the game that no longer looked like international football. Moments where absurd performances came one after another. It is quite clear that the counter-pressure is one of the things that is automatically affected by fatigue, Nuutinen says.
3) Strong second episode
The owls had all the keys in Bucharest to level the game and even win, so the team managed to create quality goals in the second period. The game was under Finnish control after the break, but Joel Pohjanpalo and Robin Lod were unable to take advantage of their top positions.
– It changed that Finland started looking for more solutions through facilities. Right at the beginning of the second period, it was clear that Finland was starting to concentrate more and that was how the goal points were created, Nuutinen says.
The owls became the pursuers for the first time in the League of Nations, when Markku Kanervan the coaching team had to implement a contingency plan. The solution was for more aggressive players, such as Urho Nissilän and Mikael Soisalonbring to the field, and change the grouping to 4–4–2.
– The topper was taken off and 4–4–2 was pulled into the midfield square, where the side links played inside and the side defenders lifted it up. Through that, Finland got more players in and around the box. After that, Finland created big places, Nuutinen says.
Heather has occasionally been criticized for her ability to make changes within the game. For example, in last summer’s European Championships against Russia, Finland was not able to create any goals in the losing position after the exchanges. Now, according to experts, the changes were more organized.
– In last summer’s Russia game, topper Paulus Arajuuri started to get up, it was a bit confusing. Today, it was clear that the player types supported the changes, Halsti says.
– This has definitely been a development target and a successful step forward in that sense. The changes looked more like a plan than to improvise something, Nuutinen sighs.
Experts were amazed by Romania’s leading position. The team went on to attack aggressively with the power of several players, but on the other hand slipped down the defense into a low block. Finland was able to play balls inside the box for the best scoring areas, even though Romania had a large number of players in the defense area.
– It is significant that the Romanian level team chooses to fall into the low block at an early stage at home and only to attack. It may tell about a change in Finland’s profile, Nuutinen says.
The games of the owls will continue as early as Tuesday in Zenica against Bosnia and Herzegovina. The live broadcast of the match will start on TV2 and Arena at 9 p.m.