Helmarit will play its second Nations League match in Bucharest against Romania on September 26. The live broadcast starts on TV2 and Areena at 18:45.
The Finnish women’s national football team Helmarit started their campaign in the Nations League convincingly on Friday, when the team beat Slovakia 4–0. Helmarit created goal chances in a versatile way and certainly defended his own goal.
Finland dominated game events throughout the match, but the successes were the sum of several things. In this story, Urheilu’s football expert Hanna Ruohomaa evaluate why Finland won and what the team can expect from their future matches.
1. Field balance and composure are key
Expert Ruohomaa says that Finland had a really good field balance throughout the match. For example, the distances between the players were short, so support could always be found close enough.
– Every time the ball came to the defensive line, the Toppers had many good passing options, because the other players were positioned so well.
Ruohomaa says that the performance of the defense line as a whole convinced him. In advance, it could have been thought that he played his 12th international match Eva Nyström or appeared in the national team for the 28th time Elli Pikkujämsä would still have applied for their place. In the Slovakia match, however, we saw a very united defensive four, in which they also played Natalia Kuikka (79 international matches) and Emma Koivisto (87).
– The defensive line looked like they had been playing together for many years. The cooperation was seamless, praises Ruohomaa.
According to Ruohomaa, Finland had also prepared well for the game. Slovakia has been strong especially in their counterattacks, but on Friday Helmarit numbed those situations. Slovakia was able to build a counterattack a few times, but every Finnish player was involved in the defense.
– A good example is someone who played in the 10th position Ria Öling. He was creating a scoring opportunity for Finland, but moments later he was the lowest player defending his own goal. There were several situations where he ran full on a player. They didn’t necessarily always lead to exploits, but that alone slowed down counterattacks and slowed down Slovakia’s game.
Ruohomaa states that the best skills of Slovakia were by no means seen in the match. The visiting team broke and shredded the Finnish players throughout the match, but the self-control of the Helmareites did not fail.
– For example Eveliina from Summa fouled badly and Finland got a free kick. Summanen quickly put the ball in play and Helmarit was able to attack. A really mature performance, especially in the sense of how Finland responded to Slovakia’s way of breaking the game.
2. The pressures of pre-favourite
Finland is the early favorite in the 2nd group of the B-League thanks to both the recent results and the ranking. The team is in 28th place on the Fifa list of the International Football Association, while Romania (39th), Slovakia (48th) and Croatia (60th) of the same group are quite far behind.
On Friday evening, Croatia beat Romania 2–1, so Finland is at the top of the group with a bigger goal difference after the opening round.
Hanna Ruohomaa believes that the 4–0 win certainly made it easier if the team has any kind of pre-favorite pressure.
– However, you have to remember that every team is different. When you give such a storm warning, teams that are weaker in advance will certainly defend low.
Ruohomaa estimates that in the future Helmarit will probably have to play against a lower defensive block and prepare for counterattacks. If the situation starts to look like Finland will be able to secure the group win early on, the nature of the games will change.
– If the other teams are fighting for the second place in the group, we will start playing against Finland in such a way that the goal is to keep Helmarit at zero. In that case, even in the pre-favorite position, you have to remember that Finland may have to play against teams that defend more closely than Slovakia.
3. Achilles heel
Finland plays its second game of the Nations League away from home against Romania. Expert Ruohomaa says that Friday’s victory over Slovakia showed things that should be taken into that game. One of them is the extent of attacking play.
– There were a lot of good variations in Finland. The team was able to score its goals in a different way: from special situations, shots and counterattacks. In the future, defending together should also be included. The way the players executed the Game Plan and filled their own roles made everyone look like they were comfortable playing.
According to Ruohomaa, there was also room for improvement. Defending Finland’s own penalty area has been an Achilles’ heel for a long time – a weakness that should be able to be improved.
– Even though it was at an ok level against Slovakia, it’s not enough. The defense of that box must be good enough to clear the balls so that the opponent cannot score a goal from the follow-up situation.
Listen to the third episode of Urheilu’s 11 friends podcast, which evaluates the group of the Finnish Nations League. You can find the episode in the embed below or at this link.
Helmarit will play its second Nations League match in Bucharest against Romania on September 26. The live broadcast starts on TV2 and Areena at 18:45.