Susijengi was the first European country to get a place at the World Championships, although the team has not seen any supernatural performances. It creates exciting settings for the European Championship, writes Roope Visuri.
14:43•Updated 14:43
PRAGUE. The Finnish men’s national basketball team advanced by playing in next year’s World Cup as the first country in Europe. Four more rounds before the end of the entire qualifying.
You have to stop at these words for a moment. A sensation, a giant bang and what else. Now we are talking about such a hard achievement that there is no cover for exaggerations.
Basketball is one of the world’s most competitive sports and is one of the global giants. In Europe, the competition is still fiercest.
Only 12 countries from Europe advance to the World Cup. Even the best in Europe may not always be able to win the world championship. For example, the reigning European champion of 2017, Slovenia, did not make it to the 2019 World Cup.
Susijengi secured their place in the World Championships in the Philippines, Japan and Indonesia by grabbing no less than seven victories in a row in the qualifiers.
The pieces fell into place
It’s not every day that Finland looks for an away win against a ball-playing country like Croatia in the last seconds, as Susijengi did at the beginning of July. Also, Israel’s scalp in Tampere last week was a tough one, perhaps after a somewhat violent summer.
Top success usually also requires a bit of luck. Finland got to play against Slovenia, the number one team in its group, in February, i.e. when NBA stars were not available. Of course, Finland was missing Lauri Markkanenbut from Slovenia even more players of a harder caliber, such as the superstar Luka Doncic.
The World Cup spot, which was already in the offing, was secured at such an early stage, when Finland received help from Sweden and Germany. Susijeng’s health has also been excellent.
Dettmann’s promise kept its itch
The last time the Finnish men’s national basketball team was seen in the prestigious competition was in 2017, when Susijengi was able to play in the European Championship in front of the home crowd and there was quite a bit of basketball fun.
After those games, there have been worried voices around the national team. Susijeng’s core of key players at the time was getting old.
Had Susijengi seen its best days and the intoxication caused by the European Championships in Helsinki was fading? Finland’s head coach and currently the association’s coaching director Henrik Dettmann however, he promised that there is still better to come. He didn’t get a place at the World Championships in China for 2019 by playing, but now the promise has kept its itch.
The young players have now developed and grown into even greater responsibilities. Edon Maxhuni, Miro Little, Elias Valtonen and Mikael Jantunen have all left their mark in Susijeng’s latest feats in turn.
In these World Cup qualifiers, Finland has taken steps forward from before and cleared even its weakest moments by rising to great victories.
Delicious settings for the European Championships
It is indicative of Susijeng’s failure that the team has not been seen overflowing with miraculous performances this summer, even though there have been some hard wins.
This also creates delicious settings for the European Championships, as Lauri Markkasenki’s words and gestures revealed on Sunday. Antti-Jussi Sipilä asked Markkase after the win in Estonia, how is the Finnish game doing, with less than a week until the European Championships.
A wide smile appeared on Markkanen’s face.
– There is still room for improvement in the game, so that’s a pretty cool thing, Markkanen said and said that he was enjoying the win in Estonia for a while before turning his eyes once and for all to the European Championships.
– We are pretty good when we play our best. We haven’t even done that yet, Markkanen continued and hit the heart of the matter.
When you look at Finland’s European Championship group, Finland’s chances with the “best basket” are quite high. Serbia, one of the top countries in the world, is going to spend. In Finland, however, with perfect success, it is possible to grab as much as second place in the group.
Against Holland, Finland is a clear early favorite. Finland already defeated Israel once last week, and in addition, Finland’s European Championship opener suffered a shock defeat at home to Sweden on Sunday.
Now, like the other teams in the European Championship group, Poland did not even reach the World Cup qualifiers, but played competitive matches in the summer for the European Championship qualifiers for 2025. The striking ability is a bit of a mystery, but Poland will probably put up a tough challenge again. In the pre-qualifiers of the summer, Poland upset Austria and narrowly lost to Croatia.
The Czech Republic, the host team in the 2019 World Cup, has not played a match recently. The team has suffered from absences, the brightest name being Markkanen’s former teammate and playmaking wizard Tomas Satoransky. His playing in the European Championships is still uncertain.
Poland and the Czech Republic can therefore be destabilized by Finland. Against Israel and the Netherlands, Susijengi starts as early favorites. From the initial group of six teams, four go to the playoffs held in Berlin.
Not just a glow
However, Finland still needs to improve its grip if the team wants to achieve feats again. Belonging to the new highly promising young people Olivier Nkamhouan the last-minute absence from the European Championship is a blow to the team’s head.
The athletic Nkamhoua had flashed in this summer’s national team games, even made it to the starting five and would certainly have been a valuable player for Susijeng in the European Championships.
The situation of the back players also raises questions. When ending his career at the European Championships Petteri Koponen was on the sidelines for the game against Estonia due to a flu, it was not possible to find a calming factor on the field in difficult places among the Finnish youth.
The fans who travel to Prague in droves also bring their own flavor to the European Championships. Susigengi has always been at its best in front of its large fan base.
It will be interesting to see what kind of influence the fans have this year in the big city and in the competition arena, which attracts more than 16,000 spectators. At least a few days before the start of the Games, the EC basket is not visible much in the street scene of Prague.