The great rivalry between Finland and Sweden has come to life again.
In connection with both Eurovision and the hockey World Cup where the countries clashed.
Now comes new criticism against the Finns from Sweden after all the trouble in the WC.
Back in the day, Sweden and Finland were always bitter enemies on the ice in a hockey context. The Finns were clearly the little brother chasing big brother Sweden and the absolute best thing that was in Finland was defeating the blue-yellow neighboring country.
Finnish criticism
Throughout history, it has always been the Swedes who reached the medals in the World Cup and Olympic context, while Finland’s most important match was precisely the one against Sweden in each championship. But then something happened in 1995.
“It was a Swedish national team captain, Curre Lindström, who made sure that Finland lifted its eyes from Sweden to the gold. And it came in 1995. In Sweden. The gold was celebrated where the Swedish Olympic victory was celebrated the year before, on Sergels torg. Mats Sundin once said when we met in Toronto how upset he was about it. Personally, I mostly thought it was fun that Finland could celebrate once. It probably wouldn’t be that many more times. I didn’t see the change of throne coming. That Finland would catch up and blow past”, writes Johan Esk in a column at Dagens Nyheter.
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In recent years, Finland has been a huge success on the hockey front, while Tre Kronor has been unrecognizable and underperformed considerably. Which has also affected the rivalry between the teams, instead of just beating Sweden, Finland has now reached the finals of the major championships.
“In the last three World Cups that have been played, Finland has won gold, silver, gold, and by sheer speed it also won an Olympic gold in 2022. Sweden has finished fifth, ninth, sixth in the World Cup at the end. Nevertheless, it is apparently still a big deal for many Finns when Sweden is defeated in hockey? What have they missed? It’s like the primal roar of the Norwegian audience when Klæbo wins a ski race,” writes the DN journalist with an unexpected criticism of Finland.
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Sweden’s double
This year the rivalry is once again bloody serious and that is because of what happened in Eurovision recently when the Swedish hope Loreen fought a tough battle against the Finnish artist Dear. Loreen and Sweden won the music competition and Finland boiled with anger after only coming second.
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The feelings then spilled over to the hockey World Cup when Finland and Sweden met just a few days later. And again it was Sweden who won when Tre Kronor won after a penalty drama.
“Instead, the Eurovision machinery comes and pumps in some nostalgic Swedish-Finnish rivalry. Loreen was on her way to her second Eurovision victory and the biggest threat was Finnish. Then the Finnish TV commentator came up with the tip/request that it was possible to vote tactically. The Finnish people thanked the tip/heeded the call and gave Loreen zero points. According to the Finnish viewers, the winning song “Tattoo” was not one of the ten best entries. It’s Finnish humor. The Finnish fixation on beating the Swedes in the World Cup may be getting new life. Good for the World Cup in that case,” writes Johan Esk in his column.
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We’ll see if Finland and Sweden meet again in this hockey World Cup during the playoffs. Because then it is guaranteed that the feelings will swell again and the rivalry will take over in both neighboring countries.
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The post New, Swedish criticism of Finland – after all the fuss in the hockey World Cup: “What’s wrong with the Finns?” appeared first on Sportbibeln.