The move to Minnesota offers Teemu Puki exactly what he was missing, at least off the field. The transfer brings dark clouds to the sky for the cheerleaders watching the upcoming EC qualifying games, Urheilu’s Samu Saatsi writes.
Samu SaatsiYle Sports reporter
The Finnish men’s national football team’s all-time top scorer Teemu Pukin the move to Minnesota United, who play in the North American Major League Soccer series, might have surprised some. Still, the move was well thought out and clear for the Finns’ hero.
From Puki’s point of view, the transfer and the new contract are certainly everything he wanted from outside the sport. The Finnish striker told Urheilu before June’s European Championship qualifiers about the factors that affect him personally in contract negotiations.
According to him, they were financial matters and an environment suitable for the family. Minnesota offers Finns guaranteed both.
United’s two-year contract for Puki is a designated player contract, which does not count his contract under the salary cap established by the MLS league. It therefore guarantees the Finn a million dollar account. For the family-oriented Finnish striker, “Finnesota” is certainly a good place to live family life, possibly during the last years of playing abroad.
In terms of sports, Puki’s everyday life changes. Pukki, who spent the last five years in England under the strict winter season playing schedule and traveled short game distances, will get used to the MLS summer season and long trips across North America.
However, for Huuhkaj, Puki’s new location will present a big challenge in the future. Especially looking at the important qualifying matches in Kazakhstan and Denmark in September, Finland may be afraid of how the still vital piece of the team will cope.
A wrinkle from the west coast of the United States to Kazakhstan
Huuhkajat is playing for a very large point pot in its two EC qualifying games at the beginning of September. On September 7 in Astana, Finland will first face Kazakhstan, which has become one of the contenders for a place in the qualifying group. After that, the team returns to Helsinki to play in front of a full Olympic Stadium against Denmark on Sunday, September 10.
These two matches are again a watershed in terms of Finland’s venue. In particular, the match against Kazakhstan can be seen as a game that Finland must win.
Before that Kazakhstan game, Minnesota’s new forward Puki has a wild start of matches and travel ahead of him, if he stays fit.
At the end of August, Minnesota plays two home games (27.8 against Seattle and 31.8 against Colorado), after which it travels to play against San Jose in California. When the Finnish national team gathers for the international match week that is already starting, Puk has an MLS game in front of them on Saturday, September 2 at 19:30.
After his last game before the international break, the 33-year-old forward will make the ten-hour time difference journey from the west coast of the United States to Helsinki. After a possible stopover in Finland, Pukki travels with the Huuhkaji to Kazakhstan. There will be a fair amount of air travel, as the war of aggression waged by Russia in Ukraine affects the planes’ travel routes.
It is hard to imagine that Pukki, who is still one of Huuhkajie’s most important players, would be in perfect playing condition after such pressure when the game kicks off in Astana.
The new status is a good thing and a bad thing for Huuhkaj
Finland has reason to be a little worried, because Pukki has shown himself to be almost irreplaceable for the national team even in these EC qualifiers. Although Pukki has only hit the back of the net once in the qualifying games, he has assisted on four of Finland’s other nine hits. The Huuhkajat striker assisted each of the national team’s goals in the first three qualifying games.
Huhkajat can hope that Minnesota would let Puk represent the national team a little earlier. However, this is hard to believe, especially when you look at the Finn’s status in his new team. Pukki was acquired as his team’s clear top scorer.
It is at the same time a blessing for Huuhkaji, but also a curse in this case. The buck is guaranteed to be caught in the game, but the horses won’t let him go. For Puki personally, it’s certainly nice that he doesn’t have to fight for his playing minutes like last season, for example.
In an interview with Urheilu, Pukki also told his criteria for his new club that he would be able to enjoy playing football again. In connection with this, several media and Minnesota fans brought up the fact that Pukki will be able to play his national team radar pair By Robin Lodi with.
However, the two do not get to share their happiness for a moment on the field. Lodi’s right knee ligament ruptured in mid-May and the Finnish midfielder is recovering from knee surgery. Lodi is expected to be back on the playing fields in September, but the Kazakhstan and Denmark games will surely come too soon.
Without a pair of radars or not, Huuhkajat certainly hopes that the Finnish star will quickly get the joy he wishes for in Minnesota and that will give him additional strength. Just looking at the September wrinkle.