Finland’s volleyball men were close to a huge surprise in their opening match of the Olympic qualifiers in Tokyo. Finland was only three points away from victory, but Japan won 3–2.
Finland bravely challenged Japan, which is ranked fifth in the world, even though the first two sets clearly went to the home team, which played in front of a crowd of 10,000. However, getting a point from Japan was a great performance from Finland after the weak European Championships.
– Two sets were spent watching what it’s like to play in big arenas, a general player who started the game from the bench Niko Suihkonen granted to Urheilu.
Finland warmed up in the third set and turned the set around with the second set point. The team’s game did not freeze even during the half-hour break, which was caused by the failure of the camera cable above the field. In the fourth set, Finland attacked versatilely and took the match to the fifth set.
In the final set, Japan was on top until Eemi Terportin in the pass shift, Finland turned the situation from 6–10 to a 12–10 lead. However, Japan, who won the bronze medal in the Nations League in the summer, got on the scoring streak and stormed to victory.
– It wasn’t terribly far that we would have turned it into a win. However, against the top seed in the world rankings, those opportunities are rarer to win such games, Suihkonen stated and guessed that Japan was lulled to an easy victory after two sets.
– The guy stopped playing and we started playing. We made the pass work and the defensive game started to roll. The guy won the fifth set with experience. It wasn’t our time to win yet.
The last time Finland won in the actual Olympic qualifiers was in January 2008. At that time, it defeated Turkey 3–2 in Izmir. However, Finland has never progressed to the Olympics.
Suihkonen was Finland’s best scorer, as he scored 16 points in five sets. Miika Haapaniemi and Luka Marttila finished with 15 points and chipper Aaro Nikula 13 points. Japan’s all-rounder Ran Takahashi was the most efficient of his team (23/+17), while the chipper Yuji Nishida served five aces.
Finland won’t have time to finish the opening match for a long time, as the tournament continues right away on Sunday. At that time, the United States, second in the world rankings, will face off.
– At least that opponent won’t get any easier tomorrow. World-class stars are waiting. You have to enjoy yourself, like this game, and try to be awake right from the start. You can challenge right from the start, and not wait for a couple of rounds, Suihkonen said.
The USA opened the tournament with a clean 3–0 victory over Egypt. Slovenia, Serbia, Turkey and Tunisia also play in Group B. The best two of the group get a place in next summer’s Paris Olympics. In addition to an Olympic place, Finland is looking for ranking points from the tournament, as they are of great importance in reaching the 2025 World Cup.
Source: Volleyball Association’s announcement
Niko Suihko was interviewed by Toni Flink.
Japan-Finland 3–2 (25–17, 25–15, 25–27, 19–25, 15–12)
Japan: Ran Takahashi 23/+17
Finland: Niko Suihkonen 16/+7, Miika Haapaniermi 15/+12, Luka Marttila 15/+1