Finland remain pointless after three matches in Group E, when they would have hoped for six and expected at least three.

Last night’s Hungary match was the first Finland international game I had attended, and despite the result, I enjoyed the experience. My feelings went from excitement at the possibility of winning when Kuqi had his chance, to being satisfied with a draw after he missed, to crushing disappointment when Hungary scored right at the death. That metaphorical roller-coaster of emotions is what makes sport so exciting, and I accept that it sometimes (for Finland read: usually) goes against the team one is supporting. Another day it will be different.

In fact, the most disappointing thing about the match was the overall standard of play. Both teams put in fairly poor performances; Hungary in the first half and Finland for most of the second. It was only after Finland equalised with five minutes to go that both teams seemed really determined to win the game.

But to put my analytical head back on for a moment, this defeat was probably enough to dispel any hopes of qualification that Finland may have harboured. After all the talk, I wasn’t personally unhappy with the effort the players put in, but of course that counts for absolutely nothing in the race to qualify for Euro 2012. In his post-match interview, Finland’s goalscorer Forssell said something along the lines of “it’s not over until it’s over”, but in reality, it’s over now. That much was acknowledged by Sami Hyypiä, who, in his own interview, spoke of the pressing need to bring younger players into the team. That’s a commendable thing to say as the oldest player in the starting line-up, but it suggests that he knows qualification is now out of reach.

Speaking of older players, I got to see Jari Litmanen in the flesh for the first time. He played for about twenty minutes at the end of the match, coming on to a standing ovation from the crowd. Unfortunately, his performance afterwards confirmed that the ovation was for his reputation rather than for his current ability; he was largely anonymous on the field, and gave the ball away on more than one occasion. The fans sitting around me made a few comments that indicated their frustration with his continuing presence in the team, along the lines of “well done Jari, you managed to pass it to your own team this time,” and “Finland will still be wheeling Litti out with a zimmer frame when he’s sixty just for the standing ovations.”

If Baxter is removed from his post any time soon (more on that a bit further down), I am pretty sure Litmanen will retire. He’s already said that he’s available for the San Marino game, but I doubt he would want to go through the process of becoming accustomed to the techniques of a new coach, should he be required to. The way Litmanen applauded all sides of the ground after the final whistle last night seemed to point to his approaching exit from the team.

As I have said since I created this blog, this is a learning experience for me, and tonight I noticed a few problems for Finland that had not been so visible on television in the previous games. One that I picked up on throughout the match was the absence of a proper right-back. Television feeds tend to show only the players around the ball, but in the stadium it is possible to see players movements off the ball, and in Petri Pasanen’s case, his positioning was far too defensive. At times, he was level with Markus Heikkinen and/or Sami Hyypiä, Finland’s centre-backs, while Moisander was one of the furthest advanced players on the other flank. This left the Mika Väyrynen, already playing out of position, isolated on the right, and meant that very few of the team’s attacks were able to be worked down that side. It also allowed the Hungarian right-back to move into a more central position and cut off space there.

Jussi Jääskeläinen had very little to do on his return to the national team, but he could be criticised for his decision to rush out before Hungary’s first goal. Now that he has come back for one match, will he stay for others? If not, Otto Fredrikson will return, but he must be feeling a little low on confidence after being unceremoniously dumped to make way for the officialy retired Jääskeläinen.

Mikael Forssell, despite his goal, doesn’t seem to have the wherewithal these days to lead the line on his own. Finland don’t really have any better alternatives for that role, however, so I hope Baxter will consider switching to a two-striker formation for Finland’s next match. That is, if Baxter is still in a job. “Where’s the result? Baxter out!” was the North Curve’s preferred chant after the match (it rhymes in Finnish: Missä on tulos? Baxter ulos!), and there must really be pressure on the federation to bring in a new coach, if only temporarily, to oversee the transition to a new generation of players. Baxter obviously seems uncomfortable with doing that; despite picking youngsters like Jukka Raitala and Joona Toivio in his squad, neither of them got anywhere near the pitch.

Stuart Baxter might be kept on only because it would be too expensive to sack him. According to the man himself, though, he couldn’t have had any influence on the goals Finland conceded last night, and he reacted angrily to questions about his future in the post-match press conference. His misfortune is that Finland’s next two competitive matches are against San Marino home and away, a team which nobody should measure themselves against. Even two resounding victories won’t quell the rumours of his departure. He – and Finland – will have to wait until they play Sweden next June to prove themselves.

For further comment on last night’s match, I recommend Janne Oivio’s article, A Fitting End for The Silver Generation, on Nordic Football News.

It was meant to be revenge for 1997, but it ended up being a repeat as Hungary achieved a last-gasp victory over Finland in Helsinki.

Match report
This game had been talked up a lot, there’s no denying that. Pundits cast their minds back to Finland’s horrific last-minute draw against Hungary in 1997 that denied them a play-off spot for the 1998 World Cup, and declared that now was the time for revenge. The Finnish players took up the call, and spoke of their commitment and determination. The manager, Stuart Baxter, said he was looking for a victory. The fans lapped it all up, because they wanted to believe it, and so it is no surprise that they are bitterly disappointed this evening.

After a scrappy opening few minutes, Finland took charge of the game from the midfield, and began to dominate possession. Nevertheless, Mikael Forssell became isolated as a lone striker and the home side were therefore able to fashion few meaningful chances. On a number of occasions, Finland had developed an attack through patient passing, only for a player to make a bad decision and allow it to come to nothing. For example, Niklas Moisander crossed the ball into the box without looking up to realise that nobody there was wearing a blue and white shirt.

Hungary’s only threat was from counter-attacks, but they too fluffed their lines more than once, and on the whole they were very poor throughout the first half. Finland should have taken the lead, but their forward players seemed reticent to shoot, save for Mika Väyrynen who hit the crossbar with a long-range effort shortly before the interval.

The second half began as the first had finished, with Hungary absorbing pressure and then counter-attacking. A misplaced pass from Moisander in the 50th minute led to one such attack down the Hungarian right flank, with Tamás Szalai breaking through Finland’s defence. Returning goalkeeper Jussi Jääskeläinen rushed out of his area to try to intercept Szalai, but could only make a despairing dive as the attacker took the ball round him and placed it into the net. Finland 0-1 Hungary.

At that stage, the home crowd wasn’t giving up, but Finland became disorganised after conceding the goal, leading the chants from the stadium’s North Curve (Pohjoiskaarre) to become resentful. The fans called for Baxter to be sacked and were vociferous in telling the Finnish football association exactly where to go.

After 70 minutes, the Finnish management finally decided to roll the dice, throwing on Jari Litmanen and Alexei Eremenko Jr in an attempt to salvage something from the game. Shefki Kuqi also came on, about ten minutes later. This gave Finland a much more attacking formation, and it was rewarded with a goal in the 86th minute by Mikael Forssell. Finland 1-1 Hungary.

Suddenly, the game was there to be won for Finland, and they continued to press forward. Kuqi had a golden opportunity to win it right at the end of normal time, but dragged his shot from inside the penalty area horribly wide. His miss proved to be very costly when Hungary made one final counter-attack in the 94th minute, with Balázs Dzsudzsák scoring an excellent placed shot to bring memories of 1997 flooding back. Finland 1-2 Hungary.

The match ended a matter of seconds after Finland restarted the game. Readers in Finland can view the match highlights at YLE Areena.

Team line-ups
Scores are out of ten. Five indicates an average performance.
FINLAND (4-5-1)	HUNGARY (4-5-1)
22. Jussi Jääskeläinen (GK)	1. Gábor Király (GK)
2. Petri Pasanen	2. Krisztián Vermes
3. Niklas Moisander	3. Zoltán Lipták
4. Sami Hyypiä C	4. Roland Juhász
6. Mika Väyrynen	5. Zsolt Laczkó
7. Roman Eremenko	6. Ákos Elek
9. Mikael Forssell (1 goal)	7. Balázs Dzsudzsák (1 goal)
14. Tim Sparv	8. Gergely Rudolf
15. Daniel Sjölund	9. Tamás Szalai (1 goal)
16. Roni Porokara	10. Zoltán Gera C
23. Markus Heikkinen	11. Krisztián Vadócz
Substitutions: 20. Alexei Eremenko Jr (for Roni Porokara, 71) 10. Jari Litmanen (for Tim Sparv, 72) 18. Shefki Kuqi (for Daniel Sjölund, 81)	Substitutions: 16. Vladimir Koman (for Gergely Rudolf, HT) 13. Ádám Pintér (for Krisztián Vadócz, 75) 14. Vilmos Vanczák (for Zsolt Laczkó, 86)

Analysis will be provided tomorrow, because I have written too much to squeeze in here! Additionally, look out for a special “Five Things” post, based on the personal experience of my first Finland match, sometime in the next week.

A brief note. The lack of activity on this blog may be forced to continue, as my laptop is currently away being repaired for an indefinite period of time. This entry was written in a public library where I had only one hour of internet use, so I apologise if it seems rushed.

Match details
FINLAND vs HUNGARY
Date: 12/10/2010
Kick-off time: 18:30 (UTC+3)
Type: UEFA Euro 2012 qualifying round match
Venue: Helsingin Olympiastadion, Helsinki, Finland
Capacity: 40 000
Odds: Finland 1.3, Draw 2.1, Hungary 2.0

Preview
Finland’s third Euro 2012 qualifying match, their first at home, takes place in Helsinki on Tuesday evening, against Hungary, ranked 51st in the world. Finland are still pointless in Group E, and will be hoping to take advantage of a large home crowd to overcome their opponents in Helsinki.

Hungary have already played three qualifying matches, picking up six points in the process after wins over Moldova (2-1) and San Marino (8-0), both in Budapest. The latter result equalled their biggest margin of victory in any match, though that says more about the weakness of their opposition than their own strength. They had previously achieved the same scoreline against Finland in 1951.

The match is being broadcast in Finland by YLE; coverage begins on their TV2 channel at 18:00, half an hour before kick-off. There is a five minute break for news at half-time.

Head-to-head record
Finland have played Hungary twelve times in their history. They have won two of those matches, drawn two and lost the remaining eight. In those matches, they have scored 12 goals and conceded 43. This is worryingly similar to Finland’s record against Netherlands, their previous opponents. The last time Finland and Hungary met was in April 2001, in Budapest, for a friendly match which finished 0-0 to Netherlands. Their most recent competitive encounter came in 1997; Finland’s 1-0 lead would have been enough to take them to a play-off for a World Cup 1998 spot, but Vilmos Sebők scored in injury time to break Finnish hearts and take Hungary there instead. They went on to lose their play-off against Yugoslavia 12-1, so there’s no guarantee that Finland would have reached the tournament, but it is still a sore point for fans.

Key opponent
Something of a cult hero at former club West Bromich Albion, and more recently voted Fulham’s player of the season for 2009/2010, Zoltán Gera is undoubtedly Hungary’s main threat. The attacking midfielder briefly retired from his national team one year ago, after a disagreement with then-coach Erwin Koeman, but he has since been persuaded to return by Koeman’s replacement, Sándor Egervári. As a Fulham fan, I have seen Gera play before, and I feel his main strength is the way he brings other players into the game with intelligent passing and movement. He is not a prolific goalscorer but still contributes his fair share, including a last-minute penalty in Hungary’s demolition of San Marino last week.

Analysis
Finland need to win, for a number of reasons. They need three points to avoid falling further behind the other teams in their qualifying group. They need a good performance to quell the persistent rumours over head coach Stuart Baxter’s future. And perhaps most importantly, they need a victory to improve the morale of the players and the fans.

The football association’s website has recently been added to with a section called “I Promise” (Minä Lupaan), featuring videos from some of Finland’s players in which they promise to give their all for the national team. In return, they want fans to promise to support the team enthusiastically at every match, particularly the ones at the Olympic Stadium in Helsinki. I expect a good turnout and a vocal crowd tomorrow, and for the first time since this blog began, I am going to be part of it. I just hope the players make good on their promises and give us something to cheer about.

I have heard the word “revenge” used frequently since the draw for these group matches was made, and even more so in the build-up to this match. The match that needs to be revenged is the aforementioned 1-1 draw in 1997, even though that was a fiasco of Finland’s own making; the injury time goal, though officially credited to Sebők, hit a ridiculous number of Finnish players before crossing the line. Two players from the team that played thirteen years ago are in Finland’s current match squad: they are Sami Hyypiä and Jari Litmanen. I would not be surprised if both players receive a lot of playing time; the crowd would be sure to appreciate it, though my own opinion is that Litmanen should still only be used in the closing stages of matches.

Another veteran who could feature in the match is Jussi Jääskeläinen. Although the Bolton Wanderers goalkeeper officially retired from international football at the end of the previous World Cup qualifying campaign, he indicated that he would be prepared to return should his successor as Finland’s first-choice goalkeeper, Otto Fredrikson, succumb to injury. After Fredrikson picked up a light shoulder injury, Stuart Baxter called Jääskeläinen to ask him to return. Jääskeläinen responded favourably and has now joined up with the Finland squad.

Fredrikson has now recovered from his knock and has been given the number one jersey for the Hungary match, but I would be surprised if Jääskeläinen does not now play, having made the journey from England. He is still, at 35, the better of the two keepers, and although the sensible option would be to play Fredrikson, the romantic option would be to play Jääskeläinen.

Prediction
Hungary have a number of good players, and judging from their recent results, they seem to be a good side too. Finland need to focus on beating the opponents in front of them, rather than on revenge, if they are to avoid being embarrassed again. With that said, I expect Finland to play just well enough to win, perhaps 2-1.