Monthly Archives: November 2010

Reflections on Finland vs San Marino

It’s been nearly a week since Finland’s 8-0 demolition of San Marino. In this post, I try to find out how meaningful that result was, and what it could mean for some of Finland’s main players.

The margin of victory, eight clear goals, was a competitive record for Finland, but San Marino only have to look as far back as last month to find an identical thrashing: they lost by the same scoreline to Hungary on the 8th of October. Their only interim result was a 0-2 defeat at home to Moldova.

So what can we really say about Finland’s victory? At the very least, it puts them on par with Hungary. That makes sense: the two teams were evenly matched when the Eastern Europeans visited Helsinki recently, despite their injury time winner. I also think that, if Finland play as they did against San Marino, they could beat Moldova – though of course they did not manage that a couple of months ago in Chisinau.

Overall, despite the poor quality of the opposition, Finland’s performance should serve as a welcome confidence boost. A loss, or even a draw would have been disastrous, but the sound victory can now serve as a platform to move on from. Perhaps unfortunately, the Huuhkajat aren’t going to play another qualifier for some seven months, when they take on San Marino again in the reverse fixture.

What will the team look like in that match? Jari Litmanen played fantastically against San Marino, but a cynic could – perhaps justifiably – say that he had just found his level. It was a match where speed of thought was more important than speed of running, and that suited “The King” perfectly, but he will be 40 by next June and it will surely be past the time to hang up his boots.

Sami Hyypiä must also be considering whether he has played his last match for Finland. Indeed, a story emerged in the Rheinische Post at the weekend that he was “99% sure” he had played his last game for the national side, but he has since clarified his comments, saying “when I do make that decision, the German press will not be where I announce it”.

My guess is that Hyypiä will retire soon, perhaps after Finland’s next international friendly match, and that Litmanen may make his decision before then. Although he has been tipped to retire many times before and never actually gone through with it, the way he approached and applauded the Pohjoiskaarre, Finland’s most vocal and passionate section of supporters, after the San Marino match, made me think he was saying “thank you and good-bye”.

Just as open to speculation is Olli Huttunen’s future as caretaker-coach. If it was his half-time team talk and substitution which inspired Finland to turn a drab 1-0 into a rampant 8-0 – and I posit that it was – then he may yet have a more permanent future in charge of the national team, even if that one result doesn’t exactly prove or disprove his managerial ability.

But enough guessing. I’d like to briefly comment on Mikael Forssell’s performance, both in the San Marino match and in all the qualifiers so far. “Miklu” doesn’t hold anything like the same affections in the hearts of Finnish football fans, and I’ve written before on this blog questioning the wisdom of playing him as a lone striker for the national team, but he has now scored five times in three matches, moved to third in the list of top Euro 2012 qualifying goalscorers, and overtaken Ari Hjelm and Jonatan Johansson in Finland’s list of all-time top scorers. His hat-trick against San Marino was the product of no small amount of work, and it seems like his limited appearances with Hannover 96 (one start in 13 matches in the Bundesliga so far this season) aren’t affecting his determination to do well for Finland. I hope, for his own sake as well as the team’s, that his goalscoring form continues into next year.

As Finland aren’t playing again for some time, I’m going to update this blog less frequently. Rather than promising a set number of times per week or month, I’ll just update it when I can, and of course whenever a significant story breaks regarding the national team. Between postings, you can follow me on Twitter, and I’ll try to respond to any comments left on these articles.

Finland 8-0 San Marino

Yes, you read that scoreline correctly. Finland equalled their record victory – and set a new one for competitive matches – with a convincing demolition of San Marino at the Olympiastadion on Wednesday night.

Match report
Finland started the game with positive intent, fully aware that they were expected to score quite a few goals against their weak opposition. But things didn’t go their way in the opening stages, San Marino goalkeeper Aldo Simoncini keeping out a number of Finnish attempts.

The crowd were beginning to get restless when the home side still hadn’t made the net bulge after thirty minutes. “When do we start complaining?” asked one fan sitting near me. “After half-time”, replied his friend. Complaining wasn’t necessary, however, as Mika Väyrynen opened the scoring on 39 minutes. After seeming to have controlled a high cross from Kasper Hämäläinen with his forearm, he took the ball past one defender and placed his shot from a tight angle on the left side of the goal. The strike was his fifth in international football.

At half-time, I tweeted that the quality of the match had been very poor from both teams. Finland’s attacks seemed all too predictable; their central midfielders, particularly Roman Eremenko, were having their passes intercepted with depressing regularity. Although Finland had the lead, and although San Marino scarcely posed a threat, I felt like acting coach Olli Huttunen needed to change something during the interval.

And change it he did. As I took my seat for the start of the second half, a crescendo of noise built up around me. The reason: Jari Litmanen’s face on the massive screen at the northern end of the stadium, and the man himself emerging from the players’ tunnel. He got his now-customary standing ovation, at which point I admit to thinking that he was likely to put in another poor performance.

To the delight of myself and the entire stadium (I looked, but I couldn’t see any San Marino fans), I was proved wrong. Litmanen’s first few touches of the ball were made up of neat control and clever flicks, and suddenly the whole atmosphere of the match changed for the better. The players on the pitch responded to that, and soon found the net twice in quick succession.

Kasper Hämäläinen bagged his first goal for Finland in the 49th minute after a good cross from Roman Eremenko on the left, and it was only two minutes later that Mikael Forssell got his first of the night with a good turn and shot from the corner of the penalty area. That took Finland to three goals and all but sealed the three points, but there was more to come.

Forssell’s second goal was a tap-in from a Niklas Moisander cross in the 59th minute, and Hämäläinen’s second was nearly the mirror image, coming in the 67th minute after a Veli Lampi pass across goal.

The next goal was a little bit special. Forssell was tripped by the San Marino defender Nicola Albani inside the penalty area, and the referee pointed to the spot. Even though Forssell and Hämäläinen were both one goal away from a hat-trick each, there was only ever going to be one penalty taker. Jari Litmanen stepped up and expertly found the bottom-left corner of the net. Afterwards, he just stood still as all nine other outfield players for Finland mobbed him in celebration.

Roni Porokara, also on as a substitute, got Finland’s seventh goal in the 73rd minute, and Forssell wrapped things up in the 78th minute, getting his hat-trick after all. He moved into second place in Finland’s list of all-time leading scorers with 24 goals, overtaking Jonatan Johansson but still behind Litmanen, who now has 32. He has now also scored five times in three matches for Finland.

So, Finland finally have some points on the board, with the team and Olli Huttunen both generating a lot of positive feeling towards them. The Pohjoiskaarre revived their familiar chant from the last match, but with a twist: Here’s the result, Baxter out (Tässä on tulos, Baxter ulos), and the 8000-odd spectators went home happy.

Readers in Finland can view the match highlights at YLE Areena for the next two weeks.

Team line-ups
Scores are out of ten. Five indicates an average performance.
FINLAND (4-4-2) SAN MARINO (4-5-1)
1. Otto Fredrikson (GK)
 1. Aldo Simoncini (GK)
2. Petri Pasanen C
 2. Matteo Bugli
3. Niklas Moisander
 3. Michele Cervellini
5. Veli Lampi
 4. Nicola Albani
6. Mika Väyrynen (1 goal)
 5. Alessandro Della Valle
7. Roman Eremenko
 6. Fabio Vitaioli
9. Mikael Forssell (3 goals)
 7. Maicol Beretti
15. Daniel Sjölund
 8. Matteo Coppini
20. Alexei Eremenko Jr
 9. Matteo Vitaioli
21. Kasper Hämäläinen (2 goals)
 10. Andy Selva C
23. Markus Heikkinen
 11. Pablo Montagna
Substitutions:
10. Jari Litmanen (1 goal)
(for Daniel Sjölund, HT)
17. Roni Porokara (1 goal)
(for Kasper Hämäläinen, 70)
18. Shefki Kuqi
(for Alexei Eremenko Jr, 80) 		Substitutions:
13. Alex Della Valle
(for Maicol Beretti, 67)
16. Damiano Vanucci
(for Fabio Vitaioli, 72)
17. Manuel Marani
(for Paolo Montagna, 79)

Analysis will be provided later this week, because it’s late and I need to get to bed. You can be alerted of its arrival by subscribing to the RSS feed or by following me on Twitter.

Match preview: Finland vs San Marino

San Marino FlagMatch details
FINLAND vs SAN MARINO
Date: 17/10/2010
Kick-off time: 18:30 (UTC+2)
Type: UEFA Euro 2012 qualifying round match
Venue: Helsingin Olympiastadion, Helsinki, Finland
Capacity: 40 000
Odds: Finland 0.04, Draw 17.0, San Marino 80.0

Preview
Finland take on San Marino in their fourth Euro 2012 qualifying match, their second match at home. The match takes place in Helsinki on Wednesday evening. Finland’s opponents are ranked 203 in the world – in other words, joint last, along with the likes of Anguilla and Papua New Guinea. Both teams are yet to pick up any points in their qualifying campaigns so far, but of course that will change after they play one another.

So far, San Marino have been beaten 0-5 by Netherlands, 6-0 by Sweden, 8-0 by Hungary, and an altogether more respectable 0-2 by Moldova, the same scoreline that Moldova achieved against Finland. They are bottom of Group E, although Finland are only above them on goal difference (-4 for Finland, -21 for San Marino).

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 San Marino only twice in their history. They won both of those matches, scoring six goals and conceding one in the process. This makes San Marino one of the few countries that Finland have an unbeaten record against. The last time Finland and San Marino met was in March 1995, in Serravalle, for a Euro ’96 qualifying match which finished 0-2 to Finland.

Match squads
Names and positions as per UEFA.
FINLAND HUNGARY
Otto Fredrikson
Lukas Hradecky
Jukka Lehtovaara 		G
K		 Michele Ceccoli
Aldo Simoncini
Markus Heikkinen
Veli Lampi
Niklas Moisander
Juhani Ojala
Petri Pasanen C
Jukka Raitala
Joona Toivio 		D
F		 Nicola Albani
Michele Cervellini
Alessandro Della Valle
Alex Della Valle
Davide Simoncini
Damiano Vanucci
Fabio Vitaioli
Roman Eremenko
Alexei Eremenko Jr
Kasper Hämäläinen
Tim Sparv
Mika Väyrynen 		M
F		 Maicol Berretti
Fabio Bollini
Matteo Bugli
Matteo Coppini
Andrea Moroni
Matteo Vitaioli
Mikael Forssell
Shefki Kuqi
Roni Porokara
Daniel Sjölund
Jari Litmanen 		F
W		 Manuel Marani
Paolo Montagna
Andy Selva C

Key opponent
I have to admit that I know very little about any of the San Marino players. Having said that, I expect that even the most widely-respected European football pundits know very little about them, so I’m definitely not alone. Just about all I can tell you about the Sammarinese captain Andy Selva is that he has been out with an injury and is making his comeback to the national team with this match. He is 34 years old and is set to make his 50th appearance, seven shy of the national record. He is the top scorer in the history of the San Marino team with eight goals, though he hasn’t scored since 2008. He was the solitary goalscorer in San Marino’s solitary victory in international football, in a friendly match against Liechtenstein in 2004.

Analysis
The odds available for this match show just how easy this should be for Finland. Note the italics. Finland have got into the habit of making life difficult for themselves and surprising everyone in the wrong way, so I don’t think this match is as foregone a conclusion as the bookmakers suggest.

That said, Finland really do need to win this match, not because it will help them qualify for Euro 2012 – the possibility of that has already gone – but because it will restore pride. And quite frankly, a loss or even a draw would be a massive embarrassment, making Finland the laughing stock of the continent. I don’t mean to belittle San Marino, but they have not managed to get even so much as a single point from any European qualifying match in their 20-year history.

Following Stuart Baxter’s departure, the onus is on caretaker coach Olli Huttunen to do three things: firstly, win; secondly, win convincingly; and thirdly, bring younger players into the team. The squad selection – thinner than usual, with only twenty players – has a couple of unfamiliar names, but what is more interesting is the names that are missing. For a start, the captain Sami Hyypiä is still injured, so Petri Pasanen will wear the armband again. Jonatan Johansson and Joonas Kolkka, both in their mid-30s, miss out completely. Midfielder Perparim Hetemaj doesn’t feature after severing his ties with Baxter, though Huttunen has said he will be back in contention following this match. And naturalised Finn Mohamed “Medo” Kamara is yet to be cleared by FIFA after the Finnish Football Association applied for him to be eligible to play for them.

Jari Litmanen, widely expected to quit international football after this match, has cheekily said “this will be my last match for Finland… this year”. He’s just not going to retire, is he?

This is going to be the second Finland match that I have attended, and I hope to see some positive attacking play from the home side, with a couple of young players given a chance. And I hope my feet don’t freeze this time.

Prediction
Goalscoring has been Finland’s major problem lately, so I don’t expect this to be a rout, but Finland will still emerge victorious. I’ll guess 4-1.

Baxter leaves Finland post

After three successive defeats in Euro 2012 qualifiers, Stuart Baxter has stepped down from his position as head coach of the Finland national team with immediate effect.

The decision was announced by the Finnish Football Association on Tuesday. Olli Huttunen, Baxter’s assistant, will oversee Finland’s upcoming match against San Marino. Association president and Parliament Speaker Sauli Niinistö said, “We have negotiated in good spirits and reached a common agreement, which is the best solution to the current situation. Olli and Stuart have worked together closely for a long time and Olli will take change of the game against San Marino.”

The “current situation” he referred to was Finland’s recent losing streak, which now extends to three matches after disappointing results against Moldova and Hungary. That led to the Finnish fans and many journalists turning against Baxter’s leadership, creating additional pressure on the Association to act.

Although the exact details of the agreement have not been disclosed, reading between the lines of the Association’s statement leads me to think that Baxter has received some financial compensation, though not the full amount he would have been entitled to under his contract.

It is to Baxter’s credit that he has agreed to leave; despite asserting that he would carry on, he must have sensed that his time was up. However, the Association must take some blame for this situation. Baxter’s contract was only recently extended, after a decent (though unsuccessful) World Cup qualifying campaign, and to part ways with him so quickly makes that decision seem very ill-judged.

The Finnish executives should have anticipated the need to introduce younger players into the Finnish team during these Euro qualifiers, but it became clear that Stuart Baxter was reluctant to do so. In an article I read recently – I apologise for not remembering the source – it was written that Baxter only trusted two players: Sami Hyypiä and Jari Litmanen, both of whom are approaching 40 years old. All the other players were given mere supporting roles. With the low-ranked San Marino visiting Helsinki next week, the caretaker coach Olli Huttunen should feel at liberty to experiment a little with his team selection.

What do we know about Huttunen? He was a talented goalkeeper who played for Finland 61 times between 1980 and 1992. He was a one-club man, representing FC Haka for his entire seventeen-year career. He became the Valkeakoski-based side’s assistant manager in 1998, and took over from Keith “Keke” Armstrong in 2002. Under his leadership, Haka won two Suomen Cups and one Veikkausliiga championship, before he was sacked in 2009. He will be assisted in his preparation for the San Marino match by the outgoing Stuart Baxter.

I cannot say whether Huttunen has a chance of becoming the new head coach on a permanent basis. A good result against San Marino will count for little, as they are a team that Finland should be able to beat even without a coach. According to the Finnish media, the leading candidates for the role are Job Dragtsma, the Inter Turku coach, Sixten Boström, coach of Swedish side Örebro SK, and Mika-Matti “Mixu” Pääteläinen, coach of Scottish side Kilmarnock. Pääteläinen has also been claimed as the most likely replacement by English and Scottish media sources, though he has said, “It absolutely flatters me, but that’s all there is to it. I’m totally happy here. The Finnish FA haven’t asked anything so there’s no point commenting”.

With no further competitive matches for Finland after next week until June 2011, there would seem to be no rush to bring in a replacement. What’s important is to get the right person for the job. Personally, I don’t mind what the nationality of the next coach is, but ideally he should have a good level of knowledge of Finnish football, and that puts Finnish candidates at an advantage. If Mixu Pääteläinen wants the job, I think it is as good as his, but that remains to be seen.

Baxter’s time at the helm of the national side has seen great highs and lows. Drawing 3-3 and nearly beating Germany in 2008 was possibly the high point – Baxter had made much of his desire to get the team playing more attractive football than under his predecessor Roy Hodgson, and it seemed like it might actually work. Conceding a goal in injury time and losing to Hungary a few weeks ago was possibly the low point, though a 1-1 draw with Liechtenstein in Vaduz in 2009 comes close. Overall, it must be said that he created the noose for his own neck with everything he said; the results were fair but the expectations were much higher.

The San Marino match squad has been announced. The 20 players selected are:

Otto Fredrikson (PFC Spartak Nalchik), Lukas Hradecky (Esbjerg fB), Jukka Lehtovaara (FC TPS Turku); Veli Lampi (Willem II), Markus Heikkinen (SK Rapid Wien), Niklas Moisander (AZ Alkmaar), Petri Pasanen (SV Werder Bremen), Joona Toivio (Djurgårdens IF FF), Juhani Ojala (HJK Helsinki), Jukka Raitala (SC Paderborn 07); Tim Sparv (FC Groningen), Mika Väyrynen (SC Heerenveen), Roman Eremenko (FC Dynamo Kyiv), Kasper Hämäläinen (Djurgårdens IF), Alexei Eremenko Jr (Kilmarnock FC); Jari Litmanen (FC Lahti), Mikael Forssell (Hannover 96), Shefki Kuqi (Derby County FC), Daniel Sjölund (Djurgårdens IF FF), Roni Porokara (Örebro SK).

Source: UEFA.

Player Profile: Sami Hyypiä

It feels like it’s been a long time since I updated this blog. Primarily, I found it difficult to work without my laptop, which was being repaired for the best part of a month. But I would have made more of an effort to write on here regardless, had there been anything notable to report about the Finnish national team. As it happens, it’s been a quiet period.

It’s now just a little over a week before Finland taken on San Marino at the Olympic Stadium in Helsinki, a match they must win, should win, er, will win. I’ll be providing my usual preview and analysis pieces to go with the match, but first, it’s time to take a look at a player who seems to have come to the end of the international road.

Sami Hyypiä Profile

Sami Tuomas Hyypiä
Information correct as of 09 November 2010
Date of birth 07 October 1973
Present age 37
Place of birth Porvoo, Finland
Position Central Defender
International caps 105
International goals 5
International debut 07 November 1992
Current club Bayer Leverkusen, Germany
Previous clubs Liverpool, Willem II, MyPa

If I may cut to the chase, Sami Hyypiä has quite simply been one of Finland’s greatest ever football players. As well as being their joint-second highest capped player ever, he has won the most coveted prize in club football, the Champions League, with Liverpool in 2005. On an individual level, he has featured in a UEFA Team of the Year, and holds a special place in the hearts of the fans at every club he has played for.

But it wasn’t always going to turn out that way. As a boy, Sami was a keen ice hockey player, despite both of his parents being footballers. His mother was an amateur goalkeeper, while his father played in central defence for Pallo-Peikot, a team from the nearby city of Kouvola. That would also be the younger Hyypiä’s youth team, after he had finally been persuaded to follow in his father’s footsteps, swapping pucks and ice for balls and grass.

Hyypiä’s first professional club was MyPa, whom he joined in 1992. The team won the Suomen Cup that same year, and did so again in 1995. His performances in the latter season were enough to earn him a trial with Newcastle United in England, at the age of 22. He has been quoted as saying that he just went “for the experience”, and after the Magpies declined to sign him permanently, he joined Dutch side Willem II instead.

Within four years in the Netherlands, Hyypiä had gone from being a junior player to his club’s captain. 1999 was his final year there, but he went out on a high, leading Willem to second position in the Eredivisie and earning them a precious Champions League spot for the following season. He wasn’t to take part in the competition with Willem, however. Greater things awaited: Gerrard Houllier’s Liverpool signed him for a mere £2.5m – cheap even then.

Hyypiä would go on to repay that investment many times over, and has been described as “Liverpool’s best signing in the last 10 years“. Much like he had done at Willem II, Hyypiä rose quickly through the club hierarchy and began occasionally captaining the side from central defence in the 2000/01 season. The role was given to him on a full-time basis in 2002, and he kept it for two years until it was handed to a young Steven Gerrard.

A string of team honours came Hyypiä’s way at Liverpool, including an “alternative treble” in 2001 of the League Cup, the FA Cup and the then-UEFA Cup. In 2005, Hyypiä was part of the Rafa Benitez side which so dramatically clinched the Champions League after being three goals down at half-time, becoming only the second Finnish player to win the big prize, after Jari Litmanen had done so with Ajax exactly ten years earlier. He played a key role in the second half, when Liverpool switched to a 3-5-2 formation in an attempt to claw back the deficit.

Years passed, and as his legs aged and slowed, younger centre-backs like Daniel Agger came in to challenge Hyypiä’s position in the Liverpool team, and his appearances became more limited. The 2008/2009 season was to be his last with Liverpool, after “nearly a decade of unblemished service“, winning every trophy except for the Premier League. The players and fans gave him a warm send-off as the season came to a close.

Hyypiä continued his career with Bayer Leverkusen in Germany. While Liverpool plummeted from 2nd to 7th in the league in England, Leverkusen became one of the toughest teams to score against in the Bundesliga, and Sami was named as the defender of the opening half of the season (before the winter break). He has continued to play for Leverkusen since.

It’s almost easy to forget that, during such an illustrious career, Hyypiä has still managed to make over 100 appearances for the Finnish side. His achievements with Finland haven’t mirrored those at his clubs, but he has still been a towering central defender and an inspirational leader. It’s no surprise that he’s captained Willem, Liverpool and Finland; he is an intelligent footballer whose “first yard of pace is in his head”. He’s also been a consummate professional for his entire career, always making headlines for the right reasons and never for the wrong.

Sadly, his career seems to be winding down now. He has a year left on his Leverkusen contract, after which he intends to take up a coaching role there, despite rumours that he could become Finland’s assistant manager. Hyypiä has called for younger players to be brought into the national team, but I doubt he will be the one to oversee their introductions; at least not yet. I expect he would have played next week against San Marino, if only to say goodbye to the home fans in a game Finland will be expecting to win comfortably anyway, but he suffered an ankle injury a couple of weeks ago and now faces a race to be fit. As I’ll be going to the game, I hope he makes an appearance, even if it’s not with football boots on his feet. Should he decide to retire from the national team, the crowd will want to give him the farewell he deserves.