Nordic Football News

Hodgson to Inter

From HS:

The Finnish Football Association has reported on its website that the head coach of the Finnish national team Roy Hodgson will not be extending his contract, which runs out today. This means Hodgson will not be guiding Finland into the World Cup qualifying matches next autumn.

The Finnish FA had hoped to secure Hodgson’s continued services, after he had led the team close to qualification for the Euro 2008 finals.The British-born coach, who took over officially from the beginning of 2006, will now be seeking challenges elsewhere.

The search for a new coach will begin immediately, under the direction of FA President Pekka Hämäläinen.
Hodgson will also take part in the selection process. The Finnish FA are to make a statement with further details on this matter later today, Friday. At the Finnish FA press briefing on Friday afternoon it was announced that Roy Hodgson would be joining the managerial staff of Inter Milan (Internazionale) in an as yet undisclosed role.
Hodgson coached Internazionale on two occasions in the past, from 1995-97 (when he took them to the final of the UEFA Cup: they lost to Schalke of Germany in a penalty shootout) and again briefly in 1999, before he left to take charge of the Swiss national squad.

The latest announcement will presumably put to bed speculation that Hodgson might be in the frame for the Ireland, Scotland, or even England managerial positions that have recently become vacant.
The Finnish FA hope to find a replacement by the end of January.

Finland draw Azerbaijan again

Let’s hope they don’t mess that one up, because the rest of the draw for World Cup 2010 Qualifying looks difficult:

Germany, Russia, Finland, Wales, Azerbaijan, Liechtenstein

Wales are quite poor but can’t be as bad again as they were this time (and their under-21s had a hell of a result against France recently). It looks to be between Russia and Germany for the top two spots, and Finland will need some big performances to get between them.

According to this, Hodgson wants the Ireland job. Unsurprising really, as Finland need rebuilding and he’ll find it tough to match the performances he got this time without the senior players.

Helsinki Times: The dream ends here

Here’s William Moore’s take on Finland’s failure to qualify, and here is my Helsinki Times piece:
It was always going to be a long shot. Finland needed to win in Porto, while Serbia got less than maximum points in their two remaining matches against Kazakhstan and an already-qualified Poland. So it proved, as Roy Hodgson’s men could only draw 0-0 with the 2004 finalists.

Spirits were high in the build-up to the game. Everyone in the Finland camp believed the pressure was all on Portugal, who needed a draw in front of their home crowd in order to ensure qualification. Felipe Scolari had lost his temper in a previous home game, punching Ivica Dragutinovic in a touchline melee, so it was clear the Portuguese could be rattled.

This view overlooked the pressure Finland themselves were under. For many members of this Finland team, the 2008 qualification campaign was the last shot at glory, the final chance to take their country to its first major tournament. Sami Hyypiä said in the build-up to the game that he would have quit international football after the last campaign, had Hodgson not been appointed manager.

The opening stages of the match showed the nerves this pressure caused. Hardly a Finnish player could keep hold of the ball, as bad decision followed bad decision. Even Jari Litmanen, normally the coolest head in the team, couldn’t seem to find the extra couple of seconds of thinking time he usually makes for himself with his clever movement and excellent technique.

Litmanen had not played a game in five months before last Saturday’s 2-1 win over Azerbaijan, when he came off the bench and set up Sheki Kuqi’s winner. Hodgson had bridled at post-match questions about Litmanen, believing that the rest of the team deserved consideration before he examined the performance of Finland’s talismanic striker. Litmanen had played well, but so had everyone else, reasoned the English coach.

So it was a surprise to see Litmanen start the game at the Dragao Stadium. Finland were under the cosh for much of the match, and he just couldn’t find the spark that might have created something for his side. Indeed, the closest Finland came to breaking the deadlock was when Portuguese defender Bruno Alves nearly scored an own goal in the 85th minute.

So what now for Finland? Roy Hodgson will decide whether or not to stay on, as will many of the senior players. It seems certain that Litmanen and Hyypiä will now retire, but question marks also hang over Joonas Kolkka, Hannu Tihinen and Aki Riihilahti.

The qualifiers for the World Cup in 2010 will see an influx of new faces. Finland’s Under-21 team have had an excellent start to their Euro 2009 qualification campaign, and the likes of Tim Sparv, Ville Jalasto and Tomi Petrescu will be eager to get their chance.

The positives to be taken from this campaign should not be overlooked. This was as close as Finland have come to qualifying for a major tournament, and with a bit more luck they could very easily have done it. The margin for error is tiny at this level of international football, and Finland fell just the wrong side of it.

The excitement generated among fans is one major plus. While the attendance for the Azerbaijan game was poor (just 10,325), the support they offered the team was phenomenal. Some seasoned observers of Finnish football judged it as close as Finland has ever come to a ‘European’ football atmosphere.

That enthusiasm needs to be harnessed if the game is to grow, as Hodgson pointed out in his post match press conference. As the 1,000 or so Finland fans make their way home from south west Europe, many of them are wondering how long it will be before Finnish football has another chance like this.

The flippant answer is of course “two years”, the amount of time until the next tournament, but a player like Litmanen comes round only once in a generation. To do it without him would be an extraordinary achievement, but then again – that is precisely what 14 other countries did this time. Maybe it’s time for Finland to be just like the other teams, rather than “Litmanen plus ten others”.

Hodgson hungry for Finnish drama

So says Uefa.com. Having been to see Teuvo Tulio’s The Cross of Love last night, I’m not nearly as ravenous as Croydon Roy. A little peckish, perhaps, but qualification for the European Championships would be a very unFinnish drama, and if Tulio’s work is anything to go by, all the better for that.

Roy says that “we will try to defend well and score when we have a chance. I know this sounds dull but that’s the best answer I have.” That’s a bit timid really, he’s been feistier than that when challenged about his boring tactics before. There is absolutely no point in debating it, because if there is one match for which game plan Hodgson is perfectly suited, it’s this one.

HBL reckons both Heikkinen and Värynen will start, with Värynen playing off Forsell in an advanced position. Hmmm. I’d rather see Shefki beating the crap out of Alves and Meira for 60 minutes, before Litmanen comes on to torment them, but I guess relying on Jari is out. That’s a good thing, in my book – he will play, but he will fit into the team rather than have the team arranged around him.

And if the HBL graphic is correct (I’ve been at university all day and have read no other papers), then it looks like Hodgson is looking to capitalise on any counter attacking opportunities, no matter when they present themselves. Mikael Forsell is not the type of player you expect to hold onto the ball while the defence has a breather.

I’m off to the pub, anyway. I’m curious as to how many people will be there, given the low crowd on Saturday. Finnish people don’t really believe they will qualify, but if they do I think it will be a decent party. Much like Lordi winning the Eurovision Song Contest, Finns are quite content to ignore something and pretent it doesn’t matter, until there is a Finnish success. At that point they go mental, and those that brought success are transformed into national heroes. Sami Hyypiä and Jari Litmanen, bidding for equal status with Lordi…..

Come on Poland!

I think we can all agree that, after the weekend’s events, the priority is to ensure that Serbia don’t qualify. They play very dull, defensive football at every tournament they go to, whereas Finland have not yet had the opportunity to play dull, defensive football at a major tournament. Portugal will be the most likely to enhance the competition, but their coach punches people. Finland’s coach is an Englishman, and the English are well known for never defacing international football matches with violence.

So that’s the moral high ground sorted. What of the rest? Well, all seven living former Finland coaches contacted by MTV3 today said that they ‘believe’ Finland can do it. That might be worrying, it might not, but it would be uncharitable to wonder how any of them would have any idea what it takes to qualify. Positivity is the key, so lets move onto team news.

Mika Värynen longs to be on the pitch. He might make it, but I wouldn’t be surprised if Hodgson starts with Heikkinen, as the more defensive, battle hardened player. That’d be risky in my view, Heikkinen made some mistakes against Poland that would be ruthlessly exploited against Portugal, but this is Hodgson and he knows what he’s going to do. The players are right behind him, and they have had some bad luck in the last three 0-0 draws, so maybe Porto is where they cash it in?

btw: if you watched that clip and, like me, are jealous of the presenter Ari Virtanen, you should bear in mind that he spent all day at the Finnish cup finals recently. That’s at least 8 hours in the dreadful, freezing Finnair stadium, with scant supplies of coffee and heaters that were only turned on after3.5 hours, when the men’s teams got there. Porto is the other side of the coin, and it isn’t that nice right now anyway – pissing down with rain and only about 10 degrees. That’s about 12 degrees warmer than Finland, but still. They’re not playing in Madeira.

Finally, I’d like to pay tribute to some brave Finnish heroes, people who are prepared to make the ultimate sacrifice to see Roy’s boys make it to the Euros. Bill Shankly said that football wasn’t a matter of life and death, but he would be astonished to see that there are Finns – normal, honest, hard working Finns – who are as I type actually spending the night at Stansted Airport. Suomi fans: I salute you.

Finland-Azerbaijan post-match celebrations

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Up_nFLLetw&rel=1]

Do you trust a Serbian snow plough?

Apparently, they can’t clear snow in Belgrade. The Spanish referee decided that Javier Clemente’s team will play today, if it’s possible, and if it isn’t possible ‘for reasons beyond control’, it will be played next Saturday. If they do get to play next Saturday, they will be at a huge advantage – knowing exactly what they need to do to go through, if it is still possible. And they can only go through if Finland win in Portugal.

It’s a bit rum, this. If Finland can play in the freezing snowscapes of Uusimaa, why can’t the Serbs clear their pitch in time? And what happens if they haven’t made the required efforts to clear the pitch? Indeed, why is that left to someone who shares a nationality with their coach?

There’s an excellent report from William Moore at Helsingin Sanomat, and something from YLE here.

And a rather grainy highlights film from AZTV:

UPDATE: The Serbia match is called off, again. This really, really makes things tough for Finland. I’m curious as to why they couldn’t play the game, surely undersoil heating is standard for UEFA matches? According to the BBC it’s now above freezing in Belgrade, and the game was called off a good four hours before the planned kick-off today. Have they really made every effort to get the game played, when it’s much much better for their chances to play it next Saturday?

Finland-Azerbaijan picture special!

Finland 2 Azerbaijan 1

Shefki Kuqi saves the day! A fantastic finish from the big man, glanced in off his nose after a goalmouth scramble. The most hilarious thing about the goal was seeing all the Azeri players surrounding the referee and pointing to the big screen attempting to get the referee to disallow it because their keeper had been ‘fouled’.

It had looked unlikely Finland would ever score, with Tihinen missing chances and hitting the bar, Sjölund shooting fractionally higher than that, Tainio also hitting the bar, Kallio inexplicably failing to make contact from 2 yards out, and Tainio, Hyypiä, Sjölund and Forsell tamely shooting straight at Farkad Veliyev in the Azerbaijan goal.

The tifo before the game was Litmanen in ‘guevara like’ pose, which i must say pissed me off a little. The guy’s played 2 games in a year, and concentrating on him seems a bit disrespectful to the other players. Hodgson thought so too, as the first question from a Finnish journalist in his press conference was about Litmanen, rather than the other players:

“I’m disappointed that the first question is about Jari. He’s a fantastic player, and I understand that he’s your national idol, but it was a team performance and I’d like to talk about the other players before we start discussing Jari.”

He’s got a point, as the chances came throughout the 90 minutes and were not dependent on Litmanen. He later pointed out that he’s a fantastic player, he brought calmness and class to the side and it’s amazing that he can play like that without any match practice, and that he wouldn’t have been nearly as effective if played from the start and denied the room he found in the last 20 minutes.

It was very funny to see the Azeris dominate the press conference at the start. they asked about the referee, whether Finland deserved the win (yes, really), and how Hodgson’s expectations changed after the first goal. They like to talk, and Roy commented that it’s good they were there because the Finns hardly ask him anything.

I have some pictures and videos of the fans, who were excellent today. Hodgson was disappointed with the number (10,325), but very pleased with their support.

Cold as ice for Finland v Azerbaijan

It’s very cold here at the moment, about -7 in Tampere with sporadic snow showers. It looks very beautiful, but I wouldn’t want to play football in it. Saturday’s weather looks pretty cold too, so let’s hope the Azerbaijanis don’t like it. I have no idea really, I’m guessing it’s fairly mild outside of the mountains down there.

Team news is that there isn’t much team news yet, with Johansson saying it’s a very important game but we have to treat it just like any other. There are tickets left, so if you don’t have one yet click here and wrap up warm.

Eremenko attacked by Spartak fans?

A story in Helsingin Sanomat today:

Alexei Eremenko Jr., a forward on the Finnish national football team, suffered a jaw fracture on Sunday evening in a confrontation on a Moscow street.
He is scheduled for surgery on Wednesday, and he will not play in the remaining Euro 2008 qualifiers, which end next week.
Eremenko and four friends were out celebrating the end of the Russian series, when he was attacked on the street.

“I am sure that Eremenko is not the guilty party, but rather the victim”, emphasised Mikhail Pukchanski, spokesman of the Saturn Football Club in comments to Helsingin Sanomat.
Eremenko plays professionally for Saturn on a contract that extends through the next season.
The Russian series ended on Sunday, when Saturn played Zenit of St. Petersburg, which won the match 1-0, sealing its league championship.
If Saturn had played a tie, the championship would have gone to the Moscow team Spartak, which defeated the Moscow Dynamo 2-1 in its own final match.

According to one theory, Eremenko may have been attacked by disappointed Spartak fans. Pukchanski did not take a stand on the matter, saying that the police were still investigating.
Finland has two more matches in the Euro qualifiers. First it meets Azerbaijan at Helsinki’s Olympic Stadium on Saturday, and on Wednesday it travels to Portugal for a match in that country.
Eremenko was not going to play against Azerbaijan anyway, because of a one-match ban, and the injury is keeping him out of the last match of the series.

The Finnish head coach Roy Hodgson said that he is sorry about Eremenko’s injury. However he does not plan to add anymore players to the team, which now has 22 players.
Finland is currently fourth in Group A. Poland is in first place, leading Finland by four points.
Finland would have to win both of the remaining matches to keep the possibility of playing in the finals alive.
The 24-year-old Eremenko has played on the Finnish team 32 times and has secured 12 goals in the matches.

Italian coverage

There have been lots of digressions recently. Some of them have shown the sources, some of them have not, so here I will point to those blogs that have excellent coverage of the unfolding events in Italy. I should have done this in my previous post, but I was a bit careless and tired then.

First up, Spangly princess. She writes an excellent, extensive and up-to-date analysis of what’s happening, directly from Italian sources. Pitch invasion covers this with all the speed, accuracy and clarity that you expect from them. Gramsci’s kingdom has an excellent post about the wider societal reasons for the disturbances. The Run of play also covers things very well.

Be sure to read the comments sections too, as ursus arctos (who is currently blogless but should not be) provides insightful comments on most of those blogs, as he does here.

Egan moans about Finnair stadium

I haven’t said anything about Finnair stadium before, although I think I’ve made it pretty clear which is my favourite Finnish football ground. The Töölö stadium has not really been on my radar, despite visits for the Armenia match and the HJK-TamU title decider in 2006. It’s just there, a nice enough place but not somewhere I spend a lot of time.

It was built in 2000, with Helsinki City Council owning 84.5% of it and Suomen Palloliitto and a management company holding the balance. Municipal ownership is popular in Finland, as elsewhere, but a new build like this is a brave strategy and deserves to be rewarded.
I have misgivings, though. I’ve shocked you, haven’t I? Complaing about something. Brifely put, it’s windy as hell. Considering it holds only 10,770 and is built for the prestige matches that are often played in Spring and Autumn, it was pretty daft to build a hole at the back of the stands where a wall should be. This allows draughts to enter and sound to escape, diminishing the atmosphere and making it colder than it needs to be. They have installed heaters though, as shown in the pictures. The implications for energy efficiency are a little worrying, but the atmosphere suffers more. The end stands are too far from the pitch, again making it more difficult to create an atmosphere. In the main stand, the railings obscure the near touchline.

That said, i wish more councils would build football stadia. I wonder if it makes a profit? It certainly has enough bars and bistros, and rented office space (admittedly to other members of the ‘Finnish football family’). I suppose the main point is that land in that part of Helsinki is very valuable, and knocking the sports facilities down to build apartments would make more money. That this hasn’t been done is evidence of a commitment to sport for all (the astroturf pitches surrounding the complex are mainly used by amateur clubs) that is impressive to these anglo-saxon eyes.

Alexei Eremenko Jr beaten up, misses qualifiers

Not much to add to the title really. SPL sources don’t know much more than that he was ‘battered’, and he’s unavailable for the games against Azerbaijan and Portugal. Get well soon Alexei, you have provided rich material for us at FiF and have been the most consistently productive striker in the Finland squad recently. Hope to see you in the Alps.

As for next week, Forsell and Litmanen are fit, which is a massive boost, so long as they stay healthy. Cross your fingers.

Tampere United win the cup

That about covers it. On penalties, very small crowd, no broadband for journalists, and played in a crappy stadium. Considering Finnair Stadium’s raison d’etre is to provide somewhere for the big domestic games and unnatractive national team matches, the majority of both being played at the end of the season, it has some astonishing design flaws. I’ll edit this post with pictures tomorrow to show what I mean, but for now I’m very happy that I can take my gloves off, use the internet and watch the new version of The Italian Job which is surely going to make me angry.

Well done to Tampere, particularly Mikko Kaven and Miki Sipiläinen. Sipiläinen came on as the last throw of the dice, and damn near won the game single handedly. As it was Honka brought things back to 3-3 and it was left to penalties, which have been no lottery for Tampere United this season. They’ll need their new signings to bed in quickly if they’re to maintain this season’s dominance, if the expected departues materialise.

I’ve just seen this story, which makes a mockery of my moaning and whining about the cold. When a policeman was killed in a riot, an entire round of games was cancelled and draconian new laws were brought in to try and encourage the ‘English model’. When a fan is shot by police, while sitting in his car at a motorway service station, they have a ten minute delay and wear black armbands. Italian fans are very angry today, and rightly so.

I quite often complain about the organisation and administration of football here, but I don’t think it’s anywhere near as bad as in Italy. What on earth possessed them to try and play the games today?

RoPs win the playoff

RoPs kept two clean sheets and won the promotion playoff at pallokenttä tonight. Not sure why they couldn’t play in Vuosaari, they moved the game at the weekend when there was snow but now there is none and the temperature is above freezing. Even if there was a white out, that’s what orange balls are for you big jessies!

Anyway, now the fun and games will start. Rovaniemi council has to give assurances that floodlights will be built, at the very least, and the rest of the licensing requirements will be met. If assurances are provided, with timescales, then RoPs can play in Veikkausliiga (on pain of relegation should the council fail to improve the facilities). If not, who knows what happens.

The draw for the League Cup have been made, and it seems a bit nonsensical to me. The groups are:

Group 1

KuPs
RoPs
TPS
MyPa
FC Honka
HJK
Tampere United

Group 2

FC Lahti
FF Jaro
FC Inter
KTP
FC Haka
IFK Mariehamn
VPS

The competition has small but dedicated bands of followers, who will face increased journey times as a result of the draw. Then again, the liquid refreshments en route are often the best part of league cup games, so maybe this is a good thing for everyone. the competition starts on the 25th of January.

Finally, I have to say Jonas Von Wendt is fast becoming my favourite football journalist. His Hodgson-neutral position is close to what I was brought up on when discussing national teams, and his ‘Sport on TV’ section today is fantastic.

You know how the amount of stuff that happens always fits exactly the amount of space available in the news bulletins? Well Jonas’s sport on TV guide is having none of that. The number one suggestion is ‘Ice hockey studio on Urheilukanava, second is Lyon-Stuttgart, and in third spot is ‘The Sting’ on Canal+ Comedy, starring Paul Newman and Robert Redford. “Maybe it doesn’t have anything directly to do with sport, but it’s a real classic,” says Jonas.