Finnish football journalist Janne Oivio makes his NFN debut with an appeal for Finland to heal the scars caused by a previous close shave in qualifying, after the Euro2012 draw pitted Finland against a former nemesis.
I don’t care about qualifying for Euro 2012. Just destroy Hungary.
I’ll never forget October 11th, 1997. For the first time ever, Finland’s national football team had really and truly sucked me in to their travails on the road to World Cup 98. Oh, I’d watched them plenty in the past. But years of sad-sack performances left little room for hope, so it was just about watching a game of football.
Now it was different. Thanks to a favourable group and a string of nice results, Finland could squeeze into the playoff stage with a win over Hungary.
I remember desperately wanting to go to the Olympic Stadium to see the match, but my grandparents’ silver anniversary prevented any such hope. Thus, I was stuck on Finnjet on the way to Tallinn, watching the game on a television set in the ships lounge.
I remember Sumiala’s go-ahead goal. But more than anything, I remember the Clown College Memorial goalmouth scramble that sent Finland crashing out. Touched last by five Finnish players following a Hungary corner, the ball trickled into the back of the net with a despairing Teuvo Moilanen looking on in horror. In injury time.
That moment left a lasting image not only on a passionate 16 year old boy from Espoo, but an entire footballing nation. The famous picture of Moilanen grasping air with a look of absolute horror on his face became the single iconic image of Finnish football, and it has stood to this day.
The scars never healed because Finland has dutifully continued it’s inept journey from crushing defeat to crushing defeat. Following lost leads at home to Germany and Turkey in following campaigns, my friend in misery Sasu and I coined a new name for the Olympic Stadium. If Old Trafford was the Theater of Dreams, the Olympic Stadium was the Theater of Broken Dreams. Little has changed since those days.
The 12 year odyssey of mediocrity, being just good enough to get your hopes up but never good enough to get to The Dance continues. They’ll always suck you in with promises of a better tomorrow, a good result here and another there. But in the end, that cold dagger of defeat guts you every two years like clockwork.
The two-year cycle of Finnish football fans began again with the draw of Sweden, Holland, Hungary, San Marino and Moldova. And hey, this time there’s actually some hope of qualifying. Again.
But I don’t care about that. I don’t care about facing the Netherlands or going toe to toe with neighbours Sweden. I couldn’t care less about about Sweden and their high and mighty view of Finland as Scandinavia’s retarded football cousin. All I can think about is that rain soaked night at the Theater of Broken Dreams and all the heartbreak that has ensued in the following 12 years.
I rarely get swept up in nationalistic rah-rah anymore these days, but that 16 year old boy in me is still screaming for redemption, and that day is finally coming. For the love of Teuvo Moilanen, beat the s*it out of ‘em. Then, maybe, the tortured nation of football can start healing.
Finnish readers are advised not to watch the following clip:
7. February 2010 at 11:53 pm
I don’t care about our dear neighnbours thinking of us as ignorant fools that don’t know anything of Finland…
ironic, as in your text..
Twitter: puntteri
Says:
8. February 2010 at 10:47 am
Funnily I do not see Hungary as an enemy at all and do not feel that there are any wounds that should be healed. It was not Hungary who beat us, it was Finland itself with the help of Lady Unluck. Among the contributors for the crucial last minute own goal there was a certain Sami Hyypiä who obviously has overcome the misfortunes of that cold and and rainy night.
They really did it, or rather overdid it, themselves. A link below to see what happened to Hungary in the hands of Yugoslavia in the play-off round if it makes you feel better.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tSn2peEF5uY
Sweden is for me the interesting fixture in this competition, Holland we have faced already way too often and the results are.. well, I am sure there are other topics to discuss?
8. February 2010 at 3:37 pm
It’s about plenty more than just one game and one goal. Whther Hungary was very involved in the goal or not isn’t the point. That game propelled Finnish football to where it is now. There is no denying that that match continues to be the most talked about game in Finnish football history and the ultimate “what if” game.
More importantly than that, it set the tone for accepted mediocrity in an era when Finland was just starting to produce it’s greatest crop of talent ever. Instead of going balls to the wall for wins, the accepted culture is that a third place finish is a very good result and teasing the big boys is good enough. And that, to my understanding, isn’t the point of international football.
Had Finland qualified, or come even close, the norm would be very different. Witness, if you will, the turn of fortunes and expectations towards the ice hockey national team following their 1995 craptastic tournament win. It may not have been the most illustrious tournament to win in the eyes of everyone else in the world, but for the game in Finland, it took it’s popularity and expectations to a completely new level. In the past, similar mediocrity to football’s standard had been accepted, not any more. And to me, that’s what it’s all about.
What I want from this tourney is Finland on the doorstep of at least the play offs with the last game of the campaign against Hungary at home.
Twitter: puntteri
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8. February 2010 at 4:02 pm
You painted a rather big picture here and I might even agree. Still I see no part in this for Hungary as they were not the villains or playing any major role in all of this, the time was just not yet right for Finland. Accepting second best or runners-up positions is not an admirable feature in Finnish football or sports in general but at least it brings us joy in phrases as “Mursun Mestaruus”, which basically means that losing just a bit is ok, if the other team is supposedly better before hand.
It amazes me that people still talk about the only one ice hockey championship 15 years afterwards, it must be the biggest bubble ever created in this country, an illusion of superiority, that healed all the wounds and harm done by our neighbours since the 16th century. It did a lot of good for the ice hockey community, but it is pretty much ancient history by now as the play those bloody championships every year.
8. February 2010 at 4:31 pm
You don’t need to explain the futility of the IHWC to me, trust me. I’m simply pointing out that it had a galvanizing effect on the entire ice hockey community and raised expectations to where they should always be (except we live in a country of born losers).
I’ve always hated the idea of being defined by losing, but that’s exactly what the Hungary game did and what future results have reinforced, similarly how the ice hockey community felt after numerous horrible lost leads etc leading up to 1995. The big difference is that football has never had it’s own 1995 and thus the loser mentality is perpetuated from one generation to the next. And what annoys me even more is people revelling in that mentality, best exemplified by the never ending “why does this always happen to us” line of thinking.
I believe in a better tomorrow and always will. I just hope the same could be said of the Finnish FA. Instead of always setting the bar low so their jobs won’t be threatened by losing, they should come out with high goals and most importantly, accountability. Until that day, we’ll always just be a bunch of losers. And I for one hate that.
But that’s another story for another time.