As the years pass by, it seems that more and more national teams get their own 15 minutes of fame.
Every big tournament creates new Cinderellas and feel-good stories. Some continue to progress and become regulars, and for some it is a one-time event. The expansion of the European Championships to 24 teams in 2016 helped this, and there are talks of a similar move for the World Cup. These changes mean that many smaller nations get the chance to qualify for tournaments they could previously only dream of. Just ask Iceland. However, there are a few decent national teams that are still looking for their first-ever major tournament. One of them is Finland, who are on the verge to break their duck and qualify for the 2020 Euro’s.
And boy, haven’t they tried. Finland has seemingly always been around, as their national team is one of the oldest in the world - playing it’s first international in 1911. Back then the Finns were an autonomous part of the Russian empire, even beating the mainland Russians in the 1912 Olympics, just falling short on the Bronze medal match. Since then Finland has participated in thirteen Euro qualifying campaigns, and nineteen World Cup qualifying campaigns– and have never tasted success. In the past few decades, Suomi has built some very competitive national teams, as the nation established a substantial export of players to top European leagues – especially the Premier League: Sami Hyypiä, Jussi Jääskeläinen and Shefki Kuqi are cult heroes in England to this day. However, the best player to come out of Finnish football is undoubtedly Jari Litmanen, who played a significant part in Ajax’s golden era in the 1990s and then played for Barcelona and Liverpool. Among the former coaches, one can find impressive names such as Roy Hodgson and Richard Møller Nielsen, but even their combination along Litmanen and the others did not lead them past this obstacle, as the team constantly struggled with inconsistency and a poor away form.
Now, they are closer than ever. Standing second in Group J after runaway leaders Italy, they posted four wins out of the first six games. The sole two losses were to the Italians, and they kept a clean sheet in all the victories. The main group rivals are Armenia and Bosnia-Herzegovina, both of whom will face the Finns this week in a head-to-head battle for qualification. Bottom line, it is make or break, and the Scandinavian side doesn’t need favours from anyone else. It is their biggest chance to qualify for a major tournament, and the excitement is sky-high over in Helsinki. Moreover, Finland won its Nations League group last autumn, impressively disposing of Hungary, Estonia and Greece (who also play in their current qualifying group). In case of an upcoming meltdown, the Nations League path can serve as a lifeline and bring them to the Euro’s. For a country well known for its passion for Formula 1, this can definitely be described as “Pole Position” to qualify.
The current squad is led by none other than Norwich City sensation Teemu Pukki, who became a household name in the past few months. Last season he finished as top scorer with 29 goals in the English Championship, one of the toughest leagues out there, and has a diverse club career – playing formerly in Schalke 04, Celtic, Sevilla and Brøndby. Not everywhere he has produced high numbers like in Norwich, and there were doubts about his belonging to the top level. But Pukki never gave up, and at the age of 29, he is right back in the big time. He is a lethal striker but isn’t flashy or flamboyant. Instead, he possesses a fantastic work-rate, understanding of the game and only cares about the team success. In that sense, he precisely epitomizes this Finnish national team - a robust, hard-to-break and spirited group, which all work for each other. Most of the players come from other Scandinavian leagues, as well as the MLS, but there are some familiar faces from the Champions League such as Genk’s defender Jere Uronen and Lukas Hradecky of Bayer Leverkusen, who continues the tradition of talented Finnish goalkeepers. Another Bayer player back in the squad is Joel Pohjanpalo, who has barely played football for a year and a half due to a serious ankle injury.
Head coach Markku Kanerva is also an interesting character. He is a former defender who played a decade for the national team, and since 2004 he is working within the ranks of the Finland national teams – both as a coach for the U21 and assistant manager for the main squad. But more surprisingly, Kanerva is a former schoolteacher, and thus nicknamed “Professor”. One of his best qualities is man-management, as he believes in a personal connection with all his players, with whom he frequently talks on the phone during their duties in the clubs. The fact he works within the national team for fifteen years also helps his relationships with the squad.
On Saturday, Finland travel to a tricky away fixture in Bosnia, a team who rarely loses at home. The Zenica crowd is notoriously raucous, but for Pukki and Kanerva nothing seems impossible anymore. “The dream of generations is very much alive. Yes, we will do it, and the best thing about this now is that it is in our own hands”, said Kanerva. The Finnish people will need to be patient and hold their collective breath, but there is no reason their national team can not recreate a similar journey to that of fellow Nordic nation Iceland and shock the world. They feel it is time for their own summer party.