Soccer

Finland have Ireland in their sights, but they’ll have a job taking attention away from the ice hockey

Manager Markku Kanerva needs the three points after a bad run against Greece and England, with less than half of the tickets for the 36,000-capacity grounds sold

Finland Head coach Markku Kanerva at the squad's press conference in the Olympic Stadium, Helsinki. Photograph: Ryan Byrne/Inpho
Gavin Cummiskey in Helsinki
Wed Oct 09 2024 - 21:41

As winter closes in, ice hockey dominates Finland’s sporting landscape. Aleksander Barkov led the Florida Panthers to victory over the Boston Bruins on Tuesday night, with Eetu Luostarinen scoring past Bruins goalkeeper Joonas Korpisalo.

All three NHL stars are household names around these parts.

In fact, there are 48 active Finns in the NHL and every one them is monitored by the Helsinki newspapers, which leaves little space for jalkapallo (football).

For both Finland and Ireland, gone are the days when the national side is built around a globally recognised name like Jari Litmanen or Roy Keane. Similar problems exist for these proud football nations, both veering towards minnow status when compared to the professional football industries developed in other, similar-sized European countries.

READ MORE

But Finland (64th) have Ireland (62nd) in their sights, a target to aim at, with five places separating them in the Uefa rankings, with Ireland 32nd and Finland 37th. Finnish manager Markku Kanerva needs the three points, as much as his Irish counterpart Heimir Hallgrímsson, as an ageing squad failed to build upon qualification to Euro 2021.

That proved a mildly successful tournament as Finland beat Denmark in a match that will be remembered for the cardiac arrest Christian Eriksen suffered on the pitch.

They also lost to Russia and Belgium at the Euros before France and Ukraine muscled them out of contention to reach the 2022 World Cup. A decent Euro 2024 campaign, beating Northern Ireland twice, came unstuck against Wales, when they lost a playoff 4-1.

Kanerva, an employee of the Finnish Federation since 2004 and senior coach since 2016, survived a recent board meeting when his entire coaching staff was overhauled.

But the Finns’ bad run continued into last month’s Nations League, losing 3-0 in Greece and 2-0 to England at Wembley, when a second-half brace by Harry Kane set up Thursday night’s relegation showdown.

“Irish DNA means they are hard workers,” said Kanerva. “A strong, physical team eager to put a lot of pressure on the opponent and they are a danger from set pieces.”

Recent evidence indicates that the above statement is inaccurate.

[ Heimir Hallgrímsson seeks to halt Ireland’s downward spiral in Helsinki ]

“We are playing in front of our home crowd so they expect us to win this game,” he added. “It won’t be easy. That is for sure. Ireland are thinking the same way, to stay in League B or even qualify for League A, so we both need points here.”

Only 15,000 tickets have been sold for the 36,000-capacity ground that hosted the 1952 Summer Olympics and where Eamonn Coghlan won gold in the 5,000-metre World Championship in 1983.

“Maybe it’s because of the late kick-off time, probably the weather, and then we meet England [on Sunday] and of course our fans and people want to see those world stars,” Kanerva admitted before backtracking: “But if you take a look at their squad, Ireland have a lot of quality players playing in the Premier League, Scotland and in the Championship.

“I’m a little bit disappointed that we can’t get 30,000 or a full stadium but of course we didn’t start the campaign so well.”

In a sign of the times, when asked to name one quality Irish player, the Finland manager adopted a more collective response.

“They have a great team but if you think about the centre backs, for instance, many of those guys play in the English Premier League and of course they have a lot of attacking power as well.”

Gavin Cummiskey

Gavin Cummiskey

Gavin Cummiskey is The Irish Times' Soccer Correspondent