Official Finnish National Team Thread

[Internazionale]

Are Finland better then Norway now?

perhaps...the losing from Bosnia-Herzegovina was a big blow for Norway.

 

[Jaboldinho]

Damn it! Finland just lost to Adjerbaidzan 1-0. This ain't any good for the future of our qualification...

 

[Tosiek]

Thank you Azerbaijan. :mexican:

 

[Jaboldinho]

The field was awful, very bumpy. They played solid and used their chance. You're now going to win the group I think (Poland). I jus thope we can take the second place at least.

 

[::shinji::]

There's still a lot of football to be played... Poland's looks so far ahead right now because they've played 1 more game than the rest, they also have their hardest games ahead of them away to Portugal, Finland, and Serbia. Belgium can also still be a pain in the ass and take points.

I think this group will be close right up until the final qualification day

 

[Jaboldinho]

The Finnish National Team will play a celebration match of the National Team's 100th year against Spain, October the 17th at the Finnish Olypic Stadium in Helsinki.
Finland and Spain have collided once in their history, in 1969 in a world cup qualifying match, which the Finns won 2-0.

Pekka Hämäläinen ( the President of the Finnish football association) is very happy to get a world class opponent like Spain to play against Finland on that great day.

We'll be hoping to see a great friendly match.

 

[Jaboldinho]

Okay, we got 3 points from our last two games, so we pretty much need to win both matches ahead to qualify, or at least get 1 win and 1 tie. There's still a chance... Although it's starting to slip away we have gained 3 places on the new FIFA ranking list and are now 42nd.

 

[Tosiek]

12.09.2007 be ready on the defeat.

Now really, Finland and Poland lengthened the road to EURO as much as they only could. Now both teams have to win their every matches or almost everything if they want to play at stadiums in Switzerland and Austria.

But don't expect easy game in Finland, we're determined to win every game, especially after last defeat.

 

[Jaboldinho]

Inter is apparently interested to sign Hodgson as their sports expert or something, if we don't make it to the EURO 2008.

Hodgson is also gonna be one of two coachs for the "Rest of the World" -team against Africa's greatest on a Nelson Mandela 89th birthday friendly match.
The other coach for the team will be the head coach of Ghana NT, Claude le Roy. The team includes such legends as Pele and Ruud Gullit. Such players as Samuel Eto'o and George Weah will be playing for the Africa-team.

 

[Jaboldinho]

Inter is apparently interested to sign Hodgson as their sports expert or something, if we don't make it to the EURO 2008.

Hodgson is also gonna be one of two coachs for the "Rest of the World" -team against Africa's greatest on a Nelson Mandela 89th birthday friendly match.
The other coach for the team will be the head coach of Ghana NT, Claude le Roy. The team includes such legends as Pele and Ruud Gullit. Such players as Samuel Eto'o and George Weah will be playing for the Africa-team.

The Match was finished 3-3
Goals:
Ivan Zamorano
Abedi Pele
Hossam Hassan
Hossam Hassan
Ruud Gullit
Julen Guerrero

In other news, we have gained an amazing 1(!) place on the new FIFA ranking list and are now 41st.

 

[Jaboldinho]

Some good news: Mikael Forssell seems to be getting in the great shape we have been expecting from him. With his club team Birmingham City, he has been in Germany playing friendlies and scored 4 times in 3 matches. He's had a lot of injuries in his career and it seems like his finally recovering fully from them.

 

[Jaboldinho]

Some bad news: Jari Litmanen is going to have a surgery and will be out for 4-6 months. Surely this can't be a good thing for our qualifying matches. Hopely we can manage to win our matches without him. Get well soon Litti!

 

[Jaboldinho]

Roy Hodgson has announced the team against Kazakhstan:
Goalkeepers:
Jussi Jääskeläinen Bolton
Magnus Bahne Halmstads BK
Mikko Kavén TamU

Defenders:
Sami Hyypiä Liverpool
Hannu Tihinen FC Zürich
Toni Kuivasto Djurgården
Ari Nyman FC Thun
Toni Kallio BSC Young Boys
Petri Pasanen Werder Bremen

Midfielders
Teemu Tainio Tottenham
Markus Heikkinen Rapid Wien
Joonas Kolkka NAC Breda
Roman Eremenko Udinese
Jarkko Wiss TamU
Mika Nurmela HJK
Aki Riihilahti Djurgården
Mika Ääritalo TPS
Daniel Sjölund Djurgården
Alexei Eremenko jr Saturn

Forwards:
Shefki Kuqi Crystal Palace
Jonatan Johansson Malmö FF
Mikael Forssell Birmingham
Jari Niemi TamU

 

[Jaboldinho]

Hodgson has announced the starting eleven for tomorrow's match:
Jussi Jääskeläinen; Toni Kallio, Sami Hyypiä, Hannu Tihinen, Petri Pasanen; Joonas Kolkka, Markus Heikkinen, Roman Eremenko, Teemu Tainio, Alexei Eremenko jr and Jonatan Johansson.

I could imagine the formation being something like this:

---------Jääskeläinen-----------
Kallio--Tihinen--Hyypiä--Pasanen
------Kolkka----Heikkinen-------
---R. Eremenko------Tainio-----
-----------------Eremenko jr.---
--------Johansson--------------

The game is not going to be easy, especially with three keyplayers (Litmanen, Forsell and Väyrynen) missing, but I'm hoping that we can manage to score a goal or two and concede none. We really need to win this if we want to keep our hopes alive for the tournament.

 

[Jaboldinho]

Well, we won Kazhakstan 2-1 and as Portugal drew 1-1 against Armenia, our hopes are still alive for the spot to the tournament. We have 2 points more than Portugaö, but they've played 1 match less, so we still need to win our last match to have any kind of a chance.

 

[Jaboldinho]

Roy Hodgson has announced the team for the matches against Serbia and Poland:

Goalkeepers:

Jussi Jääskeläinen, Bolton Wanderers
Mikko Kavén, Tampere United
Niki Mäenpää, FC Den Bosch

Defenders:

Sami Hyypiä, Liverpool
Hannu Tihinen, FC Zürich
Petri Pasanen, Werder Bremen
Toni Kallio, BSC Young Boys
Toni Kuivasto, Djurgårdens IF
Ari Nyman, FC Thun
Sampsa Timoska, QPR

Midfielders:

Teemu Tainio, Tottenham Hotspur
Mika Väyrynen, PSV Eindhoven
Joonas Kolkka, NAC Breda
Markus Heikkinen, SK Rapid Wien
Jari Ilola, IF Elfsborg
Mika Nurmela, HJK
Jarkko Wiss, Tampere United
Daniel Sjölund, Djurgårdens IF
Roman Eremenko, Udinese
Mika Ääritalo, TPS
Alexei Eremenko jr., FC Saturn

Forwards:

Mikael Forssell, Birmingham City
Jonatan Johansson, Malmö FF
Shefki Kuqi, Fulham
Jari Niemi, Tampere United

 

[Dipanjan]

Do you know Bob Houghton?

 

[Jaboldinho]

No.

 

[RobbieD_PL]

Litmanen is Back

http://www.uefa.com/competitions/euro/news/kind=1/newsid=616762.html

Oh, and I'd like to post my condolences to the victims of the Jokela school massacre.

 

[Jaboldinho]

Thank you for that, I don't like the way The Times wrote about the massacre, how we depend on electronics, suicides are common and so on. That's just a load of bullcrap.

Good to have Litti back, we really need him in these decicive matches which will decide everything.