The development of the former Pikkuuuhkajis gives hope for a better tomorrow for the Huuhkajis

Screamers the head coach Jacob Friesin work land is not to be missed. He should create a united and competitive team from a rather average national team in European comparison during this year.

Everything is aimed at next year’s EC qualifiers, before which the League of Nations is played in the fall. There, Finland meets lower European countries like itself.

Friday’s international match against Hungary was the last warm-up before the Nations League. It was a promising match. Especially in the second period of the match, Finland had enough speed, aggressive pressing and hunger to score.

However, the match was decided in the opening period, when the level difference between the teams was still too clearly visible. While Hungary had five players from top-5 league teams in their starting line-up, Finland only had two (Ville Koski and Lukas Hradecky). In the upcoming EC qualifiers, Finland must beat countries of Hungary’s level.

Friesian during Finland has played seven matches against national teams better than itself and won only one match. That says a lot. In the reports, comments and analyzes about those matches, the story of how there have been too many mistakes has been repeated. The same thing happened on Friday.

In the opening period, Huuhkaj had a couple of weaker periods, for which the quality Hungarian team punished mercilessly.

First from a corner kick, and then just before the break. In those situations, it was emphasized that Huuhkajie’s players defended loosely. In the corner kick goal, Hungary gesturelessly blocked Finnish players, and the scorer Barnabas Vargalle there was too much space left. Anssi Suhonen bluntly lost the duel against Varga. In the second goal, Varga shot with freezing precision into the bottom corner.

Moved from top to left pack in the second period Tony Miettinen surprised by shooting a 1–2 narrowing goal. It was the first goal of his still short A national team career.

Right however, it is not all bad. There is now a generation growing up in Huuhkaj, which will hopefully go to the prestigious competitions sooner or later.

At the beginning of the second period against Hungary, there were seven players on the field at the same time, who played a big role in the under-21 national team that advanced to last summer’s EC tournament. It should be remembered that that team played a great 2-2 draw in their opening match of the EC tournament against Holland.

The Pikkuhuuhkajas seen on the field on Friday will form the team’s core for the coming years. Top pair Koski and Miettinen, defender Rony Janssonmidfielders Leo Walt and Adam Marhiev and attackers Naatan Skytt and Top Middle. A team that has played together for a long time can become more than the sum of its parts.

Central was Finland’s best player in the EC tournament last summer, and he showed on Friday as a substitute in the second period that he should be in the starting line-up in the fall.

At the end of the second period, Keskinen shot four times. He snatched balls, created a threat to the opponent with his speed and was close to scoring the equalizing goal. Keskinen’s shortcoming can be said that he still needs too many scoring opportunities per goal. Finishing accuracy should improve.

Nations at the beginning of the league, it seems that head coach Friis is finding some kind of permanent lineup. At the same time, he is relying on the style of play with which he was successful in Denmark.

Jacob Friis said Friday saw things that show the team is going in the right direction. One can agree with that.

As a pessimist, you could list a lot of things, what is wrong with Finnish football and how it is reflected in Huuhkaj. But for the sake of change, let’s take a positive view of the future: the occasional intensity and brashness seen in the former Pikkuhuahkaji players can be refined so that this Huuhkaji can grow into a new value competition team.