Helmareide’s EC tournament in 2022 will be remembered in retrospect for three clear losses, the weakest result in Finland’s EC tournament history and the uproar related to the head coach. It’s quite a bit after all the excitement before the tournament, writes HS sports reporter Ari Virtanen.
Finland the head coach of the women’s national football team has now been a Swede for almost five years Anna Signeul. His greatest credit is how he was able to coach Finland for the EC tournament. You can thank him for that too, that he helped Finnish players get to better clubs.
What else is left as a legacy of his five years?
The national team’s game developed very little, if at all, in the last five years. The development fell into place.
“Again we made a good performance. Of course we didn’t get the result. Again we were well organized in defense. We fought throughout the match,” Signeul said after the Germany match.
Was the performance good if Finland lost attacks in the Germany match by 16–69 and scoring attempts by 2–32. Finland’s defense didn’t really break, but headers were the team’s crowning glory – also in the match against Germany. And the defense had to be the team’s strongest area.
The match at the following press conference, Signeul was asked what he thinks about Finland’s attacking game.
“Maybe we need to keep the ball longer. We often lose it when we’re on the offensive. We have to develop that as a team and as individuals,” said Signeul.
It is true that the Finnish players often lost the ball, but also far too often the structure of the Finnish game led to losses.
Finland’s goal difference in the tournament was 1–9.
Only the second half of the last game showed what Finland could have done differently against, for example, Denmark. In the match against Germany, the fresh look of the game in the second period made me wonder if a bolder press could have been made earlier in the tournament?
Maybe Signeul didn’t dare to release his players to play more boldly. He also did not dare to make substitutions in time in the first two matches. In the last game, the first-timers in the tournament looked like they could have been trusted more.
To the team the best period was in the European Championship qualifiers, and after that problems started to appear in the defensive game.
Under the surface, problems in personnel management simmered for several years, and those festering boils burst during the EC tournament.
Anyone who followed the team could not have missed the change in the coaching staff, but the reasons became public much too late.
For the players, the tournament was a great experience, and the team certainly gained new supporters in Finland.
In the end, however, the tournament will be remembered for three clear losses, the weakest result in Finland’s EC tournament history and the uproar related to the head coach. It’s quite a bit after all the pre-tournament hype.
Signeuli’s contract is coming to an end at the end of the year. Hardly anyone will propose an extension contract.
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