Finland The women’s national volleyball team lost to Portugal on Sunday in Tampere in the second final match of the Silver League, first the actual match 1–3 and after the score was tied 3–3, the extra set played after that with the overtime balls 21–23.
Finland had three tie balls in the fourth set of the actual match, winning one of which would have resulted in a point and promotion to the Golden League for the 2025 season would have been secured.
Even in the extra round By Nikolas Buser coached team had two match points, but in the end, Portugal sealed the away win with their eighth match point, and their celebrations after the medal distribution started wild.
The Finnish players and the team received silver medals, but that did not console anyone. Buser summed up the match and the disappointment bravely.
“Portugal clearly improved from the opening match [Suomi voitti vieraissa 3–0], we couldn’t reach the same level. We couldn’t put pressure on their reception with the pass. It’s too early to say what the lesson was from this match, but these two matches were good preparation for the EC qualifiers,” said Buser.
In the EC qualifiers starting in August, Finland will first face Switzerland at home and then Germany away. The qualifiers will continue in August 2025 with Switzerland away and Germany at home.
There would have been much better preparation for the August 2025 qualifiers if Finland had moved up to the Golden League. The best European countries from positions 9 to 20 play there.
“In the Golden League, we would have had more tough matches like this, now we don’t get as tough opponents,” Buser lamented.
The Portuguese players celebrated the victory wildly.
The year 2026 the women’s European Championships are played in Azerbaijan, Sweden, the Czech Republic and Turkey. Finland has participated in the three previous European Championships in 2019, 2021 and 2023. In all of them, the number one passer has been the passer who will be moving to Houston of the new American professional league next season Kaisa Alanko.
“I’m going to challenge another passer, and the goal is to play as much as possible. I’m leaving for Houston at the beginning of November, the season will be played there in January-April,” said Alanko.
As many as nine of the league’s players have already been selected for the team that will defend the Tokyo Olympic gold medal in Paris, including two future teammates, i.e. passari Micha Hancock and a chipper Jordan Thompson.
“Now I’m taking a vacation, then we’ll focus on the EC qualifiers and after them there’s another vacation period. I accepted Houston’s offer largely because the body gets a long rest period,” said 31-year-old Alanko.
Alanko played his 143rd national A match on Sunday. The other six players in the lineup of the deciding moments of the fourth set did not have as many of them in total.
#Volleyball #silver #league #victory #slipped #Finlands #hands #dramatic
