Current Mood: Cool & Esctatic

Finland is playing tomorrow and all that is good is a win! But what makes it difficult is the fact that we’re playing against Portugal, away! So crap hit me in the nuts and call me a jackass if you think we’ll be able to win. The only factor defending for our win is the fact that we’ve played really badly against weaker teams and the performed a lot better against bigger countries. So since I think most of the football fans think Portugal is one of the biggest football countries in the world, we might actually have a chance. And here to give the prescription for a win, is the world famous football analyst, Tonsku Daigle:

*applauses here*

So, in order to stop the mind-blowing attacking play Portugal is able to provide, we need to stop the attacks mainly coming from the sides. The likes of Cristiano Ronaldo, Nani and Quaresma are extremely dangerous and will surely provide troubles to our backlines. Usually Finland has played Kallio and Pasanen as full-backs, but in this case I might give Kallio a boot in the ass. He’s tall, but his agility is nowhere near the likes of the Portuguese names mentioned earlier. Their technique and ability to challenge a defender is world class and in every way a threat to any defender in the world. So in order to have any chances tomorrow, our defenders need to stay focused! Tihinen and Hyypiä will most likely be playing in the central defense and are less likely to fail against the likes of Hugo Almeida, who admittedly is a strong guy and a good goalscorer. But I believe Tihinen or Hyypiä here are able to provide such strong marking that he should be lucky to get more than 2 attempts on goal.

Midfield is of course the center of attention. Deco, Maniche on the Portuguese side and Tainio, Litmanen and Väyrynen (I think Finland will come with 4-5-1 tactic tomorrow). Apparently Eremenko Jr is still sidelined due to that streetfight attack in Moskov past week and broke his nose. So he’s not playing. I am sure Tainio is able to provide such raging defensive play as well as attacking support that not many in the world can. Väyrynen has been a bit down lately due to lack of chances in PSV line-up, but I assume we will be using this versatile midfielder tomorrow or at least I hope Roy Hodgson sees what I see in him. And of course we have Litmanen though I doubt he will be playing for more than 45mins so assuming this is the case, Finland will go with 4-4-2 since we really need to win this game and to win a game, at least one goals is required.

As for the wingers, we’ve been relying on Daniel Sjölund the past games which has been good. I wrote earlier on this blog about the generation that should step in for Nurmela and Kolkka. Now Sjölund has been placed on the left side and Kolkka has been playing on the right side. This has been good and it finally seems that Kolkka is enhancing his performances. So I will go with these guys tomorrow.

As for the attack. I’d strongly recommend going with Kuqi and Forssell and leave Johansson out of the squad. Well some people know about my “appreciation” towards JJ and to tell you the truth, he sucks. Not di*k… well I don’t know. But he’s not worthy of the Finland National Team squad.

Finally, expected Finland line-up for tomorrow:

Jääskeläinen
Pasanen - Tihinen -  Hyypiä - Kallio
Kolkka - Tainio - Väyrynen - Sjölund
Kuqi - Forssell