The initial tournament of the lions has shown alarming signals of an oversaturated team, writes Riku Isokoski.
If you had to look for a metaphor for this year’s Leijon, it would be Ultra Bra’s hit from 1997.
Savanni falls asleep in the afternoon heat
We also put the tired lions to sleep
Satisfied with success, Jukka Jalonen’s lion pack has put these World Cups to bed until now, even though the match played at the beginning of the games against Sweden was a strong performance.
With the exception of that match, Leijonat has been very far from the performance certainty with which it has marched time and again in prestigious tournaments to the finals and championships in recent years.
Credit to Leijon in the deciding games seems to be still high despite this, and there are strong arguments for that. But in previous tournaments, execution has gone steadily upward towards games of fate.
Tournament playing is above all a process, and not even Leijonat can count on finding an imaginary magic button in front of the real one. Until now, the Lions’ process has been confusing in every way.
You could sense the confusion from Jalonen’s comments during the tournament, which showed a certain irritation and criticism of the team’s famous players from between the lines.
In terms of play, there have been a lot of question marks in Leijon, when they haven’t really found functioning chains and the defenders have often had difficulties under pressure. There have been many more problems than Jalonen’s current coach in previous tournaments.
In addition, it has seemed that opponents have found more ways to mix up the Lions’ play than in previous tournaments.
Of course, the matches against France, Hungary and Austria cannot be considered as a measure of the Lions’ true level, but in all of them, uncharacteristically sloppy performances were noticeable. Attitude injury?
The overall performance seen so far will not be enough for the WC gold this year. Of course, let’s remember that Leijonat is still the biggest favorite to win the championship, even though the first half of the tournament was lower than expected.
At some point, all dynasties face the situation when their opponents are hungrier and their own stomach is too full. The stomachs of this year’s Lions are already bulging menacingly.
The threat of disappointing matches has increased significantly, but the most important thing is still to win the right matches.
The lions’ tournament play has not convinced. PASI LEISMA