The first chapter of Tomi Lämsä’s playbook was not a hit.
Goalkeeper Aku Koskenvuo was one of Finland’s few successful players. ZumaWire / MVPHOTOS
The most interesting game of the day
Finland’s 2-3 overtime loss in the under-20 hockey world championships against Switzerland was a much weaker than expected opening of the competition from Nuori Leijon. I personally liked it and still do Tomi Lämsä as an unturned card, precisely as the head coach of the youth team. However, the first reveal of the deck turned out to be a trickier card than expected, as the Young Lions’ game was hugely less than the sum of its parts. Practically nothing was obtained from the material. The only part that worked was playing goalie.
The team’s style of play was confusingly shy. The defenders’ opening play or game courage in general shone in a shocking way by their absence. Due to the lack of opening play, there wasn’t really any reasonable structure in attacking, but the individuals pushed as much as they could – if even that.
The opening match was also characterized by rather miraculous plays and tangled chains. In the entire match, Finland managed only 16 shots towards Switzerland’s goal. In any case, the team’s offensive equipment is not that weak, and neither is Switzerland so strong that it should have caught Finland like that. Simply put, Finland’s way of playing did not work, and nothing in it fueled game courage or automation.
Quite often, after a poor performance, it is good that the next opportunity comes along as quickly as possible. Now this thesis is being put to the test, because the way of playing cannot be changed overnight if everything that was seen yesterday was there. The coach’s leadership and charisma are also immediately put to the test, because after an underperformance, the next game as a big favorite is often really challenging mentally. Without a clear mentality emphasizing courage and relaxation, the Finnish game runs the risk of becoming even more cautious due to fear.
In these games, Slovakia will be ranked as a tougher team than Switzerland in advance. As a very rough measure, you can use the amount of NHL bookings of different teams. Whereas Switzerland has two NHL reserved players, Slovakia has five of them. In Finland, there are 15 trains with NHL reservations. Some kind of indication of the general power relations between Finnish and Slovakian youth can be obtained from the fact that in the previous U20 World Championships played in August, Finland beat Slovakia 9–3 and a little later in a practice match played with different teams 6–0. Finland is clearly ahead of Slovakia when it comes to the overall level of the game.
Slovakia’s strongest area is attack, and correspondingly, goalkeeping is the biggest question mark. Although Slovakia’s defense as a whole is not the team’s driving force, one player from there is still worth watching. Extremely skilled on the puck Simon Nemec was reserved in the summer 2022 NHL draft as the second reservation to the New Jersey Devils.
Finland-Slovakia starts at 18:00 Finnish time.
In terms of betting, Veikkaus boldly raises Finland as a huge favorite against Slovakia, even after Monday’s difficulties in the game. The direct odds scale for tonight’s match is 1.28/6.90/7.25 and the main line of the handicap is 2.5 goals ahead for Slovakia. Even though I myself don’t like to overreact to one match and am about to throw Nuori Leijon down the slope from this seat, Finland does not like this game with a -2.5 goal score.
The closest tip is a 1.61 multiplier offered for under 6.5 goals, but since Slovakia is quite an attack-oriented team – unlike Switzerland – even that multiplier is not enough until the tip. This match is a pretty clear “no bet” game.
The best betting tip of the day
I name two early bets on Friday’s La Liga matches as Tuesday’s best bets. Both the 1.82 promised for the Getafe-Mallorca match over 1.5 goals and the 1.96 promised for the Celta-Sevilla match Sevilla +0.25 are both clearly the highest offers on the market. Both also taste sporty. In both of these there is a significant risk of the multiplier dropping, so I don’t think the offers will be valid anymore on Friday.
Games of the day: –
Total balance of the day’s games for the year: 66/113/107%
Every day Iltalehti chooses the most interesting game of the day and the best game destination of the day. You can always find them in the Betting and Ravit section.