The weight of the result

Overtime in the WFC final between Sweden and Finland in Riga. Seven minutes in, Kim Nilsson breaks free with the ball on his blade, aims and shoots – but misses the net and has to shake his head in disappointment as the ball disappears into the short-side stands.

As we know now, the overtime remained goalless and Finland eventually won the trophy by beating their arch-rival in the penalty shootout.

In Finland, the team got a heroes’ welcome and even a floorball journalist like me could be stopped on the street by distant acquaintances to receive handshakes and congratulations as if I had had something to do with the result.  Analytic texts were written to point why Finland was the better team and why they deserved to win because of their tactical successes in the final. Those who had expressed criticism against Finland’s selection of players or amount of tactical training were ridiculed in internet comments.

In Sweden, players held their heads. Worried experts wrote theses about how Sweden had lost their position as the world’s best floorball country and how drastic measures were needed.

And in a way, all this just because Kim Nilsson missed the big opportunity.

Had he scored in the overtime, everything had been as usual. Swedish floorball people would have celebrated politely, reminding each other how their team once again showed why Sweden, after all, is the number one in floorball. Across a bit of cold sea, their Finnish counterparts would have moaned about how it always has to end this bitter way and about all the things the Finnish coaches did wrong during the two years leading to the WFC.

In elite sports, it’s all about the result. Still, those who know, remember that the result often includes its share of randomness. Even the best of the best can only control the result to a certain point.

Two years ago in Gothenburg, having lost the final against Sweden by 2-3, Finland’s head coach Petri Kettunen said it was a tight game of small margins and this time it ended this way.

In Riga, with a gold medal hanging from his neck, Petri Kettunen said it was a tight game of small margins and this time it ended this way.

He knows!

Both times he also said he had had the unforgettable opportunity to take the trip with a great team full of great persons and characters.

And after all, that may be the thing that is most important of all.