Oct 11,2024
An old uncle used to send a postcard every summer; the destinations would change, but the words remained the same.
"Greetings from (random sunny place in Europe)", and that was it.
It struck my younger self that there must have been very little to report on from the seaside sojourn, or perhaps he was just splendidly isolated.
Over 1,300 Ireland fans have set off to Helsinki, and while they may have been expecting the colder climate, they have unfortunately been hit with a prolonged patch of inclement incomings.
The Ireland fans who actually want to get out and pound the pavements and see the sights during this autumnal expedition have been hampered by the relentless rain, real rain, cold rain, which has been ferociously slapping the streets of Scandinavia.
Finland, as it happens, is not actually part of the Scandinavian peninsula of Norway, Sweden and Denmark, but rather part of what forms the Nordic region, which also includes home of Heimir Hallgrimsson, Iceland, and the land that former manager Brian Kerr once ruled, the Faroe Islands.
So any postcards that do eventually make it home stating "Greetings from Helsinki", you can be sure that your loved ones were having absolutely no craic whatsoever, sitting idly in their hotel rooms eagerly anticipating whether this may or may not be the game that gets Ireland back to looking their normal selves, or at least a side that starts pushing back towards the top 30 of the FIFA rankings.
And if the team are looking for Irish-themed inspiration ahead of the game, they need look no further than the clay-coloured running track that surrounds the surface at the Olympic Stadium.
For it was that great day in 1983 when Eamonn Coghlan ran arguably the greatest race of his career to secure 5000m gold at the inaugural World Championships, creating that iconic celebration pose as he set off down the home straight to victory.
Sonia O'Sullivan followed suit to top the podium at the Europeans in 1994, while more recently, the Ireland women’s football team kickstarted their drive to the 2023 World Cup with a hard-fought, yet well-earned 2-1 victory over Finland in the qualifying stages.
The stadium also hosted the Olympics back in 1952 and Ireland took home one silver medal from the Games. No surprise, really, that it was a boxer in the form of bantamweight John McNally who flew the flag for the nation on that occasion, losing the gold medal bout to a local fighter – again nothing new there for the pugilist profession.
Ireland coach Hallgrimsson was in relaxed and, dare I say, confident mood at the pre-match press conference, while also taking time to enjoy a bit of a chinwag with the onlooking press who get to watch the first 15 minutes of the training session, before being banished back into the depths of the bunker-esque stadium surrounds.
"There must be coffee close by if you guys are here," said Heimir, as he mingled pitchside, before ambling onwards to take charge in the centre of the pitch.
Ireland’s training session coincided with the start of the rain, and the players were well-prepped as they entered the arena complete with gloves, hoods, snoods, and no doubt, long studs.
The stadium is expected to be far from full with only 20-odd thousand likely to show up; the Finnish FA not, it would seem, taking a leaf out of their Irish counterparts playbook by enforcing a two-ticket deal to cash in on England’s arrival on Sunday.
What was unusual about the Ireland session was that it happened so early in the morning, leaving quite the timespan until matchday kick-off at 9:45pm local time the following day.
"That's just my preference," explained Hallgrimsson. "I think that’s better in the environment we’re working in and especially travelling between countries, I think that is a good thing to do the training early and the players can choose what they do for the rest of the day."
Based on what followed for the next 12 hours in Helsinki, the players would have had to make do with whatever indoor activities were available in the hotel.
An eerie silence to the start of matchday, as the thumping rain had thankfully stopped at some stage in the early hours, giving way to a positively mild morning in the Finnish capital city, eventually allowing a good stretch of the legs back down past the stadium and into the city centre, where you are welcomed by the impressive and elevated parliament structure.
The brutalist buildings of the outer city are replaced by a sprawling selection of all forms and styles, with the ship-like library – the Oodi – and the art nouveau train station particularly standing out.
A short ramble brings you across a range of pedestrian zones and tramlines to take you down to the market square, where they sell fresh fish off the boats, while there also appears to be a real penchant for blueberries in this old town.
Two cathedrals dominate the skyline, while the city centre is obviously winter-proofed with huge shopping centres and department stores well-equipped to deal with the long dark winter which is just around the corner in these parts.
But despite the wintery rain of matchday minus one – as they like to call it in UEFA parlance – the locals were not yet ready to wrap up for the hibernation season, leaving me, dressed top to toe in an outfit more suited to the slopes than the streets, feeling like one of those Spanish students on a warm day in Dublin who refuse to part with their bubble coat and wooly hat.
No doubt, by the time kick-off eventually comes around at 9:45pm tonight, there will again be a bit of a bite in the air, and hopefully in the middle of the park as well, as Ireland look to finally kickstart the Heimir Hallgrimsson era.
