Finland vs Slovenia – my thoughts from the baseline

Back to covering EuroBasket qualifiers last night … thoughts??

Let’s start with the positives – from my point of view – and I am just a simple fellow looking at the game through the lens, so no great journalistic insights here (and looking at things from the Finnish point of view)

POSITIVES :

• The fans : Having the ‘club tickets’ type of system really is great for international matches, prevents it becoming too .. how to say this nicely 😉 .. corporate and prawn sandwich. And last night the young fans started the chants to support Finland and rest of the crowd did follow (after a while!). Without these fans the atmosphere in this game, or majority of games would not be as good as it was last night. So a BIG thank you to the young fans for making noise all through out the game!
• Lilli Onnela and Magdalene Agyei : Agyei has already been making her impact in the Susiladies games before, and her impact was good again last night, double digits on the points and few boards and assist to go with it – one of the bright sparks of the game. Lilli Onnela – for those following Finnish youth basketball on the national team level, or for those who follow the Finnish domestic league – it is no surprise that the 2006 born player is GOOD!!! – and making her debut at the Susiladies last night, she definitely was a player who belonged to be playing at this level – already at her age. Onnela was also the ONLY Finnish player who was on the positive in the +/- stats – with +5 – every other player was in the minus, and she was playing for almost 15 minutes, so it was not just a short cameo on the court.
• The WU16 and WU17 teams : It was superb to see this years BEST Finnish National teams getting recognition at half time – with the WU17 World Cup Top8 team and WU16 European Champions … these generations of young Finnish players have been used to playing against the BEST and also WINNING against the best. I hope most of these players will keep at their careers – as I definitely see lots of future Susiladies players in these youngsters!
• The first few minutes : Start of the game was great, Finland came running out of the blocks and Sara Bejedi was all over the court, and Finland was running the court, taking steals and looked like the caught Slovenia napping a little during the opening exchanges. It looked like basketball that was fun to watch and the players seemed to enjoy playing it – if only that would have lasted for 40 minutes.

Not really sure I want to go into the negatives – BUT .. let’s take my own negatives from MY performance.

Really felt like it I hadn’t been shooting a game in like five years – somehow just felt a little lost, didn’t feel like I got the angles right, had the wrong lens on, missed the action .. just NOT a very good night behind the camera for me.

Also living with the VCD – not being able to talk to other photographers, players, etc before/during the game – it’s just not what I am used to. But what can you do – try to talk while there is music on, and the throat just ‘snaps shut’ … so better just be quiet and not talk and not end up wheezing by the court.

Referees – yep, I know – they did know exactly how to position themselves in the right places in front the photographers 😉 This, I know, is due to the fact that the view that a photographer wants of the basket and what the referee wants .. they are the same. Unfortunately also us photographers can NOT go in front of the referees… but hey, this is just the way it goes and I have learned to live with it 😉 No hard feelings!

Last point I noticed – JESSICA SHEPARD is a VERY GOOD basketball player – she was just good all across the court and did everything .. with a player like that on ANY teams roster, you always have a better chance of winning than losing. As someone who does see a fair bit of basketball – it is always great to see players of this level at the game you take photos of!!!

Now – couple of more days of #hotelLife in Helsinki – on Sunday we go again. Few training sessions to shoot between now and then – some videos and stuff to make .. but Sunday is a Game Day with Susiladies looking to get a W over Bulgaria!!