Estonia 3-2 Finland in Tampere: Pool C Ends With a Fifth Set Nobody Scripted

In Nokia Arena, Tampere, on Thursday night, a woman's voice sang the Finnish national anthem before the first serve: Olivia Kunnari, niece of head coach Olli Kunnari. The 9,813 people in the stands rose to their feet. I sat in front of a screen in Hai Phong, six time zones away, hearing the applause echo after every line, and wondering how many people in Vietnam were awake with me.

Two hours later, in the fifth set, the score closed at 15-11 for Estonia. The host nation lost its share of the Pool C crown. Estonia had a second straight win, having managed only one victory in the tournament before that.

I rewatched the footage until nearly one in the morning. What kept me there was the way the match unfolded, and one detail the final standings revealed that almost never made it into the summaries.

Pool C was settled before the first serve

Belgium had already locked up top spot in the day's early match, sweeping Serbia 3-0 (25-19, 25-21, 25-16) to reach 13 points. Finland came into the Estonia match on 10 points; a 3-0 or 3-1 win would have drawn them level with Belgium. They lost 2-3, collected one more point, and stopped at 11.

The format is unchanged from recent editions: 24 teams, four pools of six, with the top four from each pool advancing to the round of 16. The FIVB points system rewards teams that finish matches early — a 3-0 or 3-1 win is worth 3 points, a 3-2 win only 2, a 2-3 loss still earns 1, and a 0-3 or 1-3 loss earns nothing. Estonia entered this match on 3 points and left it on 5.

Tampere is one of the tournament's host venues. Finland played at home, with a squad rated above Estonia's. In the opening set, the Marttila brothers and Joonas Jokela kept finding gaps in the Estonian block, and the hosts finished it 25-22. Jokela reached 100 caps for Finland on that very evening.

Milestones like that are usually mentioned once, and only when the result cooperates.

Sets two and three: Estonia read the home block

Estonia answered in the second set through a surge from opposite Timo Andre Lohmus. He opened a 16-11 lead before closing it out 25-21. Estonia's approach in set two was nothing like set one: the second ball was pushed quickly to both wings, and Finland's block was stretched horizontally instead of being attacked straight down the middle. When a block has to move side to side continuously, its two middle blockers lose position, and attacks from the number four position find ground.

It was a simple adjustment, and an effective one. Estonia did not try to hit faster than Finland; they hit wider. In modern men's volleyball, when two teams are of similar height, the side that controls the width of the net usually controls the rhythm of the match.

In the third set, Finland almost turned it around. Luka Marttila fired three straight aces to tie the set at 19-19. That is the kind of serve I still call a gamble serve — aimed at the weakest reception zone, accepting the risk of a direct error in exchange for chaos in the opponent's defence.

Estonia did not flinch. Lohmus delivered a decisive block for a 22-20 lead, and Estonia closed the set 25-22.

One block at the right moment at 20-20 is worth more than three aces at 19-19. That sounds paradoxical, but it reflects the nature of this sport: an ace is a reward for boldness, while a well-timed block is a reward for patience. Estonia won the third set on the second half of that equation.

Finland refused to fold, and the fifth set opened up

Finland's coach sent Niko Suihkonen on for Nooa Marttila. Suihkonen scored 7 points, a modest contribution next to the main hitters, but his value lay in forcing Estonia's block to read the game from scratch. The hosts took the fourth set 25-20 and dragged the match into a fifth.

A player who comes on mid-match usually brings a different attacking rhythm, and Estonia spent almost the entire fourth set adjusting. That is why I always watch substitutions in the third and fourth sets — they rarely show up in the final box score, but they decide matches more often than a pretty spike.

The fifth set is only 15 points. Estonia closed it at 11, and the way they closed it is the story: they never let Finland take the lead once in the deciding set. For a team that had just lost the fourth set and could hear 9,813 people screaming behind their opponents, holding the lead from start to finish is a matter of nerve.

Lohmus said afterwards that Estonia wanted badly to win again in front of the crowd and gave everything it had. Finland captain Antti Ronkainen admitted Estonia played well, wanted the fifth set more, and fought hard to the end; now Finland turns its attention to its next opponent.

I liked Ronkainen's answer. It did not hunt for excuses, did not blame the referees, did not invoke the venue. A captain who can say that after losing a fifth set at home is a captain who can still take his team a long way.

Two sources, two box scores, one old lesson

There is one technical detail worth pausing on. Volleytimes.com credited Lohmus with 24 points and Teppan with 16. WorldofVolley had it the other way around: Teppan 24, Lohmus 16. Two reputable sources, two different sets of numbers for the same match.

I was not in Nokia Arena, so I cannot adjudicate. My rule in cases like this is to keep both and name the sources, rather than pick one table and present it as gospel. The Russia World Cup taught me this: sometimes forgetting your assignment is the way you remember the job longest. I once forgot to record a press conference in Moscow. Beer with Brazilian colleagues, and the next morning I was asking a junior colleague for his recording — and from then on I never relied on a single source for any detail.

What is more certain than any individual box score: Estonia won their last two pool matches with two different weapons. Against the Netherlands they won 3-1 (27-25, 25-22, 18-25, 25-23), and two consecutive Lohmus aces at 22-22 in the fourth set proved decisive — again a gamble serve, and this time it landed. Against Finland they won with blocking and with a fifth set in which they led from start to finish.

A team that wins two matches in two different ways is a team that has found more than one answer. That is the mark of a well-coached group, not a lucky one.

What the standings said and the reports did not

This is where I want to be blunt.

Estonia beat Finland, and Estonia still went home.

With 5 points from two wins, Estonia finished fifth in Pool C. The pool only takes four. Serbia and Denmark both had 7 points, two more than Estonia, and both are in the round of 16. The published fixtures do not include Estonia: Finland face Greece, Belgium meet Czechia, Slovenia play Serbia, Italy face Denmark.

Even if Estonia had beaten Finland 3-0 instead of 3-2, they would still have had only 6 points and would still have finished fifth. Their best win of the tournament could not change their own fate. It only took away the host nation's chance to draw level with Belgium at the top of the pool — one line in a table, and a little bit of the host country's pride.

That is the nature of round-robin play: two late wins cannot repair three early defeats. Under a knockout format, Estonia would still be playing this week. Under a round-robin format, Estonia were eliminated by arithmetic before they could win their best match.

I still hear colleagues talk about wins that "matter for morale". Morale is real, and it deserves recognition. But a team that leaves the tournament after beating the pool's second-placed side does not need to be consoled with morale. They need a different format, or they need to play better in their first three matches.

Put another way, round-robin play rewards consistency and punishes explosion. Estonia exploded just as the tournament was closing for them, and the price of a late explosion is a seat at home. Volleyball, like most team sports, tends to reward the steadiest team rather than the best team in a given moment.

And this is where I feel the loss. A 24-team tournament split into four pools of six has room for teams like Estonia to advance if the format were a little wider. European volleyball chose severity, and that severity both produced a great match and took away the winner's prize.

The round of 16 opens on Saturday

The round of 16 begins on Saturday in Sofia and Turin.

In Sofia on 19 September, Poland play Latvia and Germany face Bulgaria. Also in Sofia on 20 September, Ukraine meet Romania and France face Portugal.

In Turin, Finland face Greece and Belgium meet Czechia across 20 and 21 September. Slovenia play Serbia in Turin on 21 September. Italy face Denmark the same weekend.

The semifinals and the medal matches will be held in Milan.

For Finland, the defeat to Estonia is a scratch, not yet a wound. They are still in the next round, still second in the pool, and still have every chance of going deep on home soil. But they enter the knockout stage with a lost fifth set in their heads, and their next opponent is Greece — a team that carries none of the weight of 9,813 home fans.

Estonia left Tampere differently. More than 5,000 people watched the livestream of three former national players, so I am no longer alone — but in Vietnam, almost nobody will mention Estonia the next morning. A team that won its last two matches and was still eliminated deserves to be remembered at least once.

Volleyball does not repay effort that arrives on time. But a writer can repay it on the sport's behalf. Estonia won in Tampere, and that win has no ticket to Turin. At 60 I still think of myself as the girl jumping up and down in the stands at Lach Tray, and I still believe the match nobody remembers is the one most worth remembering.