The manager: Tarmo Rüütli
HIS WIKIPEDIA PAGE says that he is the manager of the Estonian National Football Team, and not much else. However a bit of digging shows that he’s the first manager in the short history of Estonian football to espouse passing football after the defensive style of Teitur Thordarson. Thordarson was Estonia’s Jack Charlton, a foreigner who built the foundations of a team on defensive strategies and the denial of space, but Rüütli plays to the talents of his players rather than making them fit into a rigid system. It’s clearly worked.
The leading scorer: Konstantin Vassiljev
Vassiljev is a skilful playmaker and the most skilful player in the Estonian ranks. The 27-year-old plays for Russian side Amkar Perm, and scored five goals in the qualifying campaign. “He can score fantastic goals out of nothing,” said defender Raio Piiroja, referring in particular to Vassiljev’s fantastic strike against Northern Ireland in the 2-1 win at Windsor Park. Glenn Whelan, in particular, will be charged with keeping the stocky trickster in check.
The lynchpin: Raio Piiroja
The 32-year-old Piiroja is the captain of the side and has amassed 107 caps as the country’s defensive rock. Piiroja plays with Vitesse Arnhem in Holland and has been through thick and thin with the Estonian squad – not least following successive defeats to Italy and Brian Kerr’s Faroe Islands in the qualifiers. “When we beat Serbia, of course expectations went high up, but then we lost to Italy,” Piiroja said. “It was 3-0, but we played horribly. It should have been worse. Then we lost to the Faroes, and we thought that was it, that we’d never make it.” He was wrong…
How they got to the play-offs:
A campaign that had been so-so up to the half-way point seemed to come completely undone over four days in June. A 3-0 defeat in Modena was followed by one of the worst results in the team’s history against the Faroes. They lost 2-0 and slumped to fourth in the group but successive wins over Slovenia and Northern Ireland (twice) left the Estonians hoping and praying that Slovenia could beat Serbia in Maribor on 11 October. Dare Vrsic – a 27-year-old Slovenian midfielder – scored arguably the most important goal in Estonian football history, while the Group C runners-up watched anxiously on television.
YouTube credit: KluivertQ
