Pride swells for Minnesota United's national team players, but MLS break cuts both ways

Until now, Finland's national soccer team hadn't qualified for a major soccer tournament in 114 years, which is another way of saying next month's UEFA European championship is its first.

"It's big, for the whole country," Finnish midfielder Robin Lod said.

Big enough that Lod and Minnesota United teammate Jukka Raitala leave after Saturday's game in Salt Lake City to play for their country for at least the next three weeks. They could be gone longer if Finland advances in the tournament, which holds its final July 11.

Finland hasn't played in a European championship or a World Cup, each held every four years, since its soccer federation was established in 1907. The first World Cup played was 1930, the first Euros were in 1960.

Flag-waving fans stormed the field and fireworks exploded in the night sky when Finland, after so many chances through the decades, defeated Liechtenstein 3-0 in November 2019. By doing so, it qualified for Euro 2020, which was delayed until this summer because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The country's prime minister tweeted congratulations that night. Finland's coach called the achievement a "generational dream."

"Everybody in the country who follows football, they'd been dreaming of this and now finally it happened," Lod said. "Everybody was watching because it was something unique that happened."

Gregus and Rusnak stayed in the United States to play Saturday's game with their MLS teams.

It's a conundrum for Loons coach Adrian Heath, whose efforts to build a better club the past five seasons now mean more absences to fill during FIFA international schedule breaks.

MLS plays a spring-to-fall schedule while leagues in England, Europe and South America have just finished — or are finishing — their seasons.

Loons goalkeeper Dayne St. Clair is expected to be recalled by the Canadian national team for World Cup qualifiers that begin next Saturday and has CONCACAF Gold Cup games in July. Defender Romain Metanire plays for his Madagascar team and Michael Boxall for New Zealand, but not during this FIFA break.

"That's the hardship of playing on a different schedule with everybody else," Heath said. "It's difficult when it comes because you obviously want to bring the best players to your club. And obviously the best talent you have on your roster, the bigger chance you have losing players for what could be four, five, six weeks, depending how far they go."

"As the league grows with more and more quality players at a really young age who want to come to the States, it's only going to get worse, I think," Heath said.

Slovakia now has qualified twice as an independent nation for the Euros. The first time took Gregus and his team to France in 2016.

"Not many people believed in us, but we made it possible again," Gregus said. "I would like it to be in France, like in 2016. It's huge. It's amazing. It's the biggest thing after the World Cup."

This summer's Euros and the 2022 World Cup will now be played in consecutive summers, just this once.

Gregus, Lod and Raitala all will be gone while the Loons integrate newly signed attackers Adrien Hunou, Franco Fragapane and Ramon Abila into the team, which will train without a game scheduled for the next three weeks after Saturday.