If you can't beat them...

If you can't beat them, get drunk in the market sqaure watching them.

The Finland v Sweden Olympic Ice Hockey Final was such an event, that there was actually a minimal amount of drunks in the town centre during the game. Really.

There was a lot of hype in town that weekend, with a alleged ticker tape parade in Helsinki for the returning athletes (well did anyone actually stay awake till three am to see it?!).

But the world's media (ie America!) didn't see the event as exciting:

"Peter Forsberg, who plays for the Philadelphia Flyers, will represent Sweden in the Winter Games. He’ll be one of the players to watch during the ice hockey competition, but not that many people will be viewing it besides those in the U.S. and French Canada." From NBC.

Er how about the people of Sweden for a start?

And apparently the host country didn't even show interest:
To the average Italian, Olympic hockey is barely an after-ski talking point.

Fortunately one Australian, spurred by her Finnish friends ("you must learn to hate Sweden") watched the last twenty minutes in the market square with much tension. I've never seen such organised inhalation, foot stamping (it was minus ten and we were in the shade) and co-ordinated proclamations of Vittu...

And I even felt Finnish; it hurt to lose:

"TORINO, Italy - Finland completed the Olympic hockey tournament with a 7-1 record, the top two point-getters, a goalie who was named most valuable player and all they got for their incredible and memorable effort was a silver medal that looks like a compact disc.

For all of Finland's efforts, they got the medal that no one in hockey wants. Their 3-2 loss in the gold medal game put a devastating end to a seven-game winning streak, incredible team play and goaltending, leaving them with an empty feeling.

To be the runner up in the gold medal is to beg the question: Is better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all? Either way, it hurts more for the Finns than the teams that didn't even make it to the quarterfinals.

"It's a proud moment, but also a tough one," Finnish captain Saku Koivu said. "There's moments like this in sport, in hockey, where it's tough to see the positive at the moment.

This silver medal feels like a tragedy. As the Swedes celebrated on the ice, television cameras here in Torino caught a glimpse of a Finnish fan, head down, weeping uncontrollably.

Was the fan weeping for his country, himself, or the fact that players like Selanne and Koivu may not get another shot at gold at Vancouver in 2010?

"We lost the game, that's it," Lehtinen said. "We played a great tournament, but today we took one more goal than we had to. It's a pity, losing the final after such a tournament we played. We always won, at the end we only got a silver medal."

The medal nobody considers a "win".

Ice hockey spectator photos here.