Tapani left the WC to go home for a friend's wedding and missed the match against the USA.

An event that stirred emotions in Finland.

Tapani doesn't apologize for interrupting the World Cup to attend a wedding, but for the uproar the matter has caused.

- I left on Friday when we didn't have a match and returned on Sunday.

I paid for the trip myself.

It is unnecessary to discuss it further.

At the time it felt like a good decision.

My friends and my family are important to me.

We made the decision together and now I have to live with it, she told Yle before the match against Japan.

The Finnish team management initially tried to obscure the reason for Tapani's absence, explaining it as "personal reasons".

But the news of her visit to the wedding, in the middle of the burning World Cup, leaked out.

Now the national team captain Juuso Toivola, who gave Tapani the green light, is remorseful:

- Of course we thought about whether the decision was right.

We must consider how we reason in such cases in the future.

This may have been a misjudgment.

It's sad that we caused this commotion.

We regret that.

Finland, who took bronze in the Olympics and last World Cup, have won one and lost two matches so far.

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Katarina Jobst-Smith fell over when she was about to take a penalty.

Photo: SVT