Tampere, Finland– Canada's Men's World Cup team suffered a 3-2 loss to Finland in an international friendly played in Tampere, Finland, Saturday.

The Canadians got off to a rocky start against the No. 38-ranked Finns and were down 3-0 at halftime. Michael Forssell opened the scoring in the 15th minute when he bent a ball around Canadian goalkeeper Pat Onstad and inside the far post.

Canadian head coach Colin Miller switched to a 4-3-3 formation to start the scond half and the strategy worked as the Canadians enjoyed more of the play and began to get more balls to strikers Tomasz Radzinski, Paul Peschisolido and Dwayne de Rosario (who replaced Ante Jazic at halftime).

Several players marked their return to the Canadian side. Mark Watson played his first game since 2001 and was named captain for the game. Paul Peschisolido also made his first start since 2001 as did Marc Bircham.

Lars Hirschfeld replaced Onstad to start the second half as Miller had decided prior to the game to give each goalkeeper a half.

Radzinski took a nice pass from de Rosario in the 72nd minute and turned and fired a rocket inside the far post side netting. In the 86th minute Radzinski returned the favor sending a square ball across to de Rosario who made it 3-2 with a good finish.

"I wasn't happy with our start but we showed a lot of character by coming back in the second half," said Miller. "The lads worked hard in training and I was glad with the second half performance which gives us something to build on as we prepare for World Cup Qualifying in 2004."