Arvas seeks growth on and off the field

Pitt sophomore midfielder Roosa Arvas claims that the United States and her home country of Finland share pop culture icons and trends. The leading box-office sellers, chart-toppers on iTunes and subjects of tabloids all have common ground in both distant nations.

Yet Arvas somehow had never heard of 2 Chainz, one of America’s most recognized rappers, until one of her first practices at Pitt. Since Danielle Benner, then a senior Panther midfielder, did the inevitable and introduced Arvas to 2 Chainz last year, teammates have heard the name chanted more frequently. 

“We were doing one-v-one, like a 50-yard game, and [Arvas] pulled this sweet move and obviously scored,” senior defender Caroline Keefer said. “So she started just going, ‘2 Chainz!’ every time she scored.”

Most of the chances to celebrate, however, were in practices rather than games. Arvas finished with just three goals in 19 matches, but she did rack up eight assists — so the team adapted to allow for “2 Chainz” to remain a fixture on the field. 

The moniker now serves to identify one of the Panthers’ set pieces, a dead-ball opportunity to set up an offensive attack or maintain possession. With either approach, Arvas is the maestro sure to orchestrate the process.

This could be rattling, being relied upon to serve a cross from the corner and find a teammate’s head or drive a ball on goal from 20 or 30 yards out. 

But Arvas, who stands at 5-foot-8 with fair skin and light blond hair, does not feel the pressure, which is perhaps why she answers so cooly when asked what defines her ability to pinpoint free kicks.

“I don’t know,” she said nonchalantly with a soft-spoken Finnish accent. “My technical skills are so good that I can put the ball [in the] same place every time.”

Arvas said she has always been the one to take set pieces since she was young, thriving on the exposure to carve out a niche on the field. Such confidence has resonated with her teammates.

“Her free kicks are awesome. They’re always spot-on,” Keefer said. “I’m never nervous when Roosa has to go take free kicks. I always get this feeling that something good is going to happen whenever she has those [opportunities].”

Though the Kuopio, Finland, native has carried one aspect of her game across nations, she is quick to admit to having sought on-field adjustments after first tasting the NCAA style of play.

“The American way [of playing soccer] is so much faster and more physical than Finnish soccer,” Arvas said. “It was a challenge at first to adapt, but now I think I’m playing faster and getting more physical.”

The accolades prove her smooth transition: Last year Arvas earned Fourth-Team All-American honors, was named Big East Women’s Soccer Rookie of the Week on Aug. 27, led Pitt with 14 points and finished third in the Big East in assists. 

Of course, Arvas said she came to Pittsburgh — more than 4,200 miles from her home in Kuopio — to experience how other countries play soccer, make the necessary modifications to her game and better prepare for a future in the sport after college. But even the up-tempo, grinding play Arvas encountered on the field was not as much of an obstacle as having to communicate in a new language on a daily basis. Though she has studied English since third grade, she said the curriculum she encountered focused mostly on grammar, with few opportunities to speak the foreign language outside of class. 

So when she returned to Kuopio for the summer after her freshman year, Arvas was relieved to speak Finnish and continue competing on the field. 

She returns with a regained confidence that had at times been lost during her first experience stateside. And now that Pitt has moved to the ACC, the toughest college soccer conference, success comes at a premium and any morale boosts are needed.

Freshman forward and midfielder Ella Vanhanen is one of those boosts, a fellow Kuopio native, former teammate and longtime friend of Arvas. 

Vanhanen remembers the first time she met Arvas, her voice perking up to describe the scene.

“The first time I saw Roosa she was shooting, scoring on the goal,” she said. “I was looking, like, ‘She can shoot!’”

The two have high expectations in rejoining forces for the season, with Vanhanen citing Arvas’ ability to connect on passes in the wide spaces of the field. They’ll feed off each other — Arvas as part-mentor, part-maestro — upping the Panthers chemistry.

But does one year and one player really make that much of a difference? Is Arvas ready to again leave behind her love of ruisleipa (a Finnish take on rye bread) and saunas (considered a necessity to Finns) to face a foreign language and staggering ACC opponents?

Just ask Keefer.

“Now that [Arvas] is back, she’s definitely a lot better [with English],” she said. “It’s so much easier to have conversations with her — she’s picked up on sarcasm and jokes around [the team] a lot more. She’s in better shape this year than she was last year. Her transition this season has been a lot better than it was last season already — and we’re only two weeks in [to practice].”