Veikkausliiga

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October 25, 2008

Veikkausliiga last day

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I'll do a live blog of Veikkausliiga's last day tomorrow. It will begin a couple of hours before the games start, as I'm a bit too tipsy to write a preview now. I'll be in Turku watching Inter v Jaro, which is hopefully not going to be postponed, while Honka travel to Åland to take [...] Click to continue reading...

October 23, 2008

Veikkausliiga players of the year

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The Veikkausliiga players of the year have been announced. The players union choices are as follows: Player of the year: Dominic Chatto (FC Inter) Newcomer of the year: Aleksandr Kokko (FC Honka) Referee of the year: Tero Nieminen And Veikkausliiga selected: Goalkeeper of the year: Patrick Bantamoi (FC Inter) Defender of the year: Jos Hooiveld (FC Inter) Midfielder of the year: Mika [. Click to continue reading...

Espoo

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Cities tend to have a distinguishing feature, something that sets them apart from their rivals. Venice has canals, Barcelona offers weird looking Gaudi architecture, New York has sky scrapers. In Espoo - second biggest municipality in Finland, and home to Nokia headquarters - the main feature of the landscape is the car park. Click to continue reading...

October 19, 2008

Veikkausliiga Round 25 preview, part 2

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TamU beat Honka 4-3 in an entertaining game that saw TamU stir up the title race once again. A few weeks ago they got a home win against Inter and now the other title candidate was treated to a defeat at their hands. FC Lahti - IFK Mariehamn A win would guarantee IFK Mariehamn a place in [...] Click to continue reading...

October 18, 2008

JJK win promotion to Veikkausliiga

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Jyväskylä in Central Finland is a town of about 85 000 people and until today it has held a record they should not be proud of: for a long time Jyväskylä has been the biggest town in Finland that has never had a football club in the top flight of Finnish football. In Jyväskylä, football has [.. Click to continue reading...

Veikkausliiga Round 25 Preview

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Honka v TamU This is a rehearsal for the Cup Semi final on Wednesday. TamU have nothing to play for in the league, and a big game against the same opponents on Wednesday. On the other hand, they probably won't want to go into that game off the back of a heavy defeat. "We got to rest [...] Click to continue reading...

October 11, 2008

The yoot dem

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Got a train to catch, so I'll make this quick: the under 21s lost 2-1 in Austria last night, leaving things in the balance for the second leg in Turku this Tuesday. Perparim Hetemaj got the goal for Finland. I'm hearing from the Greek football press that Jukka Raitala was watched by Olympiacos last night. Click to continue reading...

HBL Volt article

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Every year at least one Finnish club has what could be termed a 'big tie' against European opposition. Last year Tampere United played Rosenborg for a place in the Champions League group stage, and this year it was Honka's turn to hog the national limelight with their UEFA Cup First round game against Racing Santander. Click to continue reading...

October 6, 2008

Inter hold on to their advantage

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FC Inter - Honka 0-0 HJK - TPS 1-0 FC Lahti - Haka 1-0 KuPS - MyPa 1-4 VPS - Jaro 2-1 TamU - IFK Mariehamn 1-0 Highlights here, just click the "Veikkausliiga" link below the video. Inter and Honka couldn't spell out a difference between themselves in the long-awaited game between the two top teams in Turku. Click to continue reading...

September 26, 2008

New Champions

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There will be new Veikkausliiga champions this year. HJK lost 3-2 at home to Jaro last night, and today's papers are enjoyably miserable for anyone who didn't want HJK to win it. Jussi Aalto got two of the goals, and HJK missed a lot of chances, but in the end it was Aalto's clinical finishing [...] Click to continue reading...

September 22, 2008

Smoked out

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Tampere United fans were a little bit disgruntled on Sunday. They had been chucked out of the HJK match en masse for letting off smoke bombs, a ridiculous over-reaction and unnecessary collective punishment. The first half of the VPS match was extremely dull as a result, as the Sinikaarti section was empty and the fans [. Click to continue reading...

September 21, 2008

Yle vs. Urheilukanava

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Yle started their Veikkausliiga broadcasts today as FF Jaro played FC Lahti. The system in Finland is quite interesting: Urheilukanava broadcast the games from April to September, and Yle are only interested when the title is about to be won. The move from Urheilukanava to Yle may raise the number of people watching, as Urheilukanava is [. Click to continue reading...

September 15, 2008

Kuusela packs his bags

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Following an utterly disappointing season, TPS have sacked head coach Martti Kuusela. Personally, I am shocked with the announcement. Letting your head coach go is not unusual when you don't get the right result, but there are very few cases in the history of TPS when a head coach has been sacked while the season is [. Click to continue reading...

September 1, 2008

A very Finnish ‘riot’

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I live in the most violent country in Western Europe. Homicides are more common here than anywhere else that wasn't run by communists until the early 90s. Someone was stabbed in the chest in the central square of Tampere on Friday night, I have seen numerous fights there, and when people are drunk you know [. Click to continue reading...

August 31, 2008

Demba Savage signs for FC Honka

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That's about the signs of it. I'm very pleased about this, Savage is a skillful, quality player and has deserved his chance for a long time. I'm sure he'll do a good job for Honka. On another note, it's good that Finnish clubs have the financial might to sign players like Savage from decent Ykkönn clubs. Click to continue reading...

August 26, 2008

Dodgy refs, table-topping stutterers and Daniel Nwoke

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TamU had a bizarre night in Lahti last Friday, with an odd refereeing performance, a crucial goalkeeping mistake, three goals in the last minute and a questionable red card, but nobody said anything about match fixing.  You can see the highlights of their 2-2 draw here. On saturday I went to valkeakoski to see FC Haka [. Click to continue reading...

August 23, 2008

Veikkausliiga Round 18 preview, part 1

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FC Lahti and TamU kicked off the 18th round on Friday and the matched ended in a 2-2 draw. Dramatically, TamU were up by one until the 90th minute. Then Jari Litmanen scored in stoppage time and two minutes later Jonne Kemppinen gave the hosts the lead. Nobody expected TamU to get a result anymore, [. Click to continue reading...

August 18, 2008

Inter sail on under lucky stars

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KuPS - HJK 3-2 VPS - FC KooTeePee 1-1 MyPa - RoPS 1-0 FC Honka - TPS 2-2 TamU - FC Haka 1-1 FC Inter - FC Lahti 1-0 IFK Mariehamn - FF Jaro CANCELLED Inter have signed a great deal with the football gods. They won FC Lahti in front of over 8000 people willing to see Jari Litmanen in action, [...] Click to continue reading...

August 11, 2008

What a strange weekend

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Ilkka Mäkelä had hoped for 5-6,000, but in the end the attendance for Jari Litmanen's return was 4,163. Seasoned football-watchers were unsurprised about that, given the history of football in Lahti. One told me that "hardly anybody in Lahti supports FC Lahti. The real clubs there are Kuusysi and Reipas. Click to continue reading...

August 8, 2008

The Return of the King

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FC Lahti have announced that the legendary #10, Jari Litmanen, is a new addition to their squad. He has been training with the team for a few weeks now and it was quite natural that he decided to bring this season to its conclusion playing for Lahti. "He has been training very well with us, and [...] Click to continue reading...

Helsinki Times: Zeddy’s back!

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SOMETIMES interviews take a different course to that envisaged beforehand. Zambian striker Zeddy Saileti's meeting with the Helsinki Times is one such occasion, because when we meet Saileti is not a happy man. His team, RoPS, have lost 5-0 to Tampere United, and Saileti knows who to blame: the referee. Click to continue reading...

August 7, 2008

To sell or not to sell?

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Juha raised a good question the other day about Finnish teams in Europe. Are they happy to draw big clubs, in the expectation that they will get a drubbing and a bumper crowd, or do they prefer to get the unkown teams that might offer a chance of priogress? TamU's co-owner Tim Rowe was rather [...] Click to continue reading...

August 4, 2008

Cherno Samba and Leo Hoenig

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I'm writing about the TamU-RoPS game and Zeddy Saileti in particular for Helsinki Times, so that'll be available on Friday. I may or may not post to express my awe at Henri Myntti, who has a good chance of being top scorer in Veikkausliiga this season now, but that'll be after the Turku derby I'm [.. Click to continue reading...

August 2, 2008

European draws

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Friday's UEFA Cup and Champions League draws could have shown the participating Finnish clubs a bit more mercy. TamU's dreams of making it to the Champions League group stage are pretty much ruled out. They need a perfect performance and some help from the heavens above if they want to cancel out Artmedia's 3-1 aggregate lead [. Click to continue reading...

July 30, 2008

Veikkausliiga Round 14 round-up

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FF Jaro - Tampere United 1-4 RoPS - FC Inter 0-0 HJK - IFK Mariehamn 4-0 MyPa - FC Honka 0-2 FC Haka - VPS 1-0 FC Lahti - FC KooTeePee 1-0 TPS - KuPS 3-3 Click on the game for highlights. TPS-KuPS should appear later. Inter still did not lose, but their form is not so amazing anymore. They have drawn six [. Click to continue reading...

July 29, 2008

Honka sell Maanoja

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Gone is their best defender/defensive midfielder, and their goalkeeper will follow. Honka have announced that Tomi Maanoja will hop on the ferry and move to Stockholm's AIK. Thursday's UEFA Cup game against IA Akranes in Iceland will be "Psyko's" farewell. The transfer fee has not been made public, but rumours are circulating that Honka will [. Click to continue reading...

July 26, 2008

Veikkausliiga Round 14 Preview

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Once again, the games start on Saturday and the last one will be played on Wednesday - so if my predictions go wrong as far as Wednesday's TPS-KuPS is concerned, I'll blame it on having to write the preview so early. FF Jaro - Tampere United This is Saturday's only game. TamU are probably tired following their [. Click to continue reading...

July 24, 2008

TPS brush VPS aside

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Most likely it will not be a high-scoring game This was my prediction before last night's Veikkausliiga game between TPS and VPS. Luckily my address is not public, so I don't have a line of gamblers on my doorstep trying to kick the door in. VPS delivered an absolutely horrible performance and succumbed to a 6-1 [. Click to continue reading...

July 23, 2008

Veikkausliiga Round 13 Preview (Part 3)

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No, it's not over yet. The last game of round 13 will be played on Wednesday as TPS host VPS. (It is quite interesting, by the way, that even though Veikkausliiga are trying to avoid scheduling games on so many days, the completion of round 13 has taken five days). VPS are occupying the 8th position in [. Click to continue reading...

July 21, 2008

KuPS hammered by RoPS, Jaro lose three points and Jonas Emet

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RoPS built their convincing 4-0 win against KuPS on some excellent finishing at the offensive end. Chileshe Chibwe netted twice to give RoPS a 2-0 lead and the job was finished by Mika Nurmela and Juha Majava in the second half. Chibwe scored his first in the 6th with an excellent header and bagged another [. Click to continue reading...

Tamas Gruborovics is alright

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He didn't look alright yesterday, after being knocked out by Haka goalkeeper Sasha Dovbnya while challenging for a cross. At that point KTP were, shockingly, 1-0 up after Dovbnya had dropped the ball and substitute Vesa Helenius swept the ball home with his first touch of the ball on 43 minutes. Finnish footballers are extraordinarily [. Click to continue reading...

July 20, 2008

Veikkausliiga Round 13 Preview (Part 2)

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TamU lost yesterday, but the stats show a decent performance. The result sent MyPa to the top of the league, and kept TamU down in  lower mid-table. They will almost certainly have to rely on the cup to get into Europe this year, and they have a tough Quarter Final draw: FC Haka – TP-47 FC Honka [. Click to continue reading...

July 19, 2008

Veikkausliiga Round 13 Preview (Part One)

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MyPa v TamU TamU played extraordinarily well against Buducnost, at least until they went 2-0 up. You would expect them to rest a few players today though, before what could be a hectic trip to Montenegro for the second leg, so maybe Hjelm or Hynynen will get a start. MyPa are also playing quite well after [. Click to continue reading...

July 18, 2008

“A psychotic grinning parrot”

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I have written one article for When Saturday Comes, the best English football monthly. It was about Finnish football, and tried to promote the game here as one that is good fun to watch, easy to follow, and emphatically not run by idiots. There is one area in which the powers-that-be in Finnish football do [. Click to continue reading...

July 17, 2008

Paatelainen updates the combover

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It could be the sun, it could be an over-zealous barber, it could just be my over-active imagination. But I think Mikko Paatelainen is dealing with his receders with a mohawk. Of course, I mourn the passing of the mullet, a symbol of Finland just like Salmiakki and sauna, but times change and Mikko moves [. Click to continue reading...
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