Sunday

Lyn (16th) – Bodø/Glimt (15th)

Oh yes, here it is, the ultimate showdown of doom. It’s a well established fact that both these clubs are in more trouble than a hamburger trapped in Raymond Kvisvik’s fridge, but as if disastrous finances and a lack of points weren’t enough, both team’s managers are starting to behave very strangely indeed. Lyn-boss Kent Bergersen, a man how knows as well as everyone else that if his club could afford to sack him they would, managed to get himself sent off in Lyn’s recent cup-exit by kicking the ball at an opposing player. An opposing player, who was down injured. Way to go Kent, way to stay cool under pressure. Wether he’s cracking up or just had a other plans this weekend is unclear, but the sending off means he won’t be in the dugout for this one. His Bodø-based colleague Kåre Ingebrigtsen is also doing a fine impersonation of a man going a bit batty in the head, especially with his mind-boggling insistence on having a pop at the referee whenever his team gets outclassed by an opponent (which is fairly often these days).

Draw

Fredrikstad (12th) – Sandefjord (11th)

Now, there may be one more game to go before the summer vacation, but Sandefjord have for all intents and purposes been on holiday for a good while now. In the last two months, the whalers have picked up a grand total of.. wait for it.. three points. That is astoundingly poor. Fredrikstad are no great shakes either, but they’ve been fairly solid at home in recent weeks (2-1-0 in their last three) so this one looks as predictable as they come in this league.

Home win

Odd Grenland (3rd) – Start (6th)

If Lyn – Glimt is the showdown of doom, then this is very much the battle of the upstarts. Both these newly promoted sides have had the cheek to upset the establishment, admittedly aided by the establishment’s tendency to shoot themselves in the foot. Repeatedly. With heavy artillery. Still, Odd Grenland have been hugely impressive and Start have brilliant in patches, so there’s no doubt they both deserve their lofty positions in the league. For this one though you have to fancy Odd, with their home record being the best in the league (6-2-0) and Start still missing defensive lynchpin Clarence Goodson.

Home win

Lillestrøm (13th) – Aalesund (9th)

Now, buoyed by the prospect of the upcoming vacation, I’ll make this weekend’s edition of “What’s Kjetil Rekdal unhappy about this week?” will be an easy one. Ready?

“I’m not happy about [the answer]”

Is it..

A – His wang

B –  The state of the world economy

C – The 10 000 kr fine he received for calling Eirik Bakke an alcoholic on air

D – Tor Hogne Aarøy

Answers or other suggestions in the comments-section below.

Draw

Strømsgodset (14th) – Rosenborg (1st)

It’s David versus Goliath as the Rosenborg juggernaught goes to Drammen to take on everyone’s favorite Ronny and his gang of goers. Undefeated in the league and closing in on a vacation, if complacency is ever going to creep into the Rosenborg squad then this surely will be the time, so in a way this will be a bit of a test of Erik Hamren’s boys. Sadly for Ronny Deila, if it’s one thing Hamren has brought to Rosenborg it’s a more professional approach to these things..

Away win

Molde (2nd) – Brann (5th)

Now here’s a game where the country’s neutrals can all unite behind the same team, as the most entertaining team of this first half of the season takes on, well, Brann. Strangely, the boys from Bergen got away with all three points when they faced off earlier in the season. They achieved this by giving Molde’s Makhtar Thioune a damned good kicking whenever he so much as looked at the ball, a tactic they fully intend to repeat. What a charming bunch.

Home win

Monday

Tromsø (10th) – Vålerenga (9th)

Vålerenga’s only redeeming feature as far as neutrals are concerned is the fact that they do seem to be bringing quite a lot of tasty youngsters through these days, with guys like Amin Nouri, Mohammed Fellah, Harmeet Singh, Dawda Leigh, Mos and of course Moa all playing important parts so far this season. Moa of course made his mark on the Tippeliga last season and has continued to show glimpses of absolute class this season, making him a pretty hot potato in the summer transfer-market. Tromsø on the other hand have confirmed that they’ve re-signed young striker Vegard Braaten from Alta, a player who was on their books for years but whom they let leave for free this winter. Impressive stuff there.

Draw

The weekend (Monday included) has a full round of Veikkausliiga in store for football fans. Tonight’s game is first of the seven matches to be played, and NFN will treat you to minute-by-minute updates of the game in this post. The page does not refresh automatically, but Firefox users can make their way around the problem by installing ReloadEvery. The rest of you can google “auto-refresh” or install Firefox. Or spend your evening tapping the refresh button.

COMMENTS

Vesa Pohjonen, the referee: The linesman flagged the Inter goal as an offside and I walked over him, because it was IFK’s own player who passed the ball to Furuholm.

Henri Lehtonen, Inter defender: We had the possession. We knew that IFK are good with their set pieces, and we let them score from one of them. It’s a big disappointment. The problem is not on the mental side. If we don’t score from chances like that, it is up to what the individuals do when they get the chances. It is an issue of skill.

Pekka Lyyski, IFK Mariehamn head coach: We were better in the first half and led deservedly, but in the second half Inter got more control through long balls to Furuholm. Inter had more chances, but then again we rattled the bar.

Job Dragtsma, FC Inter head coach: We were not so good in the first half, but the second half was total domination from us. I don’t consider this game a preparation match for the Champions League, we just wanted to win this game.

LIVE BLOG

90+3 minutes: That’s it, there’s the full time whistle. Both sides look a bit disappointed, but Inter players especially seem somewhat downhearted. There’s no reason for that, because I said this will be a draw – just scroll down the post and see for yourself. Comments from the head coaches will be up soon.

90+1 minutes: Verino is playing up front now, so it seems Inter are pretty desperate to get the win.

90 minutes: Additional time 3 minutes. Some spectators think they’ve seen enough already.

89 minutes: I’m typing like hell to keep up here. Inter get attack after attack, but fail to score. Ingves just made his way to Inter’s end along the left flank, but his poor cross goes behind for a goal kick.

88 minutes: Verino gets the ball to his feet five meters from target, but his strike is awful. Just seconds earlier his header went just over.

86 minutes: Furuholm gets free of the last defender, but the defender comes back at the last moment to win the ball cleanly. That is too much for Furuholm, who, incredibly, starts whining to the ref for what was an excellent piece of clean defending. “Furuholm is an idiot”, is the gut reaction of a person near me.

84 minutes: Ojala receives a cross from the right and drops the ball to Kauko, but another weak effort from him goes wide of the right post. A poor strike from an excellent position.

82 minutes: Johan Karlsson plays the ball to the right flank and is brought down by Sanevuori, who gets a deserved booking. A weird decision from the ref though to not let the play go on, IFK could have build a good attack there.

81 minutes: Ingves almost connects to Olofsson’s great through ball, but Bantamoi manages to save it in the end.

81 minutes: Ten minutes to go and IFK are in control of the proceedings now.

79 minutes: An excellent through ball reaches Simunac, who dribbles closer to the edge of the area. When about to face Nyman, he uses his heel to drop the ball to Olofsson. He produces an excellent shot that strikes the bottom of the bar and touches the goal line before Bantamoi gets to it. Lady Luck saved Inter there, but she has also saved IFK Mariehamn on a couple of occasions.

76 minutes: Substitution for IFK: Gashi is ready for today, Wilhelm Ingves replaces him.

74 minutes: Gashi dribbles his way into the area, but Nyman cleanly tackles him down and takes the ball. If you can say that you have seen Nyman ever make a mistake in Veikkausliiga and can prove it, call me and I’ll buy you a beer.

73 minutes: Needless to say, this is not the world’s most beatiful football game now. The pitch is soaked, and both sides prefer the longer ball. IFK’s Johan Carlsson picks a booking.

72 minutes: Inter are firmly in control now, IFK are really struggling. Substitution for the visitors, Ekhalie goes out and Marcus Olofsson comes in.

71 minutes: Two substitutions for Inter: Kennedy is replaced by Ojala, Purje goes out and is replaced by Sanevuori.

69 minutes: Furuholm almost connects to a Ramirez corner that follows a wasted chance by Paajanen, but the ball goes behind for a goal kick.

67 minutes: It is raining VERY heavily now, and the lightnings make a great noise. See for yourself, if you can:

65 minutes: Another clear cut chance for Furuholm, another miss.

62 minutes: Furuholm is on the breakaway again, but this time he shoots at the keeper and wastes an excellent chance.

62 minutes: 1-1 FURUHOLM Another weak backpass from the IFK backline. Kennedy gives the ball to Furuholm, who easily converts. Interesti gly, the assistant has his flag up, but the referee runs over him and decides that the goal stands.

60 minutes: In the middle of some Inter possession, Gashi gets a good chance. He connects to a cross from the right, but his header goes just wide.

59 minutes: The God of Thunder is in action now. A heavy rain just started, let’s see if it will develop into something even more funny.

58 minutes: An Inter free kick from the right. The free kick is deflected easily, but there follows a cross that Ochieng has some trouble intercepting. Inter are looking much better than in the first half, but if they miss the kind of chances that Paajanen got, who knows?

56 minutes: Gruborovics has an excellent effort from 35 or 40 meters. Over the bar, but still a great shot.

56 minutes: A dark cloud is approaching and a couple of lightnings can be seen, so maybe there will be some kind of a storm after all? I have a computer in front of me, so if you hear nothing of me, one of us is dead. Me or my computer.

54 minutes: An IFK defender brings down Paajanen and Inter get a free kick from the right. Verino connects to Ramirez’s head, but Verino heads it just over the bar. Paajanen wanted the IFK defender to be booked. He has valid grounds for the argument, but he should still stop complaining and get his head down.

52 minutes: A weak headed backpass from an Inter defender almost lets in Purje. Ochieng is forced to come far out, but he does prevent Purje from breaking away.

50 minutes: An IFK defender misses what should have been an easy interception, and Paajanen finds himself in the area with the ball and all the time he needs. Somehow he still manages to blast the ball against Ochieng. If you don’t convert a chance like that, you never score. Seconds later Furuholm finds some space on the edge of the area, but his strike goes high.

49 minutes: Gashi finds enough space between Inter defenders to get in a header, but he does not get enough power behind and Bantamoi easily saves it.

47 minutes: Furuholm shields the ball well enough to force Pappas into conceding a corner. The corner is deflected by an IFK defender, but another corner follows. The new corner is even worse, as it sails over everything and results in an IFK throw-in.

45 minutes: Furuholm finds himself in front of an empty net, but does not manage to touch the ball. IFK defence clear it out for a corner instead. The corner results in nothing much.

45 minutes: A rather surprising substitution for IFK Mariehamn: goalkeeper Gustav Långbacka leaves the pitch and is replaced by Willis Ochieng. Don’t ask me why.

45 minutes: Attendance 2252.

45+1 minutes: Half-time.

45 minutes: Additional time 1 minute.

41 minutes: Pappas and Kennedy go into a header. Kennedy jumps higher, and some part of his body accidentally hits Pappas’ head. Pappas looks like he’s OK to continue though. When the ball is put back into action by the referee, Furuholm does obey the unwritten fair play rule but blasts the ball into the IFK fans section. That is a pathetic suckerpunch, even though the ball does not hit anyone.

39 minutes: There seems to be no threat of a strom now. It’s cloudy, but not raining and the temperature is moderate. Nothing much happening on the pitch now, IFK are perhaps the slightly better side.

35 minutes: Ramirez’s free kick from 40 meters is deflected easily, but to IFK’s disappointment the deflection goes out for a corner. Ramirez delivers the corner, but it comes to nothing.

34 minutes: Purje dribbles his way into the middle and manages to get in a low strike from between three defenders. The strike is easily deflected by a fourth IFK guy, but it was a clear statement of intentions from Purje.

32 minutes: The frustration is growing in the Inter camp, among the crowd at least. The Inter fans in the corner are shouting “Peliä, Inter, peliä”, a chant I find hard to translate, but basically they are expressing their disappointment in what’s going on on the pitch and urging their team to start performing.

30 minutes: A dreadful clearance from Inter’s left flank results in an excellent chance for Ekhalie from about 10 meters. He comes close to doubling IFK’s lead, but the ball only hits the bar.

29 minutes: Ramirez’s corner produces a chance for Kauko from the edge of the area, but Kauko’s strike goes wide in slow motion.

29 minutes: Furuholm reaches Aho’s long ball. Gustavsson is in some trouble with Furuholm, but manages to clear the ball out for a corner.

25 minutes: 0-1 Gruborovics: IFK get a free kick from the left, near the edge of the box. Simunac’s cross finds Gruborovics, who accidentally deflects the ball home.

24 minutes: Now that I said that, Rikama’s cross from the right finds it’s way to Simunac. Bantamoi finds himself in the way of the strike that comes from five meters. That was a real chance.

24 minutes: Inter have taken the controls now and IFK haven’t had a proper attack in minutes. Inter build decent attacks, but IFK are not in full stretch. Not yet, at least.

22 minutes: A good left-footed effort from Joni Aho from the edge of the area, but Långbacka manages to stretch himself in the way of the ball.

21 minutes: Ramirez’s free kick from 35 meters takes enough of a deflection from the wall to make it an easy save for Långbacka.

18 minutes: Purje delivers a cross from the left, but the ball evades Furuholm’s head.

15 minutes: It seems like the game’s going to be very good. Inter are seeing more of the ball and their play is rolling nicely, but IFK are defending well. And when IFK get the ball, they counter brilliantly. If the first 15 minutes are anything to go by, both sides would deserve a win.

12 minutes: Arajuuri deflects Kennedy’s cross behind. IFK manage to clear the corner that follows.

10 minutes: Aristides Pertot was supposed to start for Inter, but he was replaced by Joni Kauko in the last minute. Pertot was set to start and he did take part in the warm-up routines. “Something came up”, team manager Jani Meriläinen has reportedly explained. How enlightening.

9 minutes: Simunac’s header finds the net, but the assistant’s flag saves the hosts. A question of centimetres, but again I’m not the ref. For a reason.

7 minutes: Purje goes down again, and again the referee is not interested. I think he has been fouled twice, but I can name a few reasons why I’m not a referee.

6 minutes: A very good srike from IFK’s Ekhalie from the edge of the aream just inches high. The four happy men I mentioned earlier reward the shot with another Patrick Bantamoi chant, although Bantamoi never touched the ball.

1 minute: Two good attacks from Inter: Långbacka saves Joni Kauko’s effort, and Purje is presented with a clear shooting chance in the area. He is brought down and the crowd wants a penalty, but it is not given.

1 minute: Amos Ekhalie provides the game’s first chance for Ante Simunac, but Bantamoi comes out and catches the ball.

0 minutes: Kick-off. Not many have bothered to show up, but at least the four 50-year old men near me are making their prescence known with an unorganised Patrick Bantamoi chant.

6:24 PM I just love laughing at other people’s misfortunes. I arrived at the stadium just ten minutes ago when the sun was shining, and two or three minutes later it started raining heavily. It ended as quickly as it started, but there’s still signs of thunder out there.

PREVIEW

The two teams met in the first game of the season. Inter were awful to say the least, but the team has improved after that game. Their recent form is still pretty bad: they have won just once, drawn once and lost four times in their last six games. Half of the games are yet to be played, but Inter have to play catch-up if they want to bring home some silverware. Inter qualified for the next round of the Cup by beating RoPS 2-0, but it was not a blistering performance, according to reports. Goalkeeper Patrick Bantamoi returns to Veikkausliiga action after his suspension, so Inter have a full squad to choose from.

IFK Mariehamn are unbeaten in nine games in a row, but they have drawn six of them. It is somewhat understandable, as they have suffered from numerous injuries. As a consequence, defender Kenneth Gustavsson has found himself up front on some occasions. Wilhelm Ingves’ rumoured return could ease that problem though. Sasha Anttilainen and Dmytro Pronevych are still missing.

Inter are very good at their best, keeping the ball on the ground and building good attacks. Then again, IFK Mariehamn are very good at playing against such teams, as the first game of the season between these two teams showed. Smells like another draw?

The first thing to make clear is that Finland has a dearth of football grounds. Most clubs play in athletics stadia or on pitches with poor facilities for spectators, and it’s widely assumed that it would take a lot of money to correct this.

Tampere United played at Tammela Stadium for the first five years after inception in 1998. When they got big crowds they moved matches to Ratina, a 16,800 capacity athletics and concert venue behind the bus station. This arrangement worked very well as the club developed, with crowds of 2-3,000 watching domestic matches at Tammela and enjoying the experience.

Tammela is unique in Finland. The capacity is suitable for Veikkausliiga football, at around 5,000, it is easily reachable from all parts of the city because of its central location, it has a roof on every stand, keeping fans dry when it rains, and virtually every seat is within 20 metres of the pitch. The tight ground makes spectators feel part of the game, and when they sing they can create a special atmosphere unmatched anywhere else in Finland.

The ground’s urban setting is another massive plus, as the floodlights give the place a glowing, warm feeling as you turn corners past apartment blocks and tall, red-brick buildings in one of the busiest districts in Tampere. There are excellent pubs, cafes and restaurants within a minute’s walk from the ground, and the stadium is now well-integrated with its surroundings.

Readers with experience of British football will not find anything special about this, as Tammela is just like many British lower division grounds, but context is everything: there is nowhere in Finland that is as good as Tammela for watching football.

Given all this, it’s surprising that the club decided to move to Ratina. Reasons given at the time included the small capacity and poor VIP facilities (sponsor and VIP revenue constitutes around 80% of most Finnish clubs revenue, with only around 15-20% coming from gate receipts), and the impossibility of renovating Tammela because of protections in place on the stadium and it’s surroundings. When I asked the Finnish National Board of Antiquities (NBA, Museovirasto in Finnish) about Tammela, they denied that any restrictions or protections concerning Tammela had ever existed.

“Tammela Stadium and Koulukatu Ice stadium are not protected by law, town plan or (in) any other way at the moment,” Tampere museum’s Minnu Mäkelä emailed in response to my query. Tammela has never been protected in any way by the NBA, and its development will not be hindered by them.

The plans for developing Tampere United seem to have run away from the reality of Finnish football in the last few years. While championships have come, European campaigns have helped, and the club has racked up trophies, crowds have stubbornly failed to match the ambitions of the board. When moving back to Tammela has come up, Tammela’s low capacity has hindered the possibility of a return, with one plan suggesting that a 7,000 seater stadium was a minimum, even though TamU very rarely need 7,000 seats to accommodate their crowds.

The problem is simple: in the Finnish spring and autumn, when it’s dark and raining, Ratina is an utterly miserable place to be unless it is at least half full. A 3,000 crowd feels special at Tammela, but can make you suicidal at Ratina. So the club is in a catch-22 situation, with crowds unwilling to come and the existing fans disenchanted by the matchday experience because crowds are so small.

The VIP facilities are good at Ratina, but the financial crisis has ensured that sponsors are a little bit reluctant to cough up right now, and so the club is currently entertaining the idea of moving back to Tammela to try and increase gate revenue.

With the forthcoming European Women’s Championships, Ratina will be out of service for three weeks at the end of August and beginning of September, and so TamU have little option for the next round of the cup. The Jaro game was a dry run for a potential permanent move, and it generated a good deal of excitement for a competition that is, at this stage, pretty devalued.

The club promoted the Jaro match by offering free entry to everyone who joined their facebook fan page, and the crowd crowd was 1,480 – a very good figure for a rainy evening fixture against unattractive opposition in a usually-ignored competition. As I walked up the steps before the second half, someone shouted out to say hello – it was a guy who rarely goes to TamU games, but came along because the match was at Tammela.

“It’s so warm as well, because there are so many people packed together!”

This kind of enthusiasm is difficult to achieve by marketing and adverts. People like Tammela, they like TamU, they like football. If TamU move there permanently, it might just be the best decision they ever make.

TamU won 2-0 and were always in control, with Kangaskolkka breaking his scoring drought and celebrating like a nutter with the fans – something that’s impossible at Ratina. Sheweleff, playing with a slight injury, added a second and was less visibly happy (but no doubt smiling inside), and the game kind of petered out until TamU’s kit man was sent off for kicking the ball away, prompting an amusing outburst in his direction from Ari Hjelm.

A brilliant video story of the game comes from Tampere’s dedicated football video producer Petteri Tyni, and the photo gallery is from the ever-excellent Petteri Lehtonen. In the video the sequence involving the padlock on the toilet came about apparently because TPV fans (an Ykkönen club that usually plays at Tammela) had re-padlocked them after the caretaker had opened them before the match. Result: massive queues for half-time urination and presumably some beavis and Butthead-style guffawing among the TPV fans.

It was quite funny, I suppose, and after the game the pub consensus was that TamU would like to draw TPV in the next round. I’d prefer a club with fans that actually sing, but whoever TamU get, virtually everyone agrees that the main thing is that they play at home, and almost everybody nowknows where ‘home’ is for TamU.

[View with PicLens]

12►

Other results:

FC Espoo – HJK                   0-1  (0-0)
50′ Mäkelä 0-1

FC Futura – VPS                 1-4  (0-2)
15′ Hahto 0-1
25′ Kainu 0-2
61′ oma 0-3
64′ Ahmad 1-3
81′ Lindroos 1-4

Gnistan – JBK                     5-0  (2-0)
19′ Hokkanen 1-0
21′ Hokkanen 2-0
47′ Anttila 3-0
53′ Anttila 4-0
72′ Martikainen 5-0

FC Inter – RoPS                  2-0  (1-0)
18′ Ramirez 1-0
86′ Purje 2-0

MYPA – KuPS                      1-3  (1-1)
31′ Ricketts 1-0 rp.
37′ Balogh 1-1
64′ Venäläinen 1-2
81′ Koljonen 1-3

PoPa – PK-35                      3-1  (3-0)
6′ De Mattia 1-0
20′ Melarti 2-0
40′ Melarti 3-0
79′ Jurvainen 3-1

Real Kokkola – Pallohonka   2-6  (0-4)
13′ Sid 0-1
27′ Perera 0-2
34′ Valdrin Seferi 0-3
40′ Valdrin Seferi 0-4
55′ Ilomäki 0-5
77′ Huuhka 1-5
81′ Sid 1-6
85′ Pensaari 2-6

TPV – JIPPO                       3-1  (2-1)
36′ Kemmo 1-0
40′ Kemmo 2-0
45′ Rönkkö 2-1
63′ Eränen 3-1

Pöxyt – TPS           0-2 (0-1)
Hoxha  33
Mäkelä 90

AC Vantaa – JJK        2-3 (0-2)
Karvinen 49 rp Lahtinen 17 71
Paila    57    Markkula 39

FC KooTeePee – FC Honka   0-2 (0-1)
Puustinen 12
Kokko     52

City Stars – Pirkkala JK   3-1 (0-0)
Kauppinen  50 Similä 80
Lähdesmäki 59
Kauppinen  87

Tampere U – FF Jaro    2-0 (2-0)
Kangaskolkka 19
Scheweleff   42

Spartak – FC Haka       0-5 (0-1)
Bäckman    37
Holopainen 62
Denissen   65
Innanen    70
Strandvall 88 rp

GBK – FC Jazz-j         0-1 (0-1)
39′ Salminen

Viikingit v FC Lahti will be played in August, unless Lahti progress even further in the Europa League. They went through against Dinamo Tirana yesterday, 4-3 on aggregate.

This level of football is not high, you understand. Like lower divisions everywhere, it is a combination of young talents on their way up, journeymen who’ve found their level, and established stars on their way down. Ilves have all three in their side, whereas Pallohonka are a more development-orientated team.

The reserve team of FC Honka have an extremely young side (Honka’s first team includes a couple of teenagers, so you can imagine how young the reserves are), and it shows. In Tampere earlier in the season they lost 3-2 to PP70 despite going 2-0 up, and they conceded a late winner against Ilves too. They try to play football on the floor, build from the back, and use their pace to counter-attack, but they’re not quite wily enough to succeed at this level yet.

That said, they’re not in the relegation zone either. While Ilves represent a club that had a fair few fans before it went bankrupt, and as such has a following that expects decent performances, Pallohonka are a purely developmental side and don’t have pressures outside the club’s own objectives. Ilves play their home games at Tammela, with a fair few beered-up Tamperelaiset yelling abuse at the opposition and occasionally their own players, whereas Pallohonka seem to play at a deserted ground.

It’s an interesting clash of styles. A lot of people think Finnish football doesn’t have enough competition, that everyone wins too much and it doesn’t harden people up, whereas I’m of the opposite opinion. Junior teams experience promotion and relegation twice a season here, giving coaches no leeway whatsoever to experiment and try to develop players rather than chase points and wins.

The competition that’s lacking is within clubs, where the hefty subs parents pay ensure that outside of a very few academy teams, paying players are welcome even when they don’t improve the team. Ilves have the biggest junior section in Finland, and almost by default produce a lot of players, but in the last ten years fewer have come through without a professional team to focus on.

Honka are one club that have combined a thriving academy set-up with a huge, subs-paying junior section, but I often wonder whether the two would be better separated.

Let Honka and Ilves concentrate on developing young pros, and let the Honka ‘Internazionale’, and Ilves ‘Liverpool’ (the non-academy teams tend to take on the names of famous European clubs) develop their own, separate identity. The best Espoo talent will still gravitate towards Honka, and the junior clubs might enjoy things more if they did their own thing in their own shirts.

[View with PicLens]

All pictures copyright Petteri Lehtonen: http://urheilukuvaus.kuvat.fi/kuvat/

“Sorry that I arrived in the middle of all this,” Rautiainen fumed after the game. “Are we still celebrating that? I heard that the tournament had fucking finished. Or is it still going on? I just didn’t bloody get it. I thought that Finland didn’t get any points, but apparently we won the whole thing if they’re up there receiving awards. I’d thought we didn’t even get a single win. It’s like when I was six year old and competing in the electricians skiing competition, and I always came third – even the third placed kid had to get some kind of spoon.”

The other parts of the media event involved Honka chairman Jouko Harjunpää’s plans for the new stadium.

“The first thing I did was send the architects to Finnair Stadium,” said the rotund Honka boss. “The second thing I did was tell them to do everything completely differently to that place.”

The Töölö ground looks like an airport, and has a strange airport-like quality to it. Wherever you are in the stadium, you are almost guaranteed to feel strangely uncomfortable, distant from the pitch, and usually cold due to the wind that swirls around the place thanks to the ‘aircraft wing 20 metres above your head’ that has replaced any attempt at providing a roof or shelter for spectators. It’s a disaster of a football ground, and Harjunpää is on the right lines if he’s going to attempt to avoid the same mistake.

Honka’s plans include 13,000 seats in a ground that will be ready by 2011. It’s an ambitious budget and schedule, but I admire Harjunpää’s rhetoric – he compared the Espoo theatre to the football ground, asking if portable toilets would be acceptable there, and pointing out that €30m for a football stadium is nothing compared to €140m for the WeeGee exhibition centre.

Harjunpää has private backers to cover a portion of the costs, but will need support from the council, and seems fairly confident of getting it. Espoo is a rich and boring place, the kind of suburb people move to to avoid interesting things like football matches, but as the politically influential construction industry enters a deep recession pressure will build for politicians to approve new public buildings, and Honka have been working hard on these plans for a long time.

One proper football ground that will host a cup game this week is Tammela, in Tampere. In this writer’s opinion Tammela is the best ground in Finland, and will need to be refurbished if any kind of professional football is to put down roots in Finland. The match is Tampere United v FF Jaro on Thursday, kickoff 6:30pm, and TamU have agreed to let in all members of their facebook fan page in for free.

There has been speculation recently about whether TamU could move back to Tammela, with the club seemingly positive on the matter. This change of heart has apparently been driven by the new chief executive Deniz Bavautdin, who told Veikkaaja today that moving to Tammela would be great for the crowd and fans, and that the Jaro match was a test of how it might work in practice. TamU’s team will include Ilari Ruuth, with Jusu Karvonen on the bench, and maybe former defender Jussi Kuoppala too, as their injury list grows.

The TamU match has forced TPV to play their game against JIPPO at the Läminpää ground, somewhere I’ve never been and look forward to visiting. That game will kick off at 6:30pm tomorrow.

Tie of the round is most likely to be Sexypoxyt (sexy boxers) v TPS. Sexypoxyt are a third division side who have upset the odds to get this far, and their game in Espoo will be well attended. The club was founded by Jan and Timo Walden – now the chairman of Veikkausliiga and national team press officer respectively – back in 1985, and have bobbled about the lower divisions ever since.

The othergiant killing potential comes from Spartak Kajaani, who are drawn against FC Haka. Haka’s manager Oka Huttunen is from Kajaani, and even advised Spartak in the last round, but will surely give them a pasting in this game.

A potentially intriguing tie is FC Espoo – currently leading Kakkonen group B – at home to HJK, but I expect the Helsinki club to win easily. I can’t really see many upsets at all among this lot:

FC Espoo – HJK
AC Vantaa – JJK Jyväskylä
Spartak – FC Haka
FC Inter – RoPS
Real Kokkola JKKI35 – Pallohonka
GBK – FC Jazz-j
FC Futura – VPS
MYPA – KuPS
Tampere U – FF Jaro
City Stars – Pirkkala JK
Gnistan – JBK
FC PoPa – PK-35 Vantaa
FC Viikingit/1 – FC Lahti
TPV – JIPPO
Pöxyt – TPS
FC KooTeePee – FC Honka

After a couple of pretty stale rounds the Tippeliga perked up a bit in round 17, with goals flying in at a fairly bonkers rate of 4,4 goals per game. Still, no matter how hard the ever-excitable TV2 tried to talk it up, it was hard for the discerning viewer to watch the weekend’s highlights without being slightly troubled by the hopelessly poor defending displayed by most of the Tippeliga outfits.

All goals from the 17th round of the Tippeliga here.

Nowhere was this more glaring than up North, where Bodø/Glimt tried their darndest but were undone by a combination of Molde’s surging counter-attacks and sensationally bad defending across the board. “My God, Bodø/Glimt, are they all playing for free?” was NFN’s head honcho Egan Richardson’s initial reaction to Glimt’s efforts when he was shown the highlights, and you have to say it’s a fair question. Yet again, Glimt’s manager Kåre Ingebrigtsen blamed the referee, and yet again it’s easily the most ridiculous stance he could possibly take. The 4-2 win takes Molde to within four points of leaders Rosenborg, but Erik Hamrén’s men have one game in hand. Bodø/Glimt are in the relegation-zone, and since their defenders currently have enough trouble coping with gravity, never mind the opposing team, this is unlikely to change any time soon.

The atmosphere at Ullevaal this Sunday should have been loaded with irony, as two teams from the posh Western bit of Oslo came together with a heavy cloud of financial woe following both of them. Of course, this being a home-game for Lyn, there was no atmosphere at all, ironic or otherwise. On the pitch Lyn continue their quest to become the ultimate example that not losing isn’t enough in itself, as they recorded their ninth draw of the season. Those nine draws clearly show that the team is competitive, but with only one win to go with those draws the total points-tally remains unimpressive. 2-2 against a somewhat resurgent Stabæk is not a bad result at all, but Lyn need wins, not more admirable draws. Manager Kent Bergersen, who would have been under pressure if the club could afford to sack him, has admitted that unless they get a win next week against Bodø/Glimt they’re pretty much screwed. Without wanting to kick a man who is clearly down, NFN reckons they’re screwed either way.

At Viking stadion it was, as predicted, onwards and upwards for Uwe Rösler’s Viking. This recent upturn in fortunes for his team as seen the teutonic tactician fall further back in the sack-race, after having received the dreaded vote of confidence a couple of weeks ago. Viking’s fourth goal in their 4-2 battering of Lillestrøm was emblematic of their recent good spell: Midfielder Tomasz Sokolowski thumped home a superb driving volley from range. It’s no coincidence that Viking’s upturn in fortunes has coincided with “Soko”’s return to fitness, as the former Lyn-man adds much needed drive, leadership and vision to Viking’s midfield. The feeling in Stavanger has been that Soko was the missing piece in Viking’s puzzle, and judging by the last couple of games they could be right.

Kjetil Rekdal had an uncharacteristically quiet weekend as his Aalesund team snapped their four game losing streak with an absolutely crucial 3-2 win over Vålerenga. Rekdal for once managed to manouver his way through the press-zone without saying anything particularly infuriating, though he did at one point declare that he was Vålerenga through and through and that it felt a bit strange to lead a team against his former club. Aalesund-fans of course won’t care, as long as the man they’ve come to worship keeps the good ship AaFK on a steady course for the 2010 Tippeliga.

Down South Start held Ronny Deila’s plucky darlings Strømsgodset to a 2-2 draw, a result that’s pretty handy for both teams really when you consider the circumstances. The big news for Start-fans however is that midfield maestro Christian Bolanos has been cleared to play for Start again after the club got into a bit of a tiff with the Costa Rican football association over Bolanos’ participation (or rather his non-participation) in the Gold Cup. Now Southerners will just have to hope Team USA get knocked out at the earliest possible convenience so they get their defensive lynchpin Clarence Goodson back as well..

Surprise-package Odd Grenland have the best home-record in the league, yet before this round they hadn’t managed to pick up three points on any of their travels. There’s nothing like a trip to a Sandefjord-side in mid-implosion to put an end to a run like that, and the 2-1 win for Odd did have a sense of inevitability to it. The game was fraught with controversy though, as all three goals were contentious. Sandefjord’s opener was off-side, Odd’s equalizer may not have crossed the line and Odd’s injury time winner came from a penalty that not all refs would have given. Thankfully the game was aired on state-owned TV-channel NRK rather than the controversy-crazed TV2, who still seem to think that the public can’t tell the difference between casual ref-bashing and proper journalism (not that anyone at NFN know much about the latter either, it must be said).

Finally, an eventful round was drawn to a close in Bergen as a Brann-game yet again turned into a bit of a brawl, remembered more for nasty challenges than actual football. The home-side eventually defeated Fredrikstad 2-1 after a dramatic 90th minute match winner from unfancied Icelandic striker Armann Björnsson, after Azar Karadas had equalized Fredrikstad’s 1-0 lead. There is a strange kind of symbolism in the fact that both Brann’s goals were scored by guys who are hard as nails, but who would struggle to do ten keepie uppies with a beach ball. This physical approach seems to be working for Brann who are now fourth, causing depression and distress amongst football-loving neutrals all over the country.

Ilta-Sanomat’s Ville Väänänen already declared that the title race will be run between three teams. There are 13 games to be played, but he is on the right track. Haka and HJK are five points adrift from TPS, who are third with a game in hand. Honka are seven points from the top, and are on the road to Last Chance Saloon with regards to the title challenge. It is pretty obvious, then, that this game is extremely important. A win for TPS would keep the visitors firmly positioned in the title challenge. If Honka win, they have a European spot to defend for the remainder of the season, but a home win would also give Haka and HJK the chance to take the money and run. A draw would have the same effect, and it is a result that would please no-one.

Both teams are on a good run. TPS have won four in a row and are undefeated in their last seven games, while Honka have picked four wins in their last five games following a difficult early season. Most likely this will be an entertaining game, with both sides acknowledging that tonight’s fixture will to some extend define where they stand when the second round of the league kicks off.

TPS have a full squad to choose from, but they did lose Christian Andreasen, whose loan deal expired. He played about 550 minutes for TPS and scored five goals. Aside from that he didn’t really look like a football player (which is why the supporters sarcastically nicknamed him “The Shitty Dane”), but somehow he always found the net. They should be able to cope with rest of the squad though: Riku Riski is red hot, Fulham loanee Wayne Brown does a good job in the midfield and Babatunde Wusu is a better Veikkausliiga striker than anyone – including me – expected.

TPS’ backline is a bit slow, which is something Honka could look to exploit with the likes of Jami Puustinen and Demba Savage. Nicholas Otaru will also be a threat to the TPS defence.

Honka are still missing Markus Paatelainen. That’s too bad, because he would face his brother Mikko if he was fit to play. John Weckström is Honka’s other absentee.

Any guess should be a good one. Honka have the home advantage, but TPS will have a good following by Finland’s standards, with 60 travelling fans going out to support their team. Honka have a slightly better squad, but TPS have played very well and the league and form tables speak in favour of the visiting team. This is splitting hairs really, but if you’re looking for the odds then TPS could be the right option.

Away win

Things livened up considerably in the second half when a torrential downpour began, 30 seconds into which the benevolent tannoy operator sprang into action.

“Specators in the sunny side stand can move to the main stand free of charge,” said the latter day Florence Nightingale, as the huddled and drenched sunnysiders – located in one of the many parts of Ratina Stadium offering less protection from the elements than New Orleans’s flood defences -  sought what shelter they could in the gangways.

The funny thing was, quite a few of them sat tight throughout the deluge. They knew they took the risk and they had brought umbrellas, those pac-a-mac thingies you get at theme parks, and a dogged determination to see the game for which they (or some of them, at least) had paid.

The announcement had no effect on this. The generosity of spirit that would allow the drenched hordes entry into the holy VIP paradise of the dry, warm, Eden-like main stand went tragically under-appreciated. The Sunnysiders preferred to stand in the gangways, using the stand itself as a roof and neglecting the tannoy man’s kind offer.

The crowd yesterday was announced as 1,848, a number of people that could all fit into the main stand if the club wanted them to. That would get people sitting closer together, imagining themselves to be part of a crowd rather than a wake, and maybe even encourage more of a football-type atmosphere.

A better option would be to play games where fewer than 5,000 fans are expected at the excellent Tammela Stadium, which will be the venue for Tampere United’s match against FF Jaro in the cup on Thursday. I can’t quite express how excited I am about this, except to say that I will almost certainly be disappointed, such a fevered state of anticipation have I worked myself into.

For all it’s many, many faults and deficiencies (bumpy pitch, crap showers, no VIP facilities), Tammela keeps pretty much everyone dry, and able to see the pitch without binoculors. In my somewhat addled football-value index, this makes tickets worth twice as much as they would be at Ratina, and I cannot understand why TamU do not play there to build a loyal fanbase, while moving bigger games to Ratina when they sell enough tickets.

Enough stadia ranting. Ilari Ruuth came on for Sakari Saarinen, and did nothing wrong, Jonne Hjelm played from the start and did little noticeably right, Kangaskolkka was little better, but I was very impressed with Vili Savolainen. He seems to have taken on the responsibility of playing as a defensive midfielder and now gives the ball away much less frequently than he used to. He was a poor player when he arrived from HJK, but Ari Hjelm’s coaching might just have turned him around.

Elsewhere in Veikkausliiga, the top two steamed ahead with 2-0 away victories. The cleanliness of HJK’s win in Jakobstad can’t really be questioned, but imagine if this happened somewhere in Eastern Europe: the home team’s coach announces his intention to stand down at the end of the season. It’s reported that he may well be headed to the away, title-challenging team. The home team then loses 2-0, scoring an own goal and missing a penalty. I’ve no reason to believe Mika Laurikainen was anything other than 100% committed to ensuring Jaro won the game, but this kind of complicated contract situation invites cynicism.

“HJK were better,” Laurikainen said afterwards. “We couldn’t get into the game in the first half hour. The second half went better.”

Antti Hynynen was Haka’s hero in Anjalankoski, scoring both goals against mypa. He  complimented Niko Ikabalko’s cross afterwards, and said it was nice to start a game – with Haka’s embarrasment of riches he probably had to score to stay in the side.

Elsewhere Inter drew 1-1 with a Litmanenless Lahti (who are in between the two legs of their Europa League tie with Dinamo Tirana, and as such a little tired), IFK drew 0-0 with VPS, and yesterday KuPS beat RoPS 3-0 in the relegation six-pointer.  Things look pretty tight down there now, with KuPS bottom on 7 points, JJK second bottom on the same points total, and RoPS third bottom on 8. There’s then a gap till Mypa, who are on 13 points.

Things are a little clearer at the top. Both components of ‘Finland’s classico’ are now on 27 points, with Haka top on goal difference. TPS are next up, five points behind with a game in hand, a game that will be played away against Honka tomorrow (live on UTV and streams at 7pm). Mariehamn are fourth on 22 points, having played 13 games like the top two, then it’s Honka on 20 points after 12 games.

Highlights of all the weekends games are available here.

FC Inter (7th) – FC Lahti (9th), Sunday 6:30 PM

As the league table indicates, both sides are underperforming. Lahti have found it very difficult to win football games in the first half of the season, but it looks like they might have brighter days ahead of them. Last Sunday they beat TamU in Veikkausliiga and Thursday saw them take a great 4-1 win over KS Dinamo Tirana. Especially the latter game will have helped the team regain some faith in themselves.

Inter, on the other hand, are going the other way. They have lost no less than four of their last five games, and as if that was not enough to destroy a team’s self-confidence, goalkeepers Patrick Bantamoi and David Monsalve are both out due to suspensions. 19-year old Eemeli Reponen will start against Lahti, so it is not hard to guess that the visitors will want to test the youngster as much as possible.

A tight game is on the cards here. The first goal is probably quite important, and with the league’s best striker about to face an unexperienced junior keeper, Lahti might just about edge it. A home win or a draw is not a far-fetched guess either, but I am taking a risk and going for Lahti, mostly owing to their good run.

Inter are only missing their two goalkeepers, Lahti go into the game without Jukka Veltheim, Mika Hänninen, Jussi Heikkinen and possibly Jukka Vanninen.

Away win

FF Jaro (6th) – HJK (2nd), Sunday 6:30 PM

HJK continue their tour of Ostrobothnia with an away game against Jaro. Wednesday’s visit to VPS produced a 4-3 win, despite the fact that HJK suffered from a two-goal deficit twice during the game. Their hero was Akseli Pelvas, who would deserve to start against HJK, but given Antti Muurinen’s habit of mixing things up when there is no reason to do so, Pelvas’ place in the starting 11 is not guaranteed. Whoever Muurinen picks, HJK should have the better crop of players.

Then again, Jaro have yet to lose a home game this season. It is a bad place to be for any visiting team, and Jaro also happen to play good football. They also have some good individuals such as Mikko Hyyrynen and Sebastian Mannström, so HJK have a tough game coming up. The quality of the visitors should still tell when the final whistle blows, even though the team is somewhat unpredictable.

Jaro are missing Jari Sara while Tuomas Haapala, Paulus Roiha and Ville Taulo are out for HJK.

Away win

IFK Mariehamn (4th) – VPS (1oth), Sunday 6:30 PM

IFK Mariehamn find themselves from a European spot. It is somewhat surprising, but proves that they have the right players for their way of playing. VPS have found themselves under the command of Petri Vuorinen and Juha Reini. They lost to HJK in their last game, but still bagged three goals against the title candidates. Before that game they won no less than five occasions in a row, so they are becoming a force to be reckoned with. The teams are quite even on paper, and inseparable in my books.

Sasha Anttilainen and Wilhelm Ingves are doubtful for IFK, goalkeeper Henri Sillanpää might be out for VPS.

Draw

MYPA (11th) – Haka (1st), Sunday 6:30 PM

You rarely see a team that suffers from a four-year title hangover, but in the case of MYPA it seems to be concrete cold reality. The 2005 champions now have to guard their rear so they do not end up in the relegation spots. They have a good enough team so they could easily avoid it, but strangely they are low down in the table. By contrast, Haka are topping the table – perhaps surprisingly, but still deservedly. This is another game into which the Valkeakoski team go as clear favourites.

MYPA are missing Sampsa Timoska and Ady, while Kalle Parviainen and Valeri Minkenen are out for Haka.

Away win

Saturday

Sandefjord (9th) – Odd Grenland (3rd)

Right, the fact that this game is well underway at the time of writing renders this preview utterly pointless. Still, even though the score is 1-0 to Sandefjord, we confidently predict Odd to turn it around. In fact, we have money on it. Come on Kovacs, you Hungarian lump, time to make yourself useful.

Away win

Sunday

Bodø/Glimt (15th) – Molde (2th)

Credit where it’s due, in spite of being more than a bit doomed Bodø/Glimt aren’t giving up. Still, against the crafty counter-attacking.. eehh..  cretins (where did you think we were going with that?) of Molde you’d expect them to struggle.

Away win

Lyn (16th) – Stabæk (6th)

You can just imagine Lyn and Stabæk arguing over who’s in the biggest financial mire:

Stabæk: We’re so screwed, our players have had to take a wage-cut.

Lyn: So what? We’re so screwed we have to raise 10 million kr through transfers this summer, and very few of our players are particularly good.

Stabæk: Bah, that’s nothing, we’ve had to sell our STADIUM!

Lyn: You what? We don’t even have a stadium, in fact we’re this close to being chucked out from the one we’ve been playing at because we haven’t paid rent all year!

Stabæk: Well.. ok.. but we’ve got the richest fans in the country, yet no one seems to want to help us out financially!

Lyn: Wha.. fans? You mean those dozen or so people who keep telling us to spend the money we don’t have getting rid of our manager? And then make an allmighty fuss when that manager doesn’t worship at their feet?

Stabæk: Ok, ok, you win. But at least in 2011 you won’t have to pay a 37 year old Daniel Nannskog over 3 million a year!

Lyn: Dude, unless someone steps in to bail us out we won’t EXIST in 2011!

Away win

Start (5th) – Strømsgodset (14th)

This week Start played the first game of their difficult Gold Cup-period where they’ll be without both Christian Bolanos and Clarence Goodson, arguably their best offensive and best defensive player. Predictably they lost, 3-2 to Henning Berg’s Lillestrøm, and even though Strømsgodset are no great shakes this will be an almighty test for Start who need to show that they can pick up points without Bolanos and Goodson.

Draw

Viking (8th) – Lillestrøm (11)

It’s been slightly less miserable for Viking these last two weeks, and with Peter Ijeh looking like he might fancy playing a bit of football again it should be onwards and upwards for herr Uwë’s disciples.

Home win

Aalesund (13th) – Vålerenga (4th)

Unfortunately there will be no new edition “What’s Kjetil Rekdal unhappy about this week?”, as the beleaguered boss has told the media sod off and leave him alone, a message eerily similar to the one that got him into this mess in the first place. The Norwegian football federation have decided to give Rekdal a one match ban for being naughty on television, whilst his verbal sparring-partner Eirik Bakke will escape punishment because his comments, apart from his classy parting-shot “You fat pig”, weren’t caught up by microphones. So, according to the Norwegian football federation, calling someone a fat pig is fine, but calling someone an alcoholic isn’t. Good to know.

Draw

Monday

Brann (7th) – Fredrikstad (11th)

As foreign interest in Erik Huseklepp increases, Brann have apparently lowered their asking price from a comical 40 million kr to 25 million. The fee would still probably represents poor value for money, but in light of Huseklepp’s recent form Brann just might get it.

Home win

Tampere United (10th) – JJK (13th), Saturday 6:30 PM

Underachieving TamU can hope for European spots at best, but they did show some promise when they cancelled out a two-goal deficit and emerged as the victors in their last game against Inter on Wednesday. Aleksei Kangaskolkka finally scored and the team will be hoping he can score a few more in the coming weeks. Tonight’s game is a good opportunity to embellish the goalscoring charts, because JJK are not quite of the same calibre as a team. JJK have caused some minor upsets – mainly draws – but now that they have lost five of their last six games, it seems the promotion bubble has been broken.

Toni Koskela and Matti Lähitie are returning from suspensions for JJK, Antto Tapaninen, Niko Markkula and Niko Kautto are doubtful. TamU are still missing many first team players, among them Juska Savolainen, Tomi Petrescu, Antti Pohja and Toni Järvinen, but against a lowly JJK side that should not count too much.

Home win

KuPS (14th) – RoPS (12th), Wednesday 4 PM

KuPS have signed two new players for the remainder of the season. Dickson Nwakaeme will provide options for the final third of the pitch, while Segun Ikudehinbu reinforces the midfield. They are available for this relegation six-pointer, but whether they are able to make a difference is another thing. RoPS have improved under new boss Mika Lumijärvi and last Wednesday saw them climb out of the relegation zone with a last-minute victory over JJK. Christopher Musonda has been very good in the last couple of games, and against a weak team like KuPS he could prove to be a game-winner. RoPS are not the greatest football team out there and the game should be quite even, but RoPS are the more likely winners.

KuPS are missing Tuomas Kuparinen, Atte Hoivala Jani Hartikainen and Miikka Ilo, Jussi-Pekka Savolainen is doubtful. RoPS have to get along without Jarno Tenkula, Chileshe Chibwe and goalkeeper Jung-Hyuk Kwom. Veteran midfielder/assistant coach Zeddy Saileti is doubtful.

Away win

As the game’s defining moment it was pretty clearly signposted, and when Eemeli Reponen (not a girl) failed to stop Chris James’s penalty on his Veikkausliiga debut, the stage was set for TamU to complete the comeback. They had earlier gone 2-0 down through Furuholm and a superb strike from the Mexican midfielder Alberto Ramirez, at which point Inter looked in control of the game.

Their defensive frailties have been a problem this season, however, and after Kangaskolkka’s half time introduction TamU began to exploit them. The former MyPa striker is a very good striker, a poacher unlike most other Finnish forwards, and his pace and power unsettled Claudio Verino. At least 50% of the Kangaskolkka equation seems to be psychological, and he did get a booking for dissent in his 45 minutes (disciplinary problems have plagued him since pre-season), but overall his demotion to the bench paid dividends.

Job Dragtsma, always a pleasure to interview, explained the game in his usual eloquent way. The penalty decision changed the game, he couldn’t blame his keeper as the defence should have stopped Kangaskolkka and Monsalve was only trying to get to the ball, and Giullano Grot was at fault for the winner as he failed to impede the long ball forward to Rafinha.

Ah, Rafinha. signed as an attacker and converted by Ari Hjelm into a right back, the Brazilian was pretty jubilant to have got the winner. I asked him afterwards what his favourite position is, and of course he said he was a striker, ‘but I’ll play wherever Zico needs me’.

Talking to Dragtsma afterwards I was struck by his approach to criticising his team. Ramirez wasted a four on one break immediately after TamU had equalised, by electing to shoot rather than dribbling to the wings and spreading the play to make the defender commit himself. During the game I’d exclaimed just how stupid this was from ramirez, how Inter could have gone ahead again, and it was a terrible waste. Dragtsma merely shrugged and said that he’d been confident as he’d just scored a good goal. He was much more focused on what players do when they don’t have the ball, and I guess this is how creative players are developed: they’re allowed to express themselves relatively freely and without fear of criticism. It also shows why Dragtsma is reigning coach of the year, and I struggle on football management simulations on the computer.

Lastly, a word for 16 year old Jusu Karvonen: steady. He seems to have been in the gym since his league cup matches earlier this year, when he looked quite skinny and lightweight, and it is good to see young players blooded by Ari Hjelm.

On Sunday I went to see Haka v Jaro, and was absolutely astounded to see Jaro dominate the game but fail to get a goal. They hit the bar and the post, and Mikko Hyyrynen was guilty of some atrocious finishing, but Sebastian Mannström’s game was the highlight for me.

Overlooked for the Under-21 squad that went to Sweden, the former GBK man made some wonderful passes, created some excellent chances for his team mates, took a couple of potshots, won some unlikely headers, and even made a couple of pretty strong tackles. He’s a small guy but has toughened up considerably this year, and he has helped turn Jaro into an aesthetically pleasing, effective side. He will surely leave Jakobstad soon to sign for a bigger club, at home or abroad.

As for Haka, well. They were poor, and played nothing like champions. The best news for them seemed to be announced in the press conference afterwards, when we found out that Sebastian Strandvall will shortly leave to go on trial at Werder Bremen.

Jaro coach Mika Laurikainen announced today that he will leave the club at the end of the season, at the conclusion of his current contract. HBL repeats a rumour that he may be HJK-bound, but would they really sack Antti Muurinen? Not if they keep winning seven goal thrillers, surely. Akseli Pelvas was the big hero for HJK, and maybe now he’ll get some playing time? Not till he moves to Jaro, said the guy next to me at Ratina, but maybe that won’t now be necessary, if Laurikainen brings his developmental philosophy to HJK next year.

In today’s other game RoPS got a last minute winner against JJK, after having conceded two late goals on Sunday to lose to Honka. Please do click on the video, as it will make you feel good about your own footballing career. remember: the majority of the people playing in those conditions are full-time professionals. And you’ve (most likely) played on better grounds than that. Did you hang up your boots too soon, or is Susi Vouti (RoPS’s temporary home while their usual ground is renovated) a little bit ramshackle? I think it’s the latter, but in an endearing rather than pitiful way. It’s only one game, for only one season, so I’m sure the pampered southern pros will get over the poor facilities.

The result ‘plunged’ JJK into the relegation play-off spot, but they still have a game in hand on RoPS, who are one place and one point above them. At the top of the table just five points separate the top seven, with Jaro’s impressive performances not quite getting the reward they deserve, but keeping them in touching distance of the leaders.

Tomorrow Lahti take on Dinamo Tirana in the first of Finland’s European ties this year, which will also be the club’s first match in European competition. NFN wishes them luck, as we’re all big FK Tirana supporters round here.

Tampere United (11th) – FC Inter (7th)

Inter are a good team on their day, but they can also be a bad team, like last Sunday at HJK. To aggravate the problem, Patrick Bantamoi is suspended for this game because he has apparently been watching too much hockey. He brought down a HJK player with what would have been an impressive body check if it took place in the rink, but because the game was played on grass, he was awarded a Christmas card and a suspension. He is replaced by David Monsalve, who makes his Veikkausliiga debut.

TamU are half-decent in their own end of the pitch, but lack any and all imagination in the final third. Inter have similar problems with Mika Ojala injured, Guillano Grot playing inefficiently and Timo Furuholm still finding himself. On these grounds it’s not difficult then to predict that not many goals will be scored. Tampere United, despite their poor form and the fact that their title hopes have gone down the drain, are a very difficult side for Inter to play against. TamU are a physical side with the ability to demoralise Inter, who are lacking in the physical side of the game. Inter favour an expansive passing game, and in recent years Tampere United have been good in breaking it down. Inter have never won an away game at TamU and even their last home win is from 2004, so if you want a winner, you might want to try TamU. I expect a bore draw though.

TamU are weakend by the fact that no less than 7 first team players are missing, among them Tomi Petrescu, Toni Järvinen, Antti Pohja and possibly Jari Niemi. They don’t have much to choose from and should start suffering from fatigue anytime now. Apart from Bantamoi, who will spend the next two games trying to learn the secrets of the clean tackle, Mika Ojala is Inter’s only absentee.

Draw

VPS (9th) – HJK (3rd)

Tough to call, this one. VPS are hotter than hell right now, having won five games in a row. Then again, HJK have been at least reasonably good and have a material advantage over the hosts.

VPS goalkeeper Henri Sillanpää is back in training, but has found it somewhat difficult to kick the ball properly, so Henrik Moisander is more likely to start the game. Moisander is not quite of the same calibre, but still a good keeper, so whether Sillanpää is able to play is not a matter of life and death.

Tuomas Haapala and Ville Taulo are still doubtful for HJK, but Cheyne Fowler did pretty well as defensive midfielder against Inter, so HJK won’t be too concerned with their midfield. Now that Fowler has returned from injury, Medo can take a more attacking role in the midfield, which suits him much better than a defensive role. Jukka Sauso suffered a concussion against Inter, and either U21-hero Jukka Raitala or Juhani Ojala will replace him as centre-back. Paulus Roiha is also out for HJK.

A look at the odds recommends picking VPS here. It might not be as far-fetched as it may seem, but most likely the hosts will be on the defensive end of proceedings, and that being the case, I’d expect HJK to manage enough goals.

Away win

RoPS (13th) – JJK (12th)

RoPS have suffered two perhaps unlucky defeats, one last Sunday when Honka scored twice in the closing minutes and won 2-1 and another one last Wednesday when TPS were professional enough to score one more than RoPS. They have put in encouraging performances though, and against JJK it could start making a difference, as JJK are not quite as good as TPS or Honka. Furthermore, RoPS have the home advantage, which is surprisingly significant. The place is literally in the middle of nowhere.

This week’s issue of JJK states that JJK simply do not have the quality required to play in Veikkausliiga. Maybe, but somehow they are two points clear from the relegation zone with a game in hand against RoPS. The problem is that most of the points have come with their four draws, which should not be enough to keep them up. It may just happen, because even if they only drew against RoPS tonight, they are still two points ahead with a game in hand and have bought time in the relegation battle. Unfortunately, a draw could be a maximum at RoPS.

RoPS are missing Jarno Tenkula, JJK go into the game without Toni Koskela, Matti Lähitie, Antto Tapaninen and Niko Kautto.

Home win

STUART BAXTER is a polite and eloquent man, but at a Finnish FA press lunch given on Finland’s final day at the UEFA under-21 championships he found it difficult to express his feelings without recourse to an expletive. He had watched Finland’s previous two matches from the enclosure reserved for scouts, and their constant queries about the relatively unknown Finns had exasperated him.

“I had to do this at one point,” Baxter explained, putting his hands over his ears. “There were three or four people all asking ‘who does he play for?’, ‘how much might he cost?’, and so on, while I was watching the game and thinking ‘f*ck! come on lads’.”

Probably without realising it, Baxter had shown the two schools of thought on Finland’s tournament. On the one hand, they played quite well in patches and were not outclassed as some had feared, changing the perceptions of opinion formers and decision makers in bigger footballing countries than Finland.

On the other, they’d lost all three games, conceded six goals, and failed to score from open play. Baxter described this as a lack of “streetwise” attitude, a difficulty of making the correct choices at crucial moments that comes from an inexperienced team.

Finland certainly lacked a killer instinct when presented with an England side down to ten men and the score at 1-1. Their defending at set pieces let them down in that game and was pin-pointed as a weakness by coach Markku Kanerva after the tournament, but the biggest problem for Finland was a lack of attacking edge and a tendency to tire late on.

The first problem stems from squad selection. When Roman Eremenko pulled out of the squad citing tiredness, the chance to bring in a young, attacking midfielder with a good passing range presented itself. Finland have a wealth of players fitting that description in the age group below this one, including players like FF Jaro’s Sebastian Mannström and TPS Turku’s Riku Riski.

Instead of giving those players a chance to test themselves before their own qualification campaign starts, Kanerva called up Haka defender Petri Viljanen. Viljanen has played Veikkausliiga football for a couple of years now, and not always looked comfortable. Taking him to Sweden was a cautious move, and in the end he did not play a minute.

Would they have turned things around if the younger, more attack-minded playmakers had been waiting on the bench when Finland’s chips were down? Probably not, but they would definitely have learnt something from the experience. Nippy wingers like Juha Hakola and Ilari Aijala were preferred, and they just did not have the class to turn games against the best Europe has to offer.

These minor quibbles aside, the avoidance of humiliation and the likelihood of foreign transfers for a good few of the Finnish squad are respectable results in themselves.

Expectations should be higher next time, and the challenge for the Finland set-up is now both to integrate those who impressed into the senior side – Sparv and Sadik having done enough to move up pretty much immediately, with others providing good options – and to improve on this tournament with the next batch of under-21 players.

In a brief moment of clarity I once wrote that I will avoid making predictions because doing so will eventually offer proof that I have no idea of what I’m talking about. While I was smart enough to figure that much out on my own, I am unfortunately dumb enough to ignore my own advice.

The following entry will present my predictions for the fall season in Allsvenskan. The teams are listed in the order of their current league position with their predicted finish noted below the name of each team. Hopefully this will provide you with an idea of where the different teams stand. Please note that any correspondence with actual standings at the end of the season will be coincidental and purely a result of dumb luck.

1. IFK Göteborg
Prediction: 1st (Gold)

By far the best team when the break began, Göteborg enters the fall season riding an impressive five game winning streak. But it will be a different team that gets back into action this July. Key player Pontus Wernbloom left the team earlier this spring and star defender Mattias Bjärsmyr is on his way out. To make matters worse, wiz-kid striker Robin Söder suffered a season-ending injury during the U21 European Championship.

But the squad should still be deep enough to deliver this fall and their most valuable player Tobias Hysen remains in the team. IFK Göteborg has also made heaps of cash in the transfer market this summer and have every opportunity to reinforce the team with top talent.

Göteborg starts off the fall season with four rather tricky games against Halmstad, AIK and two matches against Trelleborg. If Göteborg captures 10 points or more in these games they could very well end up spending the rest of the season in first place. But my prediction is that Göteborg will have a negative first few games this fall season as they are forced to find their way with a new lineup. The key game for Göteborg will instead be against Elfsborg in late August and I believe this game will be won by Göteborg. A reinforced and re-energized Göteborg will then secure the title during the final rounds of the season.

2. IF Elfsborg
Prediction: 2nd (The Big Silver)

Undefeated during the spring, Elfsborg enters the fall season with a reputation of being untouchable at home. The problem for Elfsborg is that their offensive game is a bit stilted and they have underperformed away from home. Elfsborg will keep most of their key players, which will allow them to remain consistent and this could keep the team in the running for the gold until the very end of the season.

I expect Elfsborg to remain extremely difficult to beat and I can see them losing as little as two or three games in total. They could very well take the most points of any team if we only count the fall games, but I believe that a loss in the head to head game against Göteborg will prove to be a fateful defeat.

3. Helsingborgs IF
Prediction: 4th (Bronze)

I don’t see Helsingborg as a serious challenger for the gold considering their propensity toward mixing dazzling games with real stinkers. Even if Helsingborg manages to sign the hottest Superettan talent, striker Erton Fejzullahu of Mjällby, inconsistency will remain a team trademark. I expect Helsingborg to lose points against opponents of widely varying rank, but it will be their inability to match Göteborg and Elfsborg in head to head games that will ultimately keep the team out of the title contention.

4. AIK
Prediction: 3rd (The Small Silver)

AIK will build on the promise from the spring season with Ivan Obolo still on the team and Dulee Johnson back on board. AIK will have an outside chance of challenging Göteborg and Elfsborg if they continue to line up fortunate wins in close games, while at the same time their top rivals fail to deliver.

Unfortunately AIK will quite likely be out of the title contention far earlier than we would like. A close battle with Helsingborg for a third place seems to be in the cards.

5. Trelleborgs FF
Prediction: 8th

Trelleborg will remain difficult to beat at home, but they will not be strong enough to remain in contention for a place in the top four. Trelleborg has a difficult double header against IFK Göteborg coming up. This will provide Trelleborg with a chance to cause an upset, but the team is more likely to end up with a slight drop in the standings. In the end, a solid middle of the table finish seems reasonable.

6. Gefle IF
Prediction: 9th

One of the most surprising sides this spring won’t have any new aces up their sleeves for the fall. Teams now know what to expect from Gefle and it will be more difficult for them to lock down opponents that will be better rested and more concentrated as a result of the far less hectic fall schedule. A middle of the table finish is still a huge fall forward for a team that was largely considered a shoe-in for relegation before the season.

7. Kalmar FF
Prediction: 6th

Kalmar began the season in horrendous form, but has a tradition of rolling with the punches and improving as the season progresses. Kalmar can look forward to a more positive fall season and could prove a real thorn in the side for top teams. However, they lack the necessary depth, particularly in the attack, and they will not make it out of the middle of the table.

8. Örebro SK
Prediction: 7th

ÖSK has the potential to perform better than their current league position lets on, but I just don’t see Örebro finding the right momentum to get much further up the table. Even if they’ll play well at Bernh Arena, they will not be the type of team that will take big scalps away from home. Any team that can lose a game against Djurgården will have problems getting out of the middle of the table.

9. Malmö FF
Prediction: 5th

The underachievers of the spring have all the necessary talent to climb in the league standings. I expect that Malmö will find their game and more importantly begin to find the back of the net. Malmö could become the team of the fall with a better acclimated Wilton that will most likely move into a more withdrawn position where he feels most at home.

The disappointing spring leg of the season will ensure that Malmö will be out of the absolute top contention, but a climb in the table seems highly likely and a top four finish is not out of the question.

10. Halmstads BK
Prediction: 11th

It’s unlikely that this team will experience much of a climb in the standings as a couple of their midfield starters are on their way out this summer. It will be difficult to replace midfield motor Andreas Johansson who is already moving to Germany, and if Michael Görlitz follows suit it will be extremely hard for Halmstad to replace their lost players. Swedish sports columnist Mats Olsson picked Halmstad as the title winners before the season. Gives you a good idea of how much he knows.

11. BK Häcken
Prediction: 10th

Loyal readers of this blog should be fairly familiar with BK Häcken by now. They finished the spring season by stealing points from both Elfsborg and Helsingborg, thus greatly aiding AIK’s chances in the top. I expect this team to continue playing their positive style of soccer, but I don’t think they will continue pulling off quite as many iconoclastic routs of top teams. I don’t expect them to beat AIK at any rate. A spot just inside the top ten seems achievable for the buttocks.

12. IF Brommapojkarna
Prediction: 14th

The biggest positive surprise of April experienced a steady slide down the standings during the month of May. I don’t expect BP to recapture the spirit they showed in April, but given the poor quality of the teams at the very bottom of the league I also don’t expect that BP will need to fear direct relegation.

Brommapojkarna will face a tough fall schedule with double meetings against strong teams and difficult away games against AIK and Elfsborg. A very challenging relegation play-off series against one of the inspired Superettan top teams seems likely for Brommapojkarna.

13. Hammarby IF
Prediction: 12th

The “wrecks” faced plenty of ill fortune this spring, but have managed to trudge along even in games where Charlie Davies has been out on suspension. The impact of the silly season loss of Lolo Chanko could be mitigated by the return of the defender Patrik Gerrbrand and skilled midfielder Andreas Dahl. But the question is if the possible losses of Charlie Davies and Emil Johansson later this summer would mean a spot in the relegation zone for Hammarby.

Hammarby should probably continue to worry about the threat of the relegation play-off, but I believe that even without Charlie Davies, Hammarby will scrape together a good enough squad that can pull off enough wins against the other bottom rivals to keep clear of the bottom of the league.

14. GAIS
Prediction: 13th

GAIS has not yet lost their superstar Wanderson Do Carmo, but if that occurs GAIS will be in serious trouble and they may struggle to remain out of the relegation zone. My sense is that GAIS will remain in the bottom half, but will manage to narrowly escape the relegation zone.

15. Djurgårdens IF
Prediction: 15th

I expected Djurgården to pull some last ditch effort to save themselves from relegation. I expected an influx of capital and a couple of foreign players brought in to solve Djurgården’s immediate problems. We’ll see if that actually happens as transfer activity has been strangely quiet surrounding Djurgården so far.

I expect a steady march down to Superettan for Djurgården. They are not yet beyond all hope since they are only one point away from safer ground, but their upcoming schedule is grueling to say the least. Helsingborg, Kalmar and Elfsborg times two feels a lot like zero points in four games. I don’t expect Djurgården to climb out of the bottom after that. For better or worse, Djurgården will face relegation this year.

16. Örgryte IS
Prediction: 16th

Örgryte has no chance of digging their way out of the quicksand they are currently in. A last place in Allsvenskan felt almost certain already back in April. With a new coach, two top strikers back from injuries and new signings they have a chance to clean up their numbers somewhat. Whatever supporters this team has should be happy if the team manages a point total exceeding ten, because avoiding relegation is not in the cards. That’s one prediction I can make with a measure of certainty.

This post first appeared at Markus’s excellent US AIK blog. Any Americanisms contained within it are his and his alone!