A surprising result at Kupittaa, where TPS ensured that their game at HJK on Thursday will take on a new significance. A defeat there, and it will be hard for coach Rautiainen to avoid a mini-crisis at least. ‘New coach, same old TPS’ was the headline in Hufvudstadsbladet, while Turun Sanomat went for a more measured ‘TPS punished at corners’.
The Turku side had started with a fantastic goal from loanee Wayne Brown, volleyed in from the edge of the area, but it was all downhill from there. That former Inter defender Diego Corpache scored the winner, and was by most accounts the best player on the pitch, will not have made the defeat any easier to take.
“I got into a good shooting position,” Brown told Turun Sanomat. “Of course it was nice to get the first goal quickly, but we should have been able to push on and get at least one more goal in the first half.”
“I’d rather play in the middle, behind the strikers, but the coach decides where I play,” continued Brown. “This is a slightly different kind of football to what we play in England, but I thought the standard was pretty high.”
“The pitch was quite good, and in any case it was the same for both teams,” Brown offered, in his capacity as an Englishman and therefore also a gardening expert. “My teamwork with the rest of the side will definitely improve in the next few games. Our passing game deteriorated in the second half.”
Hufvudstadsbladet went with ‘HJK begin masterfully’, and they certainly had a lot of chances. The sub-heading read ‘everything points to a long season for KuPS’, which neatly sums up the dominant view on the Savo side. The HBL report saw fit to mention that HJK actually got a standing ovation at the end of the game, and a well-deserved one at that.
The team selections were interesting. While TPS coach Rautiainen had kept faith with Simo Valakari in midfield, even though he has been less than brilliant in pre-season, Antti Muurinen took the difficult decision of leaving out Juho Mäkelä and playing Valeri Popovitch instead. The result was a hatful of goals and a confidence boosting win ahead of the TPS game on Thursday.
The other difficult decision made by HJK was the return of Jukka Raitala. The left back was omitted from the squad that lost to Tampere United in the League Cup final because he has not yet signed a new contract, and his current deal runs out in October. He has still not signed the contract, and different media have different interpretations on that situation. The Finnish language evening papers are more positive about the chances of Raitala signing, but it appears the player has won the battle of nerves. This is from Jonas Von Wendt’s report in HBL
“I haven’t signed any contract yet. That will be next week,” Raitala said.
HJK’s line on this issue has been very strange. Raitala has a contract until the end of the season, and if someone wants to buy him in the summer HJK will get reasonable compensation.
“The situation has brightened in the Raitala case,” believes Muurinen.
In the background sat CEO (Kari) Haapiainen and Sporting Director (Tuomo) Saarnio, and said not a thing. But isn’t that what they get paid for?
Raitala will surely not sign anything that will not have a (fairly low) get out clause, and even if he does not sign anything HJK will get either a full season from one of the best young Finnish players, or a transfer fee if they sell him in the transfer window. If they want to sell young players, they have to offer them longer contracts, make sure they get playing time, and develop their talents properly.
April 19th, 2009 at 2:20 pm
You can see Brown’s opener here: http://tpstv.luovia.fi/index2.html
April 20th, 2009 at 11:24 am
Cheers Jari! How did Brown do?
April 21st, 2009 at 3:23 pm
Jukka signed new deal until 2011 today. I still think that he is leaving at summer tho, but good for Klubi and finnish football.
Klubi’s game wasn’t that good against KuPS. KuPS looked like KooTeePee last season, and they are propably losing quite many times with similar numbers.