VPS Vaasa 2 Honka 5
TPS Turku 0 JJK Jyväskylä 0
The ice hockey world championships is getting quite a lot of media coverage in Finland at the moment, and ahead of today’s Czech Republic-Norway game I asked Lars what he thought of the Norwegian team’s chances.
“Do we have a team in that? I didn’t know,” replied NFN’s Norwegian correspondent.
I can now confirm for Lars that there is a Norwegian hockey team, because their match-up against the benighted, bemulleted Czechs, subsequent adverts, and a bizarre 30 seconds of PGA golf tour coverage took up the time that was allocated in today’s Urheilukanava schedule to buildup to the VPS-Honka match. Coverage finally arrived at Hietalahti 25 seconds into the game, with commentator Tuomas Virkkunen reading out the teams in an effort to update his audience.
Giving the TV rights to a free-to-air broadcaster for nothing, when an offer of money was on the table, was intended to increase exposure for sponsors and thereby revenues for clubs, but you have to wonder if Veikkausliiga wouldn’t have been better off without showing the scenes in Vaasa today.
The pitch was awful, the crowd was dismal (maybe 50% of the announced figure of 1,424 – I actually counted the number of fans behind the VPS goal in the first half, and the total was 57), the weather was grey and John Weckström was wearing a shirt belonging to recently departed Honka midfielder Tero Koskela. That Koskela now plays for VPS only added to the farcical atmosphere.
The game itself was actually very good. Hermanni Vuorinen has played for Werder Bremen, and for Fredrikstad, but came back to Finland and now indulges his twin passions for heavy metal music and terrorising Veikkausliiga defences. His finishing was clinical, his hair long and greasy-looking, his demeanour slightly startled, but he rattled in four very good goals (Honka’s fifth was a similarly fine strike from Nicholas Otaru) and will be difficult to stop this season. He might be difficult for last season’s top scorer (and member of the NFN facebook group) Aleksandr Kokko to dislodge.
Lastly from the Vepsu game, a name to remember: Petteri Forsell. 18 years old, still at high school, and very comfortable at this level, you will hear more of him. Hopefully he will get some bigger occasions on which to showcase his talent.
The other game involved 14 shots on goal for the home team, with only one for the visitors, one Korean out of three making his JJK debut, a good performance from Hungarian goalkeeper Mihaly Szerovay, and severe disappointment for Tepsi.
“All the guys did their jobs, and I’m happy that their work was rewarded,” JJK coach Ville Priha said after the game.
Babatunde Wusu did hit the bar against his former club, and Paatelainen planted a free header straight into Szerovay’s arms, but TPS couldn’t get the breakthrough that would have brought a first league win.
Tue, Apr 28, 2009
Finland, Veikkausliiga