The Finnish league has made it all the way to the 8th round, which makes us here at the NFN Ivory Tower quite ready and willing to single out some teams for harsh criticism. We could also carve out the positives out of some teams’ performances, but who wants to read good news anyway?
Continue reading...Tuesday, April 20, 2010
Janne Oivio continues his skewed coverage of Veikkausliiga following the preview package published last week. It’s ridiculously early to do a power ranking, but I don’t care. Having just completed NFN’s Massive Veikkausliiga Preview I was so delighted with myself that I decided to begin a running feature which will run hopefully every other week.
Continue reading...Thursday, April 15, 2010
Since there is no hope for compromise amongst NFN Finnish’s “experts” and Veikkaaja decided not to listen to my infinite wisdom, I’ve decided to use this space to tell everyone how the upcoming Veikkausliiga season will play out. So listen up.
Continue reading...Saturday, March 13, 2010
Alexei Eremenko Jr has signed for FF Jaro on loan from his fantastically named Ukrainian club, Metalist Kharkiv. The 26 year old, who can play as an attacking midfielder or forward but has most often been seen sitting on the bench in recent years, will spend the whole season at the Jakobstad club according to [...]
Continue reading...Thursday, January 28, 2010
Haka and JJK postponed their League Cup match last Friday, because it was forecast to be too cold for them to play. The Finnish FA advises that games are not played when the temperature is below -10, so given the -15 weathe rforecast last week, the best option was to call it off and reschedule [...]
Continue reading...Friday, November 20, 2009
The Weekly is a little bit grumpy today because just when it was on the verge of scoring a new record of how many staples it can shoots inside a litter basket with a staple-gun inside sixty seconds, it was distracted by a volley of incoming transfer news that had been close to non-existent for [...]
Continue reading...Sunday, October 18, 2009
Veikkausliiga final day highlights In the end, everything went as expected. HJK got the point they needed to secure their 22nd title, despite Jaro taking the lead on eight minutes after Tillman Grove swept the ball home following a cross from the left. HJK’s cautious outlook has been criticised this season, but a draw was [...]
Continue reading...Sunday, September 20, 2009
With Autumn drawing in, Veikkausliiga is sorting itself into distinct sections going into the closing stages of the season. The top two are matching each other blow for blow in the fight for the championship, the next group of five are dropping points and beating each other as nobody really cements their hold on third [...]
Continue reading...Friday, August 21, 2009
Friday The weekend kicks off tonight, with Alexei Eremenko senior’s first game in charge of FF Jaro. The former JBK coach takes the reigns from Mika Laurikainen, who seemed bewildered that he got the sack after the team’s form collapsed following the announcement of his departure at season’s end. Jaro felt they might as well [...]
Continue reading...Monday, August 3, 2009
This round of Veikkausliiga featured excellent performances from two out of three relegation candidates, and some indifferent displays from the title chasers. It’s a frustrating feature of Veikkausliiga, and one that speaks of financial crises and short term thinking rather than a level playing field and uniformly high standards. JJK wanted to see how their [...]
Continue reading...Sunday, August 2, 2009
Haka 2 (Ikävalko 27, Ristilä 76) JJK 4 (Viljanen og 45, Nam 70 and 74, Sund 89) Attendance: 2,028 Haka’s wretched form continued at Tehttaan Kenttä today with a dismal 4-2 defeat to JJK. Having lost three of their last four games, the Valkeakoski side are in danger of slipping out of contention for the [...]
Continue reading...Sunday, August 2, 2009
VPS v Lahti, Sunday 6:30pm Lahti are fresh from their exploits in Brugge, where they lost in a hopeful, promising, away-goals-scoring kind of a way. The other Finnish teams in Europe have been uniformly rubbish, so Finnish perceptions of the level of domestic football largely hang on the ability of Jari Litmanen and co to [...]
Continue reading...Friday, July 31, 2009
TPS – Tampere United What would a man want to do on a Friday night, if not go to a football game and watch it from behind a computer screen. My nerdiness at least has developed to such an extent that I am turning my back on Kari Tapio and Tapani Kansa and going to [...]
Continue reading...Monday, July 20, 2009
Pasi Rautiainen is one of the funniest men in Veikkausliiga, and after 7,319 people filled Kupittaa Stadium today for Tepsi’s crucial clash with HJK he was in the mood to entertain. TPS had clawed back a point through Mika Ääritalo in the 86th minute after Chris Cleaver had earlier put through his own goal to [...]
Continue reading...Monday, July 13, 2009
Haka (2nd) – TPS (3rd), Monday 7 PM Live on Urheilukanava and streams PREVIEW: This week and the next are of definitive nature as far as the title race is concerned. TPS will play both Haka and table-topping HJK this week, and two wins could see them occupy the driving seat. Two draws would leave [...]
Continue reading...Wednesday, July 8, 2009
The preview of the sxth round should take many forms, the first one being a homage to Pasi Rautiainen. This Monday’s match between Honka and TPS in Tapiola turned into something of a media event, with most of the Finnish under-21 squad presented with roses for their achievement in failing to win a single game [...]
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Friday, June 4, 2010
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