Finland U16

I was watching the youngest talents available last night Eerikkilä Sports Academy when Finnish under 16 (born after 1.1.1993) met their Russian age comrades.

No reason to start another topic for the second match is there? Finland won 2-1 (0-0) after being more efficient in front of the goal in a very even game against the mighty Russia. Goals were scored by the skilful Seferi and very hard-working super-sub Kastrati.

The lineup:

gk Atte Ranta, HIFK
ld Astrit Kabashi, Honka
cd Jussi Perttula, MyPa
cd Aapi Helvelahti, Fuengirola Los Boliches

rd Miikka Salonen, HyPS

mf Jani Jokinen, Honka

mf Joni Mäkelä, OLS -> 41’ Kastriot Kastrati, HJK
mf Kasperi Heinonen, Reipas -> 55’ Kevin Peth, FF Kraft
mf Valmir Seferi, Honka

striker/winger Henri Salminen, Ilves -> 27’ Antti Mäkijärvi, Honka

striker Nikolai Alho, HJK -> 80’ Patrick O’Shaughnessy, HJK
As the names might tell, Finland is finally a multicultural country and having an exotic name, a slightly more tanned skin or parents from another world is hardly exotic anymore.

Edited 28.2.2009/airport


It was a friendly and played indoors but it did give something to think about.
Kevin Peth was playing as a lone striker and because of lack of creativity from the midfield he was not able to show much. Industrious performance, not world class though. The jury is still out there.

Midfielders Alho and specially Seferi formed perhaps the best duo of Finnish players, Seferi looked dangerous at all times and Alho was a calming element. Mäkijärvi was a bit too shy and weak in this performance.

Kevin Peth (Henri Salminen)

Nikolai Alho+ – Valmir Seferi ++ –Antti Mäkijärvi
(Kasperi Heinonen) (Kevin Ingoli)

Jani Jokinen – Kastriot Kastrati
(Joni Mäkelä)


Jani Jokinen was one of the most influential players involving himself also in the dirty work. Unfortunately I can not remember Kastrati at all, but I have drawn a long minus under his name.

Left defender D O´Shaughnessy got injured early in the game and was replaced by Perttula who did an ok job. Patrick O´ seemed comfortable with the ball but maybe the Russians were a tad too fast for him? A positive performance anyhow. Latosaari from FC Haka also did well where as right defender Miikka Salonen seemed to have too many problems with the undoubtfully skilful and fast russian forwards.


D. O’Shaughnessy – M-P Latosaari – P. O’Shaughnessy - Miikka Salonen
( Jussi Perttula) (Aapi Helvelahti)

The goalkeeper can hardly be blamed of any the 3 Russian goals, it was just not Finland´s day.

Jesse Joronen gk


The result is hardly of any importance and tomorrow the teams will meet again, but this game was ended 0-3 (0-2)


1. Jesse Joronen, SiU
2. Daniel O’Shaughnessy, HJK
3. Mikko-Petteri Latosaari, Haka
4. Patrick O’Shaughnessy, HJK
5. Miikka Salonen, HyPS
6. Jani Jokinen, Honka
7. Nikolai Alho, HJK
8. Kastriot Kastrati, HJK
9. Kevin Peth, FF Kraft
10. Valmir Seferi, Honka
11. Antti Mäkijärvi, Honka

subs
12. Atte Ranta, HIFK
13. Joni Mäkelä, OLS
14. Aapi Helvelahti, Fuengirola Los Boliches
15. Jussi Perttula, MyPa
16. Kasperi Heinonen, Reipas
17. Kevin Ingoli, PK-35
18. Henri Salminen, Ilves


Sami Vehkakoski, coach
Jarkko Wiss, coach

Choosing your custom

If you are a succesful bettor this kind of a letter is something you will receive rather sooner than later "

Dear xxx,


I am writing to inform you that due to the unprofitable nature of your account it will be closed with immediate effect.

Internal funds will be transferred to you in the usual manner.


Yours sincerely

Giveusyourmoney Ltd (Gibraltar/Malta)"

Frustrating isn´t it? You have finally learned a bit or two about betting and this is your reward. You can always open a new account somewhere else of course, and guess what will happen? Right, the same thing. Same same. Funny thing is that you do not even have to be a success yet, it is enough if you have happened to bet following the wise money, ie. decreasing odds.

Unless you have not yet opened an account at a bet exchange you should do it now and learn to use it fully. Act now and forget those whining bookies who can not take the heat.

Don't be a Trevor bettor, be a clever bettor!

Go on home Mr. Baxter go on home

Mr. Stuart Baxter you a are a very likeable manager. Your track record is acceptable. Your manner of speaking is very polite, you are well connected and hopefully not even the most expensive manager in the world.



Now you have started as a head coach of Finland. It is a job that I can not envy you at all, the material is old, there are not enough players available and none of them is top of world anymore.

The chances of qualifying to South Africa are about zero but you are willing to give it a go.

In the last friendly against Portugal you were planning to make some changes, test some new players, maybe some new positions for them too.

You kept your word, Juha Hakola played a couple of minutes. You also introduced a brand new playmaker to the team. Someone no one could have predicted at all, Jonatan Johansson.

Mr. Baxter, I have a question for you. Do you follow Finnish football at all?

You also took the national team to Japan to play a couple of friendlies. I admit, you did test players there, as a matter of fact a total of nine new players got their first caps.

The result? 5-1. The use? I can not think of any. Nice change of climate perhaps, January is kind of rough time in Finland weatherwise.

Like I said earlier Mr. Baxter, I like you. Under these circumstances and this dedication and interest you have shown you just can not win here. For your own sake, you should either throw all the dead wood from the national team over board, or you should go.

There is no reason to take this personally. At the moment the material in your hands just is not good enough, no one would gain any success with them.

If you want to stay, forget Johansson. Forget Kolkka. Kallio. Tihinen. Tarvajärvi. Kuqi. Forget Swedish tv. Let Eremenko Jr. return to the team. Do not listen to Heliskoski and Hämäläinen anymore, start doing your job and let the Finnish football fans look into the future and be proud of their team again.

If we lose in Cardiff, which would not at all surprise, I would not mind at all if you stayed there Mr. Baxter.

League Cup 21.2.2009

There are 4 games today in the League Cup. All times local + 2 GMT

RoPS - JJK 14:00 Rovaniemi (indoor arena)

This looks like a low-scoring game as neither of these have the firepower needed and the RoPs team is very much in early building state. JJK however are perhaps the most mediocre team of the League is after the transfer of the star striker Wusu to TPS it is hard to seem scoring against anyone. Material is not good enough for Veikkausliiga level.

0-0 and under 2.5 and both teams not to score.



FC Haka - HJK 14:15 Valkeakoski tn (artificial pitch)

This is one of the classic games of the League, however it has little impact in wintery conditions like today. The most interesting figure of this game is Valeri Popovitsh who had to make a shock transfer from Haka to HJK after last season. Think of Raul getting fired from Real Madrid or Gerrard from Liverpool. Nothing is sacred anymore. HJK are slighly better and favourites but they have not yet impressed me and if I had to bet I would go with a low-scoring game here too. Just like in Rovaniemi.


0-0 and under 2.5 and both teams not to score.

FC Inter - TPS 15:00 Kupittaa (artificial pitch)

The most interesting game of the week. Inter were the champions last season and won their local rival TPS last season in this derby in all three games, though TPS was supposed to be the favourite for championship according to some experts.

Both teams have changed quite a lot, Inter lost their absolutely 2 best players (Hooiveld and Chatto to Sweden) and also very important Mäkitalo to FC Haka and the impact of that is yet to be seen. Today Inter is introducing some new test players and jury is still out whether they are good enough. The trust for Inter managing and scouting is strong but new players are always new and thus questionmarks arise.

TPS have new players and a new manager, former Bundesleague and national team player Pasi Rautiainen. Both teams have injuries too and I am not able to say anything about the possible outcome of this game but I am curious to see what actually happens at Turku today.

No bet.



TamU - FC Lahti 16:00 Seinäjoki (neutral venue, indoors)

FC Lahti has a lot injuries and in the last game against IFK Mariehamn they lost their icon striker Rafael due to knee injury and he was replaced at the pitch by goalkeeper Szentpeteri for the last minutes. That should tell you the amount of injuries. Tampere United have their share of diffuculties as well, but some of their injured are coming back today and

small stakes for home win and Lahti not to score might just be worth it.


If you took all bets from Betfair it might read like this;

TamU to win at 2.38 6 points
TamU under 2.5 1.88 10 points
RoPs-JJK draw 3.44 5 points
RoPs under 2.5 1.83 10 pts
Haka-HJK draw 3.45 5 pts
Haka under 2.5 1.83 10 pts
Inter-TPS no bets

It is soon about time

It is soon about the right time to take a closer look at Veikkausliiga. What happened last year and why, what changes have been made and who are biggest favourites for gold and glory, as well as the clubs most likely to get relegated.

My plan is to start from the bottom and go through all clubs. New signings, style of play, what went wrong and what was done right, the role of luck, schedule and a look at the international matches and friendlies.

Not to forget the probabilities for success, key players and so on.

You can not ask for more, can you?

Tomorrow would be a perfect day for a start. I know there are not too many followers of this blog at the moment and it is just it should be. This has not advertised, I have the material needed to make this more popular but material-wise this is far from ready to get published.

These notes of mainly for me, for you too if you are interested enough. Mental notes written out. Spoken aloud.

The first teams to get inspected are from the bottom of the League, newcomers JJK Jyväskylä closely followed by KuPS from Kuopio.

The eagle owls of Finland

A stupid sounding topic, I am first to admit that. The Eagle Owls is nevertheless the nickname that is getting unfortunately more and more widely used of the Finnish national football team. Not Eagles. Eagle owls. Those birds that just stand and watch. Eat mice. Do not scare anyone, kind of becoming as a matter of fact.

There is a reason for that name. In a qualifying game against Belgium 2007 there was an Eagle Owl interrupting the game for some 10 minutes flying around the pitch of the Olympic Stadium of Helsinki and making mock attacks against the players and personnel on the pitch, after which he stood comfortably on the cross-bar of the goal.

A nice character. A beautiful bird. He lives in the neighbourhood, a local lad.
Nothing to do with football though and hardly helps in gaining any respect for the struggling football team of Finland.

Portugal - Finland

The match is under way at the moment. The Finnish starting eleven is almost as good it can ever be with the ever-green legend Jari Litmanen starting as a playmaker and reaching his 120th cap. Unbelievabe player and person, very careful with his public image and appearences but magical with the ball since the mid-90´s.

The results against the Portuguese have been good lately, a couple of draws and one astonishing win 4-1 away some years back.

I better concentrate on the game now, the only bet is a fantasy bet that Spain scores more against England than Portugal in this game.

Actually I am tempted to take a draw live, the game seems even enough now, 4.4 @ Betfair when 20 minutes have been played.

Finland;Jussi Jääskeläinen, Toni Kallio, Hannu Tihinen, Sami Hyypiä (C), Petri Pasanen, Joonas Kolkka, Roman Eremenko, Markus Heikkinen, Jonatan Johansson, Jari Litmanen, Mikael Forssell

On the bench;
Niki Mäenpää (gk), Veli Lampi, Juha Pasoja, Daniel Sjölund, Tim Sparv, Shefki Kuqi, Tomi Petrescu, Berat Sadik, Juha Hakola

Finland - Estonia U21 friendly 11 Feb 12.00 GMT

Finland U21 team continues their preparations for the EURO 2009 U21 in Sweden this summer. Due to injuries and the will and need of testing new players there are some new and interesting faces to this level. Well, naturally this is not the team who qualified but the team that starts their qualification this year in a very hard group where other teams come from Spain, Holland, Poland and Liechtenstein. Finland was seeded in the basket number 2 and can not really boast with a good luck in the draw.

The visitors Estonia are not quite from the top of the world and Finland has a good chance for possession and to practise their goalscoring skills.

Both goalies who come this time from Turku are useful players, no problem there though they will not probably make the team at the end of day.

Players
Jukka Lehtovaara, TPS
Oskari Forsman, FC Inter

Jani Tanska, FF Jaro
Paulus Arajuuri, IFK Mariehamn
Jussi Heikkinen, FC Hämeenlinna
Joona Toivio, FC Telstar (NED)
Henri Aalto, FC Honka
Jarkko Värttö, FC Honka
Jani Virtanen, Sorrento Calcio (ITA)

There a couple of defenders that I have never yet seen personally in action; Arajuuri looks like a solid centerback. Aalto and Värttö are good and confident with the ball. Tanska was a promising youngster but I am afraid his days of glory are already behind.

Toni Kolehmainen, AZ Alkmaar (NED)
Sebastian Mannström, FF Jaro
Sakari Mattila, Udinese Calcio (ITA)
Riku Riski, TPS

Sakari Mattila played a dream season in HJK and got a dream transfer to Italy. The lad has got a good shot which he also uses from a distance. Most interesting player for me tomorrow to follow.


Akseli Pelvas, HJK
Patrik Lomski, TPS
Pele Koljonen, KuPS
Jani Bäckman, FC Honka
Aleksej Kangaskolkka, Tampere United

None of the forwards here have so far showed their full potential but they should be able to produce enough against the Estonian team, which again is a huge underdog in Wednesday´s game.

The game is played indoors, it is a friendly and a lot of substitutions are to be expected. No bets.

Prediction 4-1.

Edit: FT 2-1 (1-1) Finland goals by Akseli Pelvas and Jani Bäckman. Not a very thrilling game, a typical friendly with all too many substitutions and players who are not up to the task.

Veikkausliiga matches 2009

The matter of the fixtures is always discussed as the Veikkausliiga is a matter of a lesser league who always take everything into consideration. This season there are two significant factors that have been taken account while creating the program.

First of all, the Under 21 European Championship in Sweden in June has an effect in the form of some of the teams not playing the local league because they have keyplayers in the national U-21. Secondly the Women Euro 2009 takes place in Finland August - September which means that most of the stadiums are reserved for the ladies only and the League is on a break again.

Some other details should also be known which are important when thinking about placing bets; for instance the favourites Honka are not playing on their own home ground until mid summer because it is being under construction. Improvements they say. As a matter of fact it only favours FC Honka as they will play their first home matches at Finnair Stadium in Helsinki, an artificial pitch that suites their style of play perfectly.

I am still jet-lagged and exhausted as always after a relaxing holiday but will get back to you soon and regularly from now on. Below a link to official fixture list at Veikkausliiga.com
Here!