Best Veikkausliiga defender season 2009

Defenders of the Veikkausliiga 2009

Last season this would have been quite easy. The Champion Jos Hooiveld as the anchor man, the centerback. Rami Hakanpää from Honka as another one and no high balls would have any chance going through. There would be discussion about left and right back but not as much as this season. Naturally, the new season has not yet begun which makes this all so much more difficult and interesting.

Let´s start with the left backs which seems to be achilleus heel for most teams. My pick is Jukka Raitala from HJK. He is not yet ready and not at his peak, but one of the few promising players and I believe this season will be his last in the Veikkausliiga.

Centre backs, well we have already Hakanpää from last season´s dream team and only missing a suitable partner for him. As a duo I would play Roope Heilala from Honka with him because they complete one another, but I would not pick him with anyone else. As it is, I chose a duo and it is chosen now.

There is more competition for the right back and as HJK are only playing there their Lahti recruits I must look somewhere else. One of the most progressed backs would be Ville Jalasto, again from FC Honka and even challenging the public opinion that I am biased I pick him. Sorry lads, this is a solid defense, you want to get into my team you better start performing!

Who are we missing out then? One of most discussed and also overhyped players of the whole League is Ville Koskimaa, now at Honka, before that in VPS Vaasa. The ball-controlling style of play that Honka is learning to do is just poison for Koskimaa for two reasons. He is useless with the foot, and more importantly, he has no sense of the game. Unless someone holds his hand all the time and gives him orders he will chip the ball just over midfield which might reach own players if they are good enough and Koskimaa might temporarily look good, but in truth he is making the game a lot more difficult for his team which will drop him from the starting eleven before mid-summer.

Sauso from HJK might get a lot of votes but he is all too inconsisent and clumsy with the ball to my liking, though he is strong in the air and has also some good long passes in store.

All in all, there is not too much talent in the defense department and our next professionals are mostly not coming from that area of the pitch.