Veikkausliiga round 2 / 2009

FC Inter Turku – MyPa

The reigning champions are in big trouble. After last season´s surprise championship they sold three out of their four best players and bought replacements only a couple of weeks ago but it looks like this time they got it wrong. Verino is no Hooiveld (AIK), Ramirez can not tighten the midfield as Chatto (Häcken) and Ari Nyman is hardly a playmaker like Mäkitalo (Haka) was.

Not only that, they have no strikers available at the moment if Grot´s injury is as bad as it looked like, and the star striker Furuholm is already sidelined. Central defender Pertot picked an injury too and right defender Nikkari is suspended after getting a direct red card against MIFK on Monday. Also the captain Henri Lehtonen is doubtful.

The good news for Inter is that they are playing MyPa who are also suffering huge goal- scoring problems and rely heavily on old man Saku Puhakainen up front, as all the other strikers are youngsters, coming from lower divisions and have so far showed nothing.

Last season the matches were drawn 0-0 and 1-1 and something similar is likely to happen also tonight. A clear under in my eyes, one goal is enough to decide the winner.



FC Lahti – KuPs

Poor KuPs have problems in their material, both in quantity and quality. In the first round´s game at HJK they lost three key players due to injury and all our doubtful tonight. On the bench they had one retired defender, a goalie and a couple of u-18 players, who might be starting today.

Lahti welcomes back the local hero Jari Litmanen, and with a home crowd in the opening home game I see no chances for poor KuPs. Last season Lahti won 8-1 and it may not be repeated but surely this is a banker.



MIFK – Fc Honka

Very interesting game as the home side who got some +10 new players in the squad already beat Fc Inter in their opening game, and Honka had to settle to a draw against Lahti. Honka is a top-2 team also this year, but the coach Lehkosuo is too stubborn to field his new recruits Koskimaa and gk. Henrikssson in all the games, and they have not yet really convinced me.

MIFK has the best home crowd and support, but it also helps the away team as the crowd is only happy to gather and make some friendly noise.

Honka is a favourite, but a no bet for me.

HJK – TPS

Head to head is a dangerous approach to Finnish Veikkausliiga, but TPS has always struggled in Helsinki, and this time HJK is also the biggest favourite with huge material for all positions in the field, well central defending is a bit of a problem. TPS have a new coach as they always do and some high expectactions, but their opening game and pre-season have been poor and HJK is a clear favourite. Also the goal expectaction is a bit higher than usual.


Tampere United – FF Jaro

TamU was the biggest favourite before last season after two consecutive championships, but they failed miserably after losing two of their most influential key players. Wiss has retired, but Juska Savolainen is back from Rosenborg and TamU is a serious contender again this year.

FF Jaro relies heavily on the form of striker Mikko Hyyrynen, but he is a bit doubtful because of flu tonight and even that I like the style of Jaro a lot this looks like a home win to me.


JJK – RoPs postponed due to frozen pitch

VPS – Haka 0-1 (0-1) played 22.04.2009, terribly poor performance by VPS who could not create any goal chances when playing almost the whole match 11 vs 10.