MyPa - Haka preview

A goalless fest at dull Anjalankoski

MyPa:1-1-0-0-3-0
Haka:3-3-3-0-3-1

H2H: 8-3-7. League Cup 14.02.2009 Haka – MyPa 2-3

MYPA has been missing important playmaker Ady who returns to the squad after recovering from injury. The home side has been having huge goal creating problems without him, and the strikers in the team are not that good that they could a lot chances themselves.

Along the years this has been an even fixture, and both teams have traditionally been sponsored by big paper factories who pay the bills and build the stadions, this has been changing only lately due to world-wide economic crisis. Haka goalkeeper Janne Korhonen played 11 seasons at MyPa, only to get transferred for this season to get some new ideas and challenges, and knows the home perfectly, as does Haka coach Olli Huttunen, ” MyPa has always been one of the toughest places to go to, we have been succesful here along the years, but the points have never been easy to get. Somehow the style of play of MyPa seems to suit us,” he says.

MyPa had high hopes and finding themselves at top spots after a good pre-season and nice results against HJK (1-0) and Honka (0-0), but the relegation play-off spot is becoming a real threat unless MyPa gets some wins. Thus all the pressure is on the home side, leaders Haka have reached a lot of points - the experts seem to think there are already too many – and they can take a a more relaxed approach to the game.

Sampsa Timoska 5/0 is the only absentee for MyPa, and Haka have no injury worries while only Parviainen 0/0 and Minkenen 4/0 are unavailable.

MYPA: 1 Antti Kuismala 11/0 – 4 Antti Uimaniemi 11/0 – 11 Ilari Äijälä 9/3 – 18 Tuomas Aho 11/0 – 16 Toni Huttunen 11/1 - 6 Tuomo Könönen 10/0 - 8 Ady 9/2 – 2 Miikka Multaharju 11/0 - 7 Ben Webster 1/0 – 9 Saku Puhakainen 11/0 – 19 Maxim Votinov 9/2

Bench: 5 Jarno Tuunainen 0/0, 13 Toni Lindberg 8/0, 15 Ville Oksanen 10/0, 12 Mika Johansson (gk) 0/0, 14 Tosaint Ricketts 7/3, 20 Felipe Benevedes 1/0, 23 Niko Nakari 4/0,, 24 Nebi Mustafi 6/0
Unavailable: 3 Sampsa Timoska 5/0
Coach : Janne Lindberg



Haka: 1 Janne Korhonen 12/0 – 2 Diego Corpache 12/1 – 18 Jari Nikkilä 11/0 - 4 Markus Joenmäki 3/0 - 22 Jarno Mattila 12/0 - 6 Sebastian Strandvall 12/2 - 7 Mikko Innanen 12/2 – 11 Antti Hynynen 11/2 - 10 Mika Mäkitalo 11/2 - 8 Jani Kauppila 12/0 - 9 Niko Ikävalko 10/2

Bench:12 Saku Pesonen (gk) 0/0, 15 Nicolas Kivistö 6/0, 16 Jani Bäckman 7/1, 20 Sami Ristilä 8/1, 3 Petri Viljanen 8/0, 21 Pietari Holopainen 10/5, 28 Hans Denissen 2/0

Unavailable: 5 Kalle Parviainen 0/0, 14 Valeri Minkenen 4/0

Coach : Olli Huttunen

Prediction: Haka will find it difficult to score. Another 0-0 in the round! The only way to score is to get Ady back into full match-fitness. More details tomorrow for proper betting analysis