Finland Cup Final 2009; Tampere United vs Inter Turku

EDIT: Betting analysis to follow, but the local has set the initial odds 2.80-3.05-2.20 and none of them seems too attractive at the moment

The final takes place in a neutral venue at Helsinki, and if Inter Turku were not facing exactly Tampere United they would be slightly the favourites here because of their form and better player material. Inter finished 5th in the League with 40 points in the bag, and TamU ended at 7th place three points behind Inter, but in the history Tampere United has been one of the bogey teams for Inter and last time Inter won this encounter was back in 2004.

Both teams had high hopes for this season, and a finishing position in the top -3 that would had secured the place in the European competitions for the next season was the minimum target for them both, but despite winning the pre-season League Cup TamU was never even close to the top and ended up in economical troubles had had to unload their burden with selling some key players during the season.

Inter Turku started well, but faded away early in the season and never really got their play together. Until now, and they are on an unbeaten run of 10 matches.
This season TamU won Inter 3-2 at home and drew 2-2 away at Turku in a game where Inter key player Mika Ojala was red-carded early on.

In the semifinals both had to work extra hard to get into the final. Tampere United were hosting Honka and having taken the 1-0 lead at the early stages of the extra time they had to settle to a 1-1 draw after a late Honka equalizer. In the penalty shoot-out TamU held their nerves better and won 4-3.
Inter had travelled to Lahti, and despite having a comfortable 1-3 lead they had to wait for Mika Ojala to complete his hat trick at 85 minutes to secure the 3-4 win.
Tampere United have a full squad available, and their key man Antti Pohja was again man of the match against Honka after recovering from an injury that has kept him sidelined for most of the season.
Inter are missing only defender Ville Nikkari due suspension. The name of the game is that Inter will keep most of the ball, and Tampere will attack mostly with counters.
The probable line-ups for this televised and extremely important match 14.30 CET on Saturday 31.10.2009 are;

Tampere United :Kavén-Ruuth-Savolainen-Mononen-Ojanperä-Saarinen-Niemi-Rafinha-Pohja-Petrescu-Kangaskolkka

Coach: Ari Hjelm


Inter Turku: Monsalve-Lehtonen-Sanevuori-Nyman-Aho-Ramirez-Kauko-Pertot-Kennedy-Ojala-Furuholm


Coach: Job Dragtsma


The road to the cup final
Tampere United:

5.round 04.06. TPK/A - Tampere United 1-10 (0-5)
6. round 09.07. Tampere United - FF Jaro 2-0
7. round 29.08. TPV - Tampere United 2-3 ja. 1-1 (0-0)
8. round 01.10. Haka - Tampere United 1-3 (0-3)
Semifinal 25.10. Tampere United - FC Honka 4-3 rp. 1-1 ja. (0-0)

FC Inter

6. round 08.07. FC Inter - RoPS 2-0 (1-0)
7. round 30.08. FC Inter - PoPa 1-0
8. round 01.10. KuPS - FC Inter 0-2
Semifinal 25.10 FC Lahti - FC Inter 3-4 (1-2)