Finland league cup round-up

League Cup round-up

I saw none of the matches because of none of them was close by, but here is a short review of what happened and why.

KuPS - Haka 0-1 (0-0)

KuPS dominated throughout the game but managed to let the to match slip out of their hands. " Three of our goals were disallowed and at least one of them was perfectly solid. There were 3-4 one on ones and the strikers really have to look at the mirror very closely. It was a good match from us but I can not be happy," said KuPS manager Esa Pekonen.

Haka coach Sami Ristilä praised specially KuPS striker Dickson and admitted that Haka were in trouble throughout the game, but also gave thanks to their test players and reserves for good effort.

Haka line-up was surprisingly bad and this win was fully undeserved. Haka faces next VPS at home on Tuesday at 12.30 CET and hopefully is overrated big time. KuPS will host TamU on the 20th at 13.00 CET.

MyPa - TPS 0-3 (0-1)

A hat trick by 18 yo. Roope Riski was the difference between the two sides at Kouvola. The match was fast and started with a MyPa pressure, but as mentioned before the MyPa strikers Votinov and Ricketts are not really up to the task. MyPa coach Janne Lindberg was very unsatisfied with the movement and the energy of the home side, while his colleague at TPS was happy and said that TPS started to look like the way they should look when the proper season is on.

TPS have played all their group phase league cup matches and will play next time in the quarter-finals on 31.3. if the other matches go favourably. MyPa will host Honka on the 17th at 15.00 CET.

Lahti - Inter 0-1 (0-0)

Inter coach Job Dragtsma saw that Inter fully deserved the win and they gave Lahti no goal-scoring chances at all, but their own attacking play was bad, at least until Timo Furuholm stepped in on the second half. Inter defense is and will be one of toughest to break this season, and if the strikers(read: Timo Furuholm) stay fit Inter is one of the favourites to win the title along with HJK and Honka.

Lahti will host HJK 23rd March and despite the fact there is no stakes for either of the teams this is traditionally a big match, a big rivalry especially among the fans. Inter will entertain IFK Mariehamn the 20th March at Turku.

Tampere United - FF Jaro 2-0 (0-0)

TamU will travel to Kuopio the 20th to face KuPS while Jaro will meet JJK away on the same day. Last night at Tampere the home side improved again their performance on the second half and took a deserved win. TamU have been like a diesel machine this pre-season, they start badly every match and improve while the games goes on. TamU defender Jari Nikkilä got badly injured in the match and might be out for the whole season, which would be horrible news for TamU who never have the widest material possible but like to rely on the youngsters from the reserve team.

There was a chance for an excellent round betting-wise as I took Inter & TamU on LIVE betting with high odds, but the pure unluck at Kuopio destroyed the day back to square one as KuPS was my first max  bet of the season.

I will probably travel to Valkeakoski on Tuesday and to Kouvola on Wednesday to see Haka-VPS and MyPa-Honka respectively and will take my laptop along for late updates.

As mentioned earlier none of the betting - related info is no more free. The blog will go on as it is, but all accurate price limits and estimations and late updates and line-up analysis are now reserved  for paying customers only. If you want to be a part of the Innner Circle please drop me a line at puntteri@gmail.com and you will get a tailor-made offer for the succesful Finnish Football season 2010.