Fc Honka - IFK Mariehamn preview published

with confirmed and late team news, new signings, latest form and performances and naturally with asian handicap price limits. At least in the morning there was some value available but I believe my customers will take advantage of it before kick-off.
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01.05.10	Honka	MIFK
-1,25	2,37	1,73	1,25
-1	2,09	1,91	1
-0,75	1,86	2,17	0,75
-0,5	1,67	2,5	0,5

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Fc Honka – IFK Mariehamn kick-off 18.00 CET

No changes in early estimations.

Honka manager Mika Lehkosuo confirmed on Friday that striker Hermanni Vuorinen is very unlikely to play. 4^th choice striker Tim Väyrynen is definitely out and center-back Ville Koskimaa is doubtful(?). All players mentioned are well-replaced as Honka and cause no worry for Honka, though Vuorinen as a top-striker would had been welcomed with open arms.

IFK miss regular starter mf Johan Carlsson and young def. Fredrik Appel who has never played in the Veikkausliiga yet. IFK made two late signings, Portugalian striker André Martins comes on loan from Bolivian club Club Bolivar La Paz(!), but it is unclear if his license is yet in order by the time of the kick-off. Another signing is mf Sebastian Strandvall from Haka, but he is not allowed to play tonight.

Honka and IFK have drawn their three latest mutual matches and in general IFK were last season a tough team to beat on their travels, the record of 2009 shows a bizarre 2-8-3 for their 13 away matches. They managed to score only 10 away goals, even the poor JJK of 2009 scored 13. Honka on the other hand scored 37 goals home and averaged almost 3 goal per game.

The name of the game is the good old cat and mouse and the nature of it is very similar to the first round match Honka – MyPa (3-1), where MyPa were clinging to the match on the first half, but in the end were helpless while Honka patiently kept the ball and kept on attacking from both wings and from the center.

Last round Honka lost undeservedly 1-0 at TPS by a childish error after a solid performance and TPS goal chances were kept to the minimum. IFK lost for the first time since 2008 at home and the shocking 0-3 result raises questions about the quality of IFK 2010 who were supposedly to be a quality side with a bit more firepower than last season. The result of course is another lie, VPS scored pretty goals at almost all of their goal attempts and IFK never got any closer than hitting the post with Petteri Forsell´s free-kick.

The pitch at Tapiola is in superb condition which favours Honka style of play, IFK have had a busy week travelling to the mainland, they won a cup match on Tuesday at Rauma 0-1 quite easily judged by the reports. Geographically IFK Mariehamn are much closer to Stockholm than to Helsinki, and the travel time to and from Mariehamn is quite long as there is always a boat to catch unless they decide to spend some money on flights but that is usually not the case and the Mariehamn airport is not the busiest one.

Local bookie Veikkaus offer only 1.40 for a home win, but again it has to be remembered that they have the monopoly and big margins.

The home team start with probably the same line-up they had at Turku but if they wish to make changes there are a lot of options, IFK might do some experiments and are certainly trying to tighten the defence.

Honka: Peltonen-Koskinen-Hakanpää-Heilala-Haarala-Vasara-Lepola-Simpanen-Savage-Puustinen-Kokko.

IFK:Långbacka–Rikama-Gueye-Dujilo-Okodugha–Gruborovics-Niskala-Ekhalie-Forsell- Paatelainen-Anttilainen.

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At Ykkönen OPS host PK-35 who are missing at least their key striker Kaijasilta and probably also Daniel. Defensively both teams are well in order, and if the long travel to Oulu (600 km) does not affect the visitors too much a low-scoring match is to be expected, and the team news might move the markets a bit towards OPS. The artificial pitch suit both teams fine, but I will keep on studying the Ykkönen teams for a couple of more weeks before giving any suggestions unless there are decisive team news available.