Autopsy of a Kakkonen match; Kiffen - KäPa

A typical Kakkonen match, one team is better on the first half and then after the break it is the other one´s turn. Yesterday it was KäPa who took on the driver´s seat, but then left the legs and brains in the changing room during the half-time break.

In the light of raw overall stats KäPa perhaps deserved to win, but as customary the latter half stays in mind longer and as Kiffen had a couple of really good chances late in the game it must feel like a steal.

I keep wondering why it is so hard for most teams to keep up the good work for the whole 90 minutes? I understand that it is possible to make tactical changes during the half-time and yesterday Kiffen managed to stop Spangar´s long passes to Penttinen in the second half which created a lot of havoc in the 1st half, or was it just down to KäPa themselves? Chicken or the egg?

Kiffen have already six 0-0 draws to show from this season, but the funny thing is that they are not specially defense-minded. They do defend ok, but they also make severe mistakes and KäPa had twice a 1-on-1 situation in the first half. Offensively they are a bit one-dimensional and the only thing that worked vs. KäPa was long balls to Fefe, who then with his personal skill could create some goal chances. The corners given by Oskari Partonen were dangerous as well, and though the history this season suggests them to be a very defensive 0-0 team I feel that the time for goalless draws for them is pretty much over.

The winning goal last night was scored by sub Hiillosvuo on 93rd minute and as mentioned at the time it felt undeserved, but in the light of the whole match it is justified, and an early goal for KäPa from the good goal-scoring chances would had killed the game early on.

Date	Home		Kiffen	Venue
20.07.10	Away		KäPa	Pallokenttä
Home	1st		2nd		total
Chance 1 point	2	2	4	4
Chance 2 point	1	2	3	6
Chance 3 point	1	3	4	12
total index		7		22	29
Free-kicks		4		4	8
yellow		2	1	3
red
corners		3		5	8
goals		0		0	0
Possession		39		55	47
timeline	5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45		5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45
Away	1st		2nd		total
Chance 1 point	8	8	9	9
Chance 2 point	3	6	1
Chance 3 point	2	6	1	3
total index		20		12	32
Free-kicks		5		2	7
yellow		0		2	2
red		0		0
corners		4		0	4
goals		0		1	1

The number of goal-scoring opportunities is only a number. More important is to know where they come from, can they be re-created and can they be stopped. What happens after the first goal? There are so many questions related to analyzing a football match that it is an impossible task to show all relative facts by data only.