MyPa - Haka preview Aug 30th 2010

Edit: MyPa odds rising a lot, 1,94 is already a good value bet. Probably the market are reacting to the new Haka players Lahti and Lehtinen, but as mentioned below they are not turning Haka into a winning team. MyPa line-up is the permanent they have had, the new guy is on the bench. Hopefully this rises even more.


MyPa – Haka

In about two months time both time have won only once in the league, and in both cases the unlucky loser has been TamU. In that light any big handicaps make no sense, and scoring is the key problem actually for both teams. Hakaｴs other worries have been widely discussed here, but as they are finacially on their feet again – at least temporarily – and there has been player traffic also into Hakaｴs direction they still have the survival in the league in their own hands.

MyPa played rather well in the Europa League ql, but conceding 3 goals on the second half in the away and decisive leg at Timisoara left them with only the league survival battle to fight for. They had been ranked as a black horse and a possible title contender before the season in some local expertｴs mind, but I have never seen any indication of that and lower midtable , even the relegation battle is where they belong with their thin material who lack especially reliable strikers. Votonow and Ricketts have scored a few and they had a good run, but they would never make my team.

Haka got a youngster Timi Lahti who has spent several years in Italy with Padova organization and their own ex-striker Toni Lehtinen also returns from his spell in Europe. They are well needed, but Haka have problems all over the pitch and the midfield is probably the worst part, what do you do with the striker who never gets a ball from his midfielders?

I mentioned before that Haka will grab points every now and then when given a chance against another team who can not keep up the pace and pressure throughout the game, I am not sure if this is one of the cases but neither of the teams is appealing at current odds.

Haka miss defender Markus Joenmäki and long-term injured Kalle Parviainen, striker Jukka Santala – who btw fired another blank last night in the shock loss away at MP - transferred to RoPS.

MyPa might introduce new signing Stefan De Las, or not, but his usefulness in any case is doubtful. A few fringe players (Alonen, JJK, Kurittu,MP) are on loan elsewhere.

	MyPa	Haka
-1	2,36	1,74
-0,75	2,03	1,97
-0,5	1,79	2,27