League Cup March 14th

A lot of stakes still in the league cup group phase Only four matches to go, still qualification places in the open While some teams (HJK, Honka, MIFK) enjoy life on their Turkey camp the others are still playing group phase matches in sub-zero temperatures. 3 matches this afternoon; the last one KuPS - VPS on Saturday. However qualifying in this is not hugely important but of course for the winner there is some money at stake. Those clubs eliminated in the group phase will join the Finnish Cup 5th round, but none of them should face too many problems in qualifying into 6th round there as they will face lower league clubs. League cup 1/8-finals next week. All of these matches outdoors - which also reflects in match total lines. There were rather big market moves also last week, but 2 out 3 big dropped teams were losers in the end, so following the money does not lead automatically to riches here. I want to follow what happens until kick-off or into live, lets pretend the opening odds were correct enough not to get over-excited. I could get interested in Lahti and/or KuPS and in anything in Haka-game. Haka - TPS lineups local odds 3.80 - 3.50 - 1.70 Haka do still have a minor chance to qualify as third of their group if all the other matches go into their favour, TPS are group winners regardless the result here. Haka have been stubborn and they are perhaps hard to beat, but for them it is as hard to win games as they do not create that many goal chances. A typical "under" - team. TPS have had good results so far but I have not yet hesard anyone to say a good word of their performances - they have surprisingly gotten early goals and after that it has been easy for a counter-team like TPS. Haka are without both regular goalkeepers today and Heinä between the posts is 3rd choice - and the physio of the club. Pirinen, Marco Matrone and Lassi Luoto also missing. TPS without U20 players Santeri Mäkinen and Juho Lehtonen and injured Dennis Okaru. Some rotations and experiments will be made again, though the starting lineup looks relatively strong. Haka lineup not out yet, but all the rest should be available and apart from the the gk problem they are tough to open up. TPS odds rising strongly. Local odds for TPS are ridiculously short! There have been very bad quality free streams of Haka games recently atkoskinet.fi if you want to give it a chance. Last time it actually worked. KuPS - Jaro lineups local odds 2.05 - 3.20 - 3.00 Jaro are qualified, KuPS need to win one the two matches remaining. KuPS have signed now 3 new African players but no one has seen them play so estimating their input or value to the team is impossible to say. All of them are attacking players, and the one they got earlier - Obifuele - did impress in his first game. KuPS have 3 of their kids out with Fin U20 at Portugal. (Peth from Jaro) Jaro´s latest win away at JJK was no big game but reportedly they were less bad and thus perhaps deserved the 3 points available. Important Pietari Holopainen finally signed new contract with KuPS and will lead the defense. Given the home advantage, bigger motivation and pure class in rank KuPS -0,5 @ 2 might be even a good idea - at least if we believe the new Africans settle in artificial pitch conditions and sub-zero temperature quickly enough. Do we? Lahti - MyPa lineups 2.40 - 3.30 - 2.40 MyPa would qualify with a draw or win for sure, and in any case if Haka does not win. For Lahti nothing at stake here. Creating ranking for Veikkausliiga is not the easiest thing to do this season, but these two will be the bottom two in the rank. They are not desperately much behind the midtable clubs, but lack a bit here and there and it makes all the difference compared to better clubs. The class difference here is pretty much non-existent, there is some derby flavour and  the odds are evenly set just as they should. Lahti have to think about how to replace their badly injured German CB and MyPa are most dangerous with set balls. MyPa are testing striker Pekka Sihvola whose abilities are actually well-known and Haka did not want to sign him another contract, but actually he would strengthen a team like MyPa 2012.   Neither of the clubs deserve to be favoured, I would take Lahti 0 here if forced as their lineup is ok and obviously they change the unreliable gk Tuomi. MyPa lineup not out but it is not great under any circumstances. ********** Finnish Cup; OPS - AC Oulu A big derby - but OPS team is far from finished at the moment. They will rely heavily on foreign labour and not all of the players have arrived yet and the preseason has been very bumpy ride with a low number of contracted players. European odds of ACO have dropped for this reason and AC Oulu has been - and will be - a popular choice. Too popular in fact... ******* HJK will play one more friendly tomorrow at Turkey, they drew 1-1 with BATE (+0.25!) which was a bit of a surprise and Thursday´s opponent is for me a completely unknown Russian 1st division club - it does not mean though that it would be any easier for HJK. Honka will meet Astana. ******** Smarkets.com A new betting exchange? The future? Betfair ancient history? God knows, I have no user experience of this yet and can not really recommend or say it is no use, but if you want to check it out  yourself by following this link there is a £ 5 free-bet in it for you - after deposit - and a free beer for me! LINK to Smarkets. And todays results: Haka - TPS 0-4 (0-2) Ojanperä 56 Pennanen 16 Lähde 37 Ääritalo 74 Ristola 90+1 LOHKO 2 FC Lahti - MYPA 2-0 (2-0) Kari 13 31 LOHKO 3 KuPS - FF Jaro 1-0 (1-0) Kalu 40