Kakkonen 11.8.

PK-37 - FC Santa Claus 68 16 16
o/u 2.5: 72 28

PK-37 great run this year is certainly something that should be applauded, and it shows that you can actually have some success with a team composed of local players as long as you have patience and some luck too. However, I can't help but to think that the quality of Northern group has taken a step backward this year; PS Kemi and KPV suffering from a relegation hangover, Santa Claus teetering on the brink of financial collapse, Warkaus and YPA having severe player shortage at times, TP-47 having a terrible first 1/3 of the season and HauPa being just plain bad. Nevertheless, 1.35-1.45 level odds are fully deserved, since Santa Claus is simply not in PK-37's level at any department. Perusing RoPS' preview I can see that it's unlikely that Santa will get anyone from there, otherwise it's a total guesswork who's out. PK-37 looks to be in full strength apart from their madman goalkeeper Kosonen, who's still serving his suspension.


AC Kajaani - Warkaus JK 89 7 4
o/u 2.5: 85 15

Really weird odds for AC Kajaani. Warkaus JK pulled off an improbably feat last week they won GBK after being one goal down and playing with 10 men, but drawing from the sparse information available it was just a case of mental breakdown on GBK's part. Other than that their standard of play has been, to put it kindly, really inadequate in post-Markkanen games. Of the many things that AC Kajaani have excelled in during this season has been their ruthlessness against the poorer sides; in fact they haven't lost a single point against them the whole year. If I'm interpreting FF2 correctly AC will miss their captain Heikkinen. He has scored an impressive amount of goals, but I assume that's just the Sohlo effect where anyone could score a lot of goals when playing alongside better players, because he didn't show any quality couple of years ago. Warkaus managed to get three substitutes in the bench for the last match so their situation is "improving", but based on what the team has said on the local newspapers they wouldn't be bothered with the possible relegation, so unlike with TP-47 and FC YPA, no help will be coming from the outside.

PS Kemi - KPV 62 18 20
o/u 2.5: 73 27

KPV hasn't been at their best lately, but giving PS Kemi almost the same kind of odds that they had against Warkaus is just insulting to KPV. PS Kemi at home is surely not something that should be disrespected, but KPV has already beaten them twice deservedly this year and the class difference should in no way warrant an estimation of 70 % for the home team. The red card of KPV's Kalliokoski is obviously a big blow, so the over could serve as a good cover for the handicap since KPV hasn't really looked like an under-team recently even when he has been playing. In addition to Kalliokoski, former Veikkausliiga player Koskela has left but he only played a few games for them anyway. PS Kemi should have no injury worries.

GBK - FC YPA 58 18 24
o/u 2.5: 74 26

YPA continued their upward form against Santa Claus, but according to the reports it was a pretty even game. Apart from one long-term injured player, they finally have a full squad to choose from. That's, of course, makes the job of predicting even harder than usual. In theory, with players like Pejic, Pakola, Heikkilä, Akmetkhanov and Vuletic they shouldn't have any worry about relegation, but last year and the start of this have been really disappointing even when playing at full strength. Because most of the players are not even that old, the reason for their downfall could be the substandard coaching of the former manager Myllykangas and this year's inexperienced Kostinschuk, or as it's often the case, the whole organisation has become stagnant according to the forum talk. Even with numerous wins against the best sides of the group lately, GBK hasn't really been at the top of their game in the past weeks. However, against the YPA-like sides they've been pretty good, so I can't really get excited about the lousy odds for the away win. GBK's player situation seems to be more or less the same as last week.