Highlights Inter vs Jaro FT 1-0

Cup highlights: TPS vs MIFK 2-3 ET

Cup highlights KooTeePee vs Honka FT 0-1

HJK TV highlights from Honka vs HJK FT 0-2 - with the double decker bus!

Highlights MyPa vs Inter FT 1-0 April 21st

Highlights MIFK vs JJK FT 2-2 April 21st

Highlights RoPS vs Lahti FT 1-1 April 21st

Highlights Honka vs HJK FT 0-2 April 22nd.

Honka had the first chance of the game, HJK scored from their first and the match was pretty much decided after that.

Interview of Honka df Gideon Baah after home loss 0-2 vs HJK

He was  the best player on the pitch on Monday. A promising performance!

Highlights RoPS vs MIFK FT 1-3 April 14th

Cup 5th round: TP-47 vs TPV 2-4

Cup 5th round: Kemi PS - GBK 3-0

Highlights KuPS vs MyPa 1-1 April 14th 2013

Veikkausliiga 2013 media rankings

Some of them are better, some worse.

Veikkaaja	Punteracademy	Urheilulehti	Kymppipaikka.fi
HJK	HJK	HJK	HJK
TPS	TPS	TPS	TPS
KuPS	JJK	JJK	KuPS
FC Lahti	KuPS	FC Lahti	Honka
MIFK	Fc Lahti	Honka	Inter
JJK	Honka	KuPS	FC Lahti
Inter	MIFK	Inter	MIFK
Honka	RoPS	MyPa	MyPa
MyPa	Inter	VPS	JJK
RoPS	MyPa	RoPS	RoPS
VPS	VPS	MIFK	VPS
Jaro	Jaro	Jaro	Jaro

Kakkonen Pohjoinen overview part #2

Kerho 07

SJK has really flexed their financial muscles in the last few years, so it's no wonder that their reserve team made an immediate jump to Kakkonen. The team that played in Kolmonen last year would likely have had no trouble staying in Kakkonen, as the squad contained many former and experienced SJK/Sepsi-78/TP-Seinäjoki players. However, from an outsider's point of view the current list of players does not look that intimidating. Ylinen, Kujala, Asunmaa, Muurimäki and Kukkanen are familiar names from past years but the rest are totally unknown outside Seinäjoki (though Bouroussi's promotion-crushing goal cannot be forgotten http://youtu.be/0lDvwrBFNMg?t=2m11s).  In their training matches Kerho 07 (atrocious name, btw) has been pretty good but the line-ups have varied wildly, so rather than taking any wild guesses it's likely easier to just wait and see what guys actually line up on the field in their first match against PS Kemi. But for the sake of completeness, I'll assume that with SJK's resources and overflowing roster, SJK/2 will finish among the middle pack of teams that also includes TP-47, FC YPA and PK-37.

PK-37

The second half of the 2011 season was not kind for PK-37. Wins were hard to come by, and most of them (2/3) came against totally out of form teams. What saved them in that year was the farm contract with KuPS, which provided the kind of players like Kaivonurmi, Hynynen, Rönkkö, Vilmunen and Williams who almost single-handedly won them enough points in the first half of the season so that PK-37 didn't have to worry too much about relegation. The reason why that was worth a mention is that the farm contract is again in place, so there could be some nasty surprises depending on which side you bet. But truth to be told, even without it PK-37 would have somewhat easy to predict to end up in the similar positions as last year. One of the 2011 saviours, Rönkkö-Sirviö is gone but all he did last year was to rack up Veikkauspörssi medals, not goals, so Kivilä from TP-47 should be able to replace him without problems (for what I understand they're fairly similar profiled players). However, the departures of some regulars (Leskinen, Junnilainen (gk), Kärkkäinen, Leinonen) and no new players being signed lead me to believe that PK-37 will (again) not pose any real risk for the top trio of GBK, PS Kemi and VIFK. On the other hand, the amount of offense that Leskinen and such provided was so minimal that somebody else is bound to score the goals, and like the stats also helply indicate, PK-37 under Lähderinne will probably be remembered more for their defensive achievements rather than constant goal fests. Like many others, PK-37 is still looking for some new players, but unless some heavyweights arrive (from KuPS or elsewhere) this is as middle table team as you can get. Unless the players that left had some intangibles that were not apparent in the statistics, PK-37 shouldn't be one of the first teams that will be involved in the relegation battle either. PK-37 on the whole, other than Kivilä and Lähderinne, is filled with players that definitely won't be picked in Best of Kakkonen XI's, but the fact that they're still playing in Kakkonen should tell that you don't always need the best players to hang on with the others. 

KPV

This is more or less the same team (only a couple of players have left) that struggled to the finish line last year, so it isn't difficult to predict the same thing to happen this year too. Starting from the positive things, the team still possesses the legendary Myntti and another KPV icon Niko Kalliokoski might still continue his playing career. Additionally, the team is quite young, so some improvement could happen (and did I say almost everyone is from Kokkola?), but that's just about it. Young Laitinen came out of nowhere to score 7 goals but outside Myntti nobody really shined in that department. KPV's training matches haven't gone that bad as they've for example drawn with GBK once, beaten PK-37 and just barely lost against AC Kajaani. Still, there looks to be so many better teams (i.e. teams that showed better performances last year, teams who have signed up quality players, or whichever way you want to put it) this year that KPV is very likely to be one of the main relegation candidates unless they themselves hit the transfer market or if a bunch of players don't raise their level of play considerably.

Tervarit

After an agonizing wait of two years Kakkonen is finally back in Oulu. This is not the first time Tervarit has played in this level, but it probably goes without saying that you shouldn't look at any h2h stats as the team is quite different now. Tervarit hasn't bothered to put up any kind of an official squad list, so in that sense predicting them is much harder than what it is with all the other teams. Good starting point would be to say that nearly all of the players that have been involved with them during the winter have played in Kakkonen at some stages of their respective careers. But of course there are some catches; some have played at this level ages ago while the others were nothing more than a squad or rotation level players. Names like Rova, Palosaari (one of the best players in Kakkonen ca. 10 years ago), Koskinen, Koski, Makowski, Lehtiniemi, Tervo, Aaltonen, Pähtilä, Pikkarainen, Ahonpää, Fredriksson, Rizvani, Kuusirati look to be fairly sure to play in the summer too. Dozens of other players have made appearances in their training matches, among the most interesting of them Ogbuefi (PS Kemi), Juuso Majava (AC Oulu), Vilppola (TP-47), Heiskanen (TP-47) and Chijioke Festus (HauPa). If everyone actually signed for them, Tervarit could in truth look like pretty good team on the paper but as of now there too many other teams with more clearer situations that I couldn't justify ranking them any higher. Training matches don't really offer anything interesting either, as the line-ups have changed a lot and few of the wins came against teams playing with substitutes/2nd team. Like mentioned before, there's a lot of Kakkonen experience all around there but either it happened a long time ago or the players were involved in teams that got relegated, which in itself is not really a promising sign. Tervarit is coached by Tapio Haapaniemi who flopped badly in Santa Claus a few years ago, and him being closely associated with Malinen doesn't sound the best fit for a relegation battle. However, it has to be said that it's extremely unlikely that any type of Virkiä or Korsholm scenario will occur, but in the current situation Tervarit looks to be a bottom half team.

ORP

Real life can be cruel sometimes meaning that even the Santa Claus can go bankrupt. While the guys from Rovaniemi were busy making funny videos for foreign tv channels, OPS-j sneaked in through the backdoor and claimed the  suddenly open place in Kakkonen for this year. AC Kajaani ran straight through from Kolmonen to Ykkönen but it can said with a certainty that neither one of the Oulu-based teams will do the same. At the moment ORP looks to be the weaker one of the two, and in the first meeting between those two Tervarit overpowered them in the second half and won convincingly 3-1. There are only a few names that are familiar to the followers of Palloliitto leagues. Rami Ahonen scored five goals for Jazz (Kakkonen) in 2011 and was the second-best goal scorer in Kolmonen's northern group last year so he'll likely be one of the key players this year. That "golden" boot in Kolmonen was won by ORP's Karjalainen, who has gotten some playing time in OPS' Ykkönen squad but didn't impress at all. Rian de Souza played in Pallo-Iirot half a decade ago and he's obviously being advertised as a high-profile player. Haval Panahi is an Iranian player, but any information on him is scarce. Other players worth a mention are Tenkula, who just a few years back played a few games in Veikkausliiga, Sassi, who is one of the journeymen (TP-47, OPA, HauPa etc. ) that Tervarit is full of, and Kåla, who started half of FC YPA games in 2012. Last but not least, the goalkeeper situation looks fairly good, with experienced Kalle Rönkkö and Alakulju being the first options (and there are three other goalkeepers too if I've understood correctly, so..). ORP head coach Viitanen did excellent work with OLS in the start of new millenium but any achievements after that have been minimal, however, ORP could have done a lot worse and there's also some continuity because Viitanen was their coach last year too. But all in all, when even the players listed above are not exactly high quality it's fairly easy to predict ORP to end up near the bottom because the rest of the squad is filled with practically unknown players that have not played anywhere higher than Kolmonen (with few exceptions).

Kakkonen Pohjoinen overview part #1

GBK
PS Kemi
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VIFK
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TP-47
FC YPA
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Kerho 07
PK-37
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Tervarit
KPV
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ORP

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GBK

The second of the half-swedish teams playing in Northern group this year. To be honest I couldn't have named any of the GBK's goalkeepers without looking up, but despite their anonymity the trio weren't bad as GBK actually had the best defense in the league. The only noticeable departure stat- and goalwise was Jokihaara, who is with IFK Mariehamn now, but even hardcore GBK fans were a bit surprised to see him go. Rest of the guys that left were more or less scrubs (Svenlin, Remesaho, Ågren and whatnot). GBK's signing of David Carlsson was probably the biggest transfer news during the winter, and along with Melarti, GBK will likely now have the best striker partnership in the league. GBK has a lot of experience with Corcoran, Halonen, Smith and Roiko, with the last three having played in Veikkausliiga in some points of their careers. The younger guys, such as Aho, Hohenthal, Rasmus, Huuhka and Ågren are virtually unknown elsewhere, but considering GBK's success during the last two years they must be more than adequate rotation players. The other of the two Wentins, Tobias, has been touted as a big prospect but his season was cut short last year when he fell victim to PK-37's rough play. Jylhä has been ridiculed for his slowness, but GBK has signed a second American centerback (Robertson) so overall the signs are there that GBK will be better than in 2012. Lomski continues as a coach and their sights are firmly set in Ykkönen.

PS Kemi

PS Kemi are one of the teams that are clearly aiming for the promotion. Last year's head coach is gone and now they're led by a proper Lad called Tommy Taylor. Whether he's a new Polack or Armstrong remains to be seen, but what should be certain is that he's an improvement over Himanka. Even as of writing, Kemi is still testing new players, which is understandable as there were some notable departures after last season. Foremost of them were Stevens (11 goals) and Ogbuefi (8 goals). In defense, Juvonen (slow) and Moilanen (young) played a lot of minutes but they should not be missed that much. Another regular starter, Hyvärinen, was snatched up by AC Oulu but he wasn't exactly too good for Kakkonen. To replace them, they've signed Pasher, Torvic and Ikäläinen. Ikäläinen is familiar player for them and he also has some Veikkausliiga experience with VPS. The first are of course unknown quantities, but from the little information available they should be at least equal to the players that left. Vilmunen is naturally a big name signing for the goalkeeper position, but they had it more than covered last year with Mäkipörhölä and the lesser Luukkonen. Last year Kemi was one of the best teams offensively, but with Stevens (likely Ogbuefi, even if the was considered a defensive player) gone a lot rests on Eissele, Siekkinen and Spivack. Yrjänheikki, Vesala, Räihä and other newcomers have never provided any significant scoring output, so Kemi will probably hope that the trial guy Edwards can contribute in the summer. But any negatives aside, Kemi has a handful of players that every other team would take in a heartbeat, and the supporting cast has a lot of Kakkonen experience under their belt so the expectations and the talent is there for a repeat of last year and maybe higher.

VIFK

After one year in exile, VIFK returns to the most prestigious group in Kakkonen. Many familiar faces, or names to be precise, are still there, but as is always the case in lower league life, some changes have happened. Long-time starter from defense Kullström, has left for Jaro. Other important players leaving are striker Sundqvist and defender Thompson (IFK Mariehamn). Inbound are Utriainen, K. Björkstrand and Sunabacka, all of whom have had their taste of what it's like to play in the higher divisions or different countries. Any success on those endeavours might be hard to measure, but the profile of those players should fit perfectly for a team like VIFK (they can speak swedish). However, the most important signing was done just a few weeks ago when Christian Sund joined VIFK. Sund will probably help a lot, but that still likely won't solve their offensive deficiencies. Compared to what GBK and PS Kemi possess, VIFK's attacking players are miles behind those two. Much credit must be given to them for being so solid defensively, but the usual mantra that defense wins championships probably doesn't apply to promotions, because there always seems to be one or two slightly superior teams with more explosive strikers. In spite of those concerns, it's very hard to see VIFK slipping outside top-4/5 either as they've consistently hovered around those positions during the past few years. The core of the players has remained together (Strandvall, Lombo, Lemanowicz, Nylund, Pitkäkangas, Johansson, Nordman, Södergård etc.) and the coach is still the same, so chemistry, off-the-field distractions and those kind of things are likely not a concern. Similar to PS Kemi and GBK, has more or less announced that their aim is to get promoted. But like said, unless some players raise their production significantly (or Sund is absolutely magical) I don't see them being ahead GBK or PS Kemi.

TP-47

To say that TP-47 had a bad start last year would be a understatement. It took until their 10th game of the season that they finally got a proper win without any cabinet play. The rest of the season was equally impressive in the sense that their only losses outside one unlucky Santa Claus defeat were against the top three teams in the league. The main architects of their run in mid-2000s, Eprintsev and Vaalto are now reunited, and while it would be too much to expect them to appear in Veikkausliiga any time soon, the backroom staff should be more than average for this level. Last year saw the usual revolving door type of action when a team is in trouble, so numerous players got a lot of playing time. Of the players that left, Kivilä, Ahonpää, Heiskanen and Konde were probably the most important in terms of experience. Most of them were of the defensive type, so TP-47 is still looking for one more defender as they didn't sign anyone in the offseason for those positions. For what I've gathered, locals are not enthusiastic about their current group of goalkeepers so that could prove to be problematic unless RoPS loans them Forsman or they sign someone new. TP-47's defense has quite a big amount of experience in Bulgakov and Väänänen, but otherwise their makeup looks extremely young. However, it should be noted that the TP-47 youngsters are probably more talented than usual as their junior team is in a good run at the moment. In the midfield and attack, huge expectations are placed on the Guyanese national team players Bobb and Wilson. During the training games Bobb especially has been impressive, but even if they didn't pan out TP-47 still has Huusko and Herala, who both have been associated with TP-47 for a small eternity. Other than those four, there are A. Gullsten and other youngsters, plus one of the numerous OPS rejects in A. Badji, for who the Kakkonen seems to be the right fit. Like said before, TP-47's young players are obviously not that bad, and more importantly many of them have already gotten some Kakkonen experience during 2012. Not many players remain from 2010 and 2011 when TP-47 was just behind (ok, SJK was in its own heights in 2011) the top teams, but if the older guys can stay healthy (Herala, Väänänen, Bulgakov and Huusko are quite seasoned players for this level), Bobb and Wilson are good as advertised, the goalkeeping situation doesn't cause problems and the younger players can contribute something I'd expect TP-47 to comfortably finish in the top-5.

FC YPA

YPA's finishing positions during the last few years may not look that bad, but compared to the expectations each season was no doubt a disappointment. After 2009 and 2010 it looked like YPA's vision for Ykkönen could actually happen, but then SJK and some other things came in the way. It didn't help that the high-profile Finnish players flopped badly in 2011, prompting a famous outburst by the long-time head coach Myllykangas. He was finally relieved of his duties after that season, but his replacement, Denis Kostynchuk fared even worse, even if some blame could be laid on the numerous injuries that the team suffered in the first half of the season. Myllykangas was called back to salvage the situation, but their place in Kakkonen was only confirmed after they won their last three games against each of the main rivals. This offseason saw some controversy, mostly on the futsal side of things, which resulted in their captain Heikkilä getting kicked off the team. There were some other players leaving too (Rönkkö, Vuletic, Honkala etc. ), but rather than dwell on the past it's better to look forward. Firstly it's important to note that YPA is currently operating with an extremely small squad, meaning that they can barely get a 11 + substitutes together so expect some contract news to pop-up soon. Starting from the defense, VPS backup J. Kevari will step in Rönkkö's boots; Vuletic will be replaced by another Serbian, Colovic. AC Oulu triallist Luis Morrison-Derbyshire is rumoured to sign, so their central defense could look pretty good. Higher up it looks similar to OPS and AC Kajaani. However, Pejic, Akmetkhanov, Erceg, Savic and Maluka all do have previous experience playing in Finland so they're no lottery players, which makes predicting YPA a bit easier. Pejic and Pakola were scoring goals and racking up points for fun a few years ago, but their performances have declined considerably (though if I remember correctly Pakola has played other positions lately). Savic was impressive in the last few games as he scored 5 goals, Erceg was the other Serbian that came in late and since he's still in YPA he must have contributed something. Akmetkhanov has been more effective in the futsal field (in 2010-11 he even had the most points + assists in the whole league), but as a defensive player he ain't no mug either. Maluka is a highly touted signing and will likely be the best player in the team. Local products Junno and Tirkkonen and oldtimer Yrjölä have dropped in a few goals from time to time, but with the foreign invasion going on it looks likely that their playing time will diminish. New head coach Sarajärvi has minimal experience, so that could be a recipe for disaster, but if YPA doesn't suffer the same fate with injuries as last season, they should have no trouble avoiding relegation. Challenging the top three teams is probably asking too much, but the nice finish to the last season and the signing of Maluka means that YPA is one of the candidates for the 4-6. positions.

Cup 5th round April 9th highlights: MyPa vs Honka 0-1

Draw for 6th round April 11th, games to be played April 25th.

Veikkausliiga 2013 opening round: only 2 games will take place because of delayed spring

KuPS vs MyPa and RoPS vs MIFK are played on artificial pitches, at natural grass the situation looks like this;

Turku:

Jyväskylä:

Veikkausliiga opening round asian early odds 13.4.2013

Finland : Veikkausliiga - Odds From -1Bet.com-
Time GMT+0	Betting event	Current		Open		Total Line		Over/Under
		spread	odds	spread	odds	current	open	type	current	open
Finland : Veikkausliiga - 13/04/2013
12:00	TPS Turku	-0.75	2.180	-0.75	2.100	2.5	2.5	over	2.140	2.040
	Honka Espoo	+0.75	1.770	+0.75	1.830			under	1.780	1.860
14/04/2013
16:30	KuPS	-0.25	1.880	-0.25	1.940	2.25	2.25	over	1.970	1.900
	Mypa	+0.25	2.040	+0.25	1.980			under	1.930	2.000
16:30	RoPS Rovaniemi	-0.25	1.950	-0.25	2.080	2.5	2.5	over	2.180	2.090
	IFK Mariehamn	+0.25	1.970	+0.25	1.850			under	1.750	1.820
16:30	Vaasa VPS	-0.25	2.250	-0.25	2.080	2.5	2.5	over	2.220	2.120
	Lahti	+0.25	1.720	+0.25	1.850			under	1.720	1.790
15/04/2013
16:30	Inter Turku	+0.5	2.120	+0.5	2.090	2.5	2.5	over	2.010	2.010
	HJK Helsinki	-0.5	1.810	-0.5	1.840			under	1.890	1.890
16:30	JJK Jyvaskyla	-0.75	1.980	-0.75	2.050	2.75	2.75	over	2.180	2.020
	Jaro	+0.75	1.940	+0.75	1.870			under	1.750	1.880

HJK vs Jaro FT 2-1 Cup 5th round highlights

Cup April 3rd: Futura vs Honka FT 1-5