Ranking:
PS Kemi
FC YPA
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AC Kajaani
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KPV
TP-47
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OLS
GBK
OPS
JBK
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PK-37
PS Kemi
PS Kemi won the regular season last year, but failed to get promoted in the play-offs. There's plenty of turnover in the squad, with Eissele and Pasher being the biggest losses. Additionally, many of the other foreigners have left along with a few Finnish regulars. However, the financial commitment remains strong in Kemi so there's a new group of exotic players coming in. From the Finnish newcomers, Könönen, Tyystälä and Haanpää are very likely good additions. It's always tricky to estimate a team that's almost completely different than what it was last year, but PS Kemi's performances during the preseason have been for the most part quite promising. Also, the coaching should again be among the best in the group. There probably won't be much help coming from the reserves if some of the key players go down, but that is the issue in most of the other teams too. The only clear weak point for PS Kemi at this stage seems to be their goalkeepers who are very average compared to rest of the team.
FC YPA
Nearly all of last year's player return so one would expect YPA to be the co-contender for the title with PS Kemi. However, the leaving players were more or less regular starters. Maluka is probably irreplaceable, Erceg is now playing with PS Kemi but I don't know whether YPA will miss him too much considering the big amount of suspensions he picked up. To fill the void left by the previously mentioned two and Morrison-Derbyshire, YPA has brought some replacements in the form of two new Serbians. As has been the case in the past few years, for various reasons YPA does not play that many training matches, and even if they do they've not played them with their optimal line-up. Last year, for the first couple of months YPA was literally unbeatable in the league and since most of the key players remain YPA should again be very close to promotion assuming that the new Serbians are not total busts.
AC Kajaani
AC Kajaani's visit to Ykkönen did not last long, but the local couch business magnates have not abandoned the team, so many of the key players still remain in the team. Some losses were still inevitable though as their loan gk returned to Honka and a few other regulars have also disappeared somewhere. On the brighter side, couple of former players(Ogbuefi and gk) make their return, and the Gambian international Ceesay should do well in Kakkonen. However, the biggest addition for AC Kajaani was definitely the hire of tactical genius Jarmo Korhonen as their coach, who has previously impressed in KPV and JIPPO. If Korhonen can instill his bus parking wisdom, or whatever system he chooses, on to his players quick enough, AC Kajaani could easily be the dark horse contender this year. After all, the squad does not look that much different compared to what they had two years ago when they won the automatic promotion to Ykkönen.
KPV
KPV managed to overcome their disastrous start nicely last year and managed to stay in Kakkonen quite safely. Outside Watson, they do not lose any important players and as they've made couple of nice signings, namely Pennanen, Palosaari and Jokihaara, it's expected that they'll be stronger than they were last year. Without doing any background checking, after PS Kemi KPV was very likely one of the best teams in the group in the second half of the season so the potential is there for a top-5 finish this year. There are a couple of good players in every part of the field and KPV's training matches have provided some impressive performances, at least in terms of results. However, the top trio still has more credentials than KPV so as for now they're not among the top favorites for promotion.
TP-47
Some of the more experienced players left TP-47 in the offseason but most of the starters remain in the team. For the past few seasons TP-47 have been the very definition of average as they've finished around the middle table each time. This year looks to be more of the same, though it has to be said that the margins will likely be even slimmer this season so relegation battle is not that far-fetched even for TP-47 (though this applies to almost every team this year). For every other team in the group it's easy to list a few profile/key players but that doesn't really hold true in TP-47's case. Few of the players expected to play a big role are Herala, who has been with TP-47 for seemingly forever despite his young age, tough cb Shevchenko, former OPS man Badji, Pyyny who has scored 11 goals in the last two seasons and Gullsten, who once was and probably still is a quite good prospect. TP-47's goalkeeping situation has been chaotic in the past few but that could improve as Rönkkö (not to be confused with ORPa's Rönkkö) returns from Sweden.
OLS
OLS made a strong return to senior level football by going undefeated in Kolmonen and thus achieving promotion. There was plenty of rotation last year so it's not that easy to count the transfer losses they suffered. Some of the youngsters are now playing in AC Oulu, and Majava brothers have also left along with the two Kauppilas. On the other hand, there are a handful of players coming in that should be able to do well in Kakkonen level. The starting line-up (or the first ten players) is actually quite strong with a trio of players who have plenty of Veikkausliiga experience, couple of ex-AC Oulu guys, and numerous relatively experienced Kakkonen players. However, there's not much depth and if Kainu, Mahlakaarto or other key players go down there could be trouble as the youngsters are still quite unproven.
GBK
GBK's biggest loss is obviously Carlsson who's now playing in Jaro. Some other foreigners have also left in addition to few other semi-regular local players. On the other hand, last year was a huge disappointment for GBK so a roster overhaul might not be a bad thing for them. They do still possess some quality players such as former VIFK goalie Nylund, Americans Corcoran and Smith, experienced Roiko and Melarti (though he's not listed as contract player), who scored 19 goals in 2012. Unless the new signings, who coincidentally come from USA, are top class it's very difficult to see GBK challenging for the promotion. More probable outcome will likely be lower middle table with relegation not being out of the question either.
JBK
A total mystery team. There are a few familiar names from JBK's previous Kakkonen seasons (2011 and so on), but otherwise the team is filled with very young and unknown players. Like the other newly promoted team, JBK completely dominated their Kolmonen group last year. There has been some player movement both in and out so it's not completely the same team as last year. If the past few seasons are of any indication, JBK should not be among the favorites to go down as the newly promoted teams have done fairly well after excellent Kolmonen seasons. However, the group overall looks quite strong and someone has to accompany PK-37 to Kolmonen so JBK will probably be among the many teams outside PS Kemi, FC YPA and maybe AC Kajaani that could very well find themselves in the relegation battle in the last few rounds. Looking at the training match results is often useless when it comes to predictions, but in this case it might be useful as there's not much information available outside them. During the preseason JBK has been fairly competitive although they've not played that many matches against teams from this group. Added difficulty to predicting JBK comes from their Jaro connection so some loan players will probably appear during the summer in JBK's line-up.
OPS
There was some talk about OPS planning to make a quick return to Ykkönen after their controversial exit last year. As it currently stands, their squad is in the same state as their their club house so the current outlook is looking more like relegation than anything else. There was the usual offseason drama involving coaching changes but the problem they're facing at the moment is that they're simply lacking players. Koponen, who was consistently one of the best goalkeepers in Ykkönen, is the only leftover worth mentioning. Outside him, the team is almost completely new as most of the Finnish players left for OLS. Siekkinen, Tenkula, Vandell and Arinze should hold their own in Kakkonen but other than that there's not much quality. New players are presumably incoming, maybe directly from the airport to the starting line-up as the tradition goes in OPS, so there's not much point in predicting where OPS will end up when the season's finished.
PK-37
Is this the year PK-37 finally goes down? It certainly looks so, and if it were not for the all-encompassing suckiness displayed by ORPa and Tervarit it would have already happened last year as PK-37 was the weakest of the group outside those two. Many of the regular starters (a little over half of them) who also happened to be mostly non-local players have left, and keeping in mind the fact that PK-37's participation to Kakkonen was in doubt until late 2013 it's no wonder that they didn't sign any replacements. However, two former players make their comeback and they were fairly productive in 2011 and 2012 so they're expected to play a key role immediately. Since this new year's newcomers are expected to be much stronger than last year PK-37's situation looks quite bleak. If the training matches are of any indication of the future, expect to see plenty of bus parking and low-scoring games from PK-37 this year.
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