Valentin Granatkin Memorial for U18 teams in St. Petersburg Jan 2011

Team Finland in this traditional tournament:

Schedule, times CET
3.1.  16.30 FIN - Russia
5.1.  12.00 FIN - Italy                            
7.1.  12.00 FIN - Latvia                         
9.1.  xx.xx  placement match

Team:
Juhani Pennanen, AC Oulu 
Ville Kauppinen, FC Haka j.

Mikko-Petteri Latosaari, FC Haka j.
Ville Rannikko, TPS
Johannes Nordström, IFK Mariehamn
Dani Hatakka, FC Honka
Miikka Salonen, FC Honka
Marcus Heimonen, PK-35
Jere Uronen, TPS

Thomas Lam, AZ Alkmaar
Jani Jokinen, FC Honka
Jusu Karvonen, AS Taranto Calcio

Joni Mäkelä, AC Oulu
Nikolai Alho, HJK
Valmir Seferi, FC Honka
Aleksi Paananen, KuPS
Robin Lod, HJK

Janne Saksela, PK-35
Tim Väyrynen, FC Honka
Antto Hilska, TPV

Honka lineup vs JJK

The difference btw this side and the one who lost vs. Haka (1-2) in the previous week was mostly mental and the feet seemed to be lighter. Probably there was an ease in the training. JJK was so bad after starting the match with the conceded own goal that they really deserve no mentioning at all, and if I say that they will top Haka in the table you will probably not believe me. JJK had a few big names missing after all, but it is far from a good excuse to concede 8 goals.

Honka - JJK 8-2 (5-0);

The left flank worked well but the man of the match was Nicholas Otaru who revealded all the short-comings a defender can have, and if Jan Berg at JJK gets no deal he has got Otaru to blame. the kids Väyrynen, Mäkijärvi and Rexhepi were also very confident and strong, Ilari Äijälä will be a key man as well.

1-0 Own goal (Jan Berg)
2-0 Jami Puustinen
3-0 Nicholas Otaru
4-0 Antti Mäkijärvi
5-0 Tim Väyrynen (pen.)
6-0 Tim Väyrynen
6-1 Kim Alonen
7-1 Tim Väyrynen
8-1 Henri Aalto
8-2 Mikko Hyyrynen

	Väyrynen	Puustinen
Mäkijärvi/Hietikko			Schuller	Otaru/Seferi
	Tammilehto
Äijälä/Paularinne	Rexhepi		Heilala/Hatakka	Haarala/Aalto
		Peltonen
		(Wiitala)

Komia - tournament schedule in Feb 2011 at Seinäjoki

A long way to go, but as it is published why not put it here too? All times CET, played indoors at the great Wallsport Arena. Not a competition really, but a set of friendlies.

09.02.   18:00   SJK - HJK
10.02.   16:00   HJK - Örebro SK 

10.02.   18:30   Djurgårdens IF - FC Flora

11.02.   16:00   SJK - Djurgårdens IF

11.02.   18:30   Örebro SK - FC Flora

13.02.   09:00   SJK - FC Flora

13.02.   11:15   Örebro SK - TPS 

13.02.   13:30   HJK - Djurgårdens IF

Liechtenstein - Finland QL match fixed? FT 1-1

Says a German newspaper.  Wonder what the result should had been, were they happy with the 1-1 draw?  Finland at that time 2009 and still are in such a bad form that indeed it was a good idea to secure at least a draw by bribing the referee. The suspects in this case are Croatian.


Link to the paper

(Photo from Iltasanomat.fi, taken by Jussi Nukari)

"Ach ja: Und offenbar auch in der WM-Qualifikation. „Das Ding haben wir auch verschoben, der Ante und ich“, sagt Marijo C. beinahe beiläufig. Gemeint ist die Partie zwischen Liechtenstein und Finnland am 9. September 2009, mithilfe des Schiedsrichters Novo Panic (Bosnien-Herzegowina) soll das Spiel manipuliert worden sein, in welche Richtung und ob mit Erfolg, wurde gestern nicht bekannt. Das Spiel endete 1:1, Finnland ging durch einen Foulelfmeter in Führung, die der Fußball-Zwerg im Gegenzug ausglich, ein Liechtensteiner wurde vom Platz gestellt. Im Februar wurde Panic übrigens von der UEFA lebenslänglich gesperrt. „Kein Kommentar“, sagte Staatsanwalt Andreas Bachmann in einer Verhandlungspause zu diesem bislang nicht der Manipulation verdächtigen Spiel. 30000 Euro soll Panic bekommen haben, außerdem das Versprechen, seine Schiedsrichter-Karriere mithilfe des UEFA-Funktionärs Jozef M. aus Prag zu befördern."

To be honest the penalty is rewarded rather lightly, innit?

Finland friendly season; Honka - JJK on Friday

Edit: Odds of Honka dropping from -0,5 @ 1.90 to 1.8 now, also -0,75 line available. Total line 2.75 & 3

So far Honka have used a lot of players with the following results; god only knows what the line-up will be next time, or the starting XI to be more precise. For JJK this is start of the pre-season matches, they had scheduled a friendly vs. JIPPO but it got cancelled due to arctic conditions. This one will be played indoors. CET 14.15, availabe for betting in Asia.

		PK-35		Haka		JJK
	Player	1st (0-1)	2nd (2-0)	1st (1-0)	2nd (0-2)	1st	2nd
Gk	Henrik Moisander	-1	2					1
Gk	Walter Viitala			1				1
Gk	Tuomas Peltonen				-2			-2
Def	Riku Paularinne	-1			-2			-3
Def	Sampo Koskinen	-1		1				0
Def	Henri Aalto	-1		1				0
Def	Lum Rexhepi		2	1				3
Def	Roope Heilala
Def	Hannu Haarala		2		-2			0
Def	Ilari Äijälä		2					2
Def	Elja Heiskanen		2					2
Def	Tapio Heikkilä			1	-2			-1
Def	Dani Hatakka	-1			-2			-3
Mf	Antti Mäkijärvi			1				1
Mf	Duarte Tammilehto	-1		1				0
Mf	Valmir Seferi	-1	2	1	-2			0
Mf	Juuso Simpanen		2					2
Mf	Rasmus Schuller		2	1				3
Mf	Jani Jokinen	-1			-2			-3
Mf	Nicolas Otaru	-1			-2			-3
Mf	Jussi Vasara
Mf	Demba Savage
Mf	Jaakko Lepola				-2			-2
St	Jaakko Hietikko		2					2
St	Jami Puustinen	-1	2		-2			-1
St	Tim Väyrynen	-1	2					1
St	Konsta Rasimus			1				1
St	Dudu
St	Mikael Lähde

汉卡 - 积华史基拿

Also later today at 16.00 TPS-PK-35 friendly

The first and last ice hockey article in this blog ever - Jere the Great!

An exception, but for a good reason. Jere Lehtinen, Dallas Stars & Finland is retiring. Huge career and always kept himself out of the media which is more than admirable. The most important thing for this post of course is to take full credit of his skills; one emotional night at Helsinki Club while he was celebrating the Stanley Cup he confessed that he always wanted to become a better player than I was, he never got the puck from me when we played as kids. Kind of him not to mention the few years handicap and to be honest I never knew he was one of the brats but he truly became better than me and one of the best ever. Congratulations Jere, guess you are no brat no more.

from Lapinkansa.fi

Stuart Baxter rushing in to help AIK

He is apparently welcome there, but why? No contract it says, only giving out a helping hand, according to Aftonbladet. Why don´t you just commit yourself fully good old Stu, you are not really missed on this side of the Gulf.