Veikkausliiga 2012 first round on April 15th

Will promoted FC Lahti start with a win over Haka? What about seriously weakened reigning champions HJK, still unbeaten at home this season? TPS to smash MyPa for sure, right? After all they won the first title of the season already, the league cup. 33 fierce rounds to go!

Finnish Cup 2011 first round kicked off!

The first rounds are just jokes which no one laughs at. There is really no point in seeing/playing/organizing a match between two teams from the 7th division in the heart of the winter when they even have not enough licensed players and no training sessions in the bag.

I do not mind though and will see a match or two today in the comfort of Tali indoor Arena. Not only for football but also because as it is an excellent meeting place with footballing people. A coffee and a frendly chat, and in the background the pub teams are fighting their socks off - if they remembered how to put them on that is.

Edit: Saw HDS (3rd div) to beat a 6th div team about 5-1, can not be quite sure as the scoreboard was not on and I arrived a bit late.

Laters, there is a long way to go to the Cup final!

January match list - Finland 2011

There are youth internationals, friendlies, a few tournaments and the League Cup kicks off. So does actually also the Finnish Cup, but as there are only pub teams on the first couple of rounds it is not yet relevant in this context.

List is not complete as there are new matches announced on daily basis and if the snow keeps on falling a metre a day like it has been lately there will be cancellations as well - if the match has been scheduled to be played outdoors. Reigning Champions HJK will travel to Moscow to meet Dynamo Kiev, Rus U21 and Ekranas in the CIS-cup Jan 15th onwards.

Date	League	+ 2 GMT	Home	Away	Note
03.01.11	u18	17.00	Russia	Fin	Valentin Granatkin
05.01.11	u18	13.00	Italy	Fin	Valentin Granatkin
07.01.11	u18	13.00	Latvia	Fin	Valentin Granatkin
09.01.11	u18		*	Fin	Valentin Granatkin
10.01.11	f	18.00	U21	FC Lahti
14.01.11	f		TPS	KäPa
14.01.11	f	16.00	Haka	Lahti
14.01.11	f	15.00	TamU	TPV
14.01.11	f	15.00	PK-35	JJK
15.01.11	f	16.00	Jaro	JBK
15.01.11	f	12.00	Sudet	MP
15.01.11	f		MPS	JäPS
17.01.11	f	20.00	PK-35	MyPa
18.01.11	f	16.45	Ilves	TPV
18.01.11	lc	19.00	Mariehamn	Haka
21.01.11			Jaro
21.01.11			Jaro
22.01.11			Jaro
22.01.11			Jaro
22.01.11	f	14.00	KäPa	Klubi04
22.01.11	f		Lahti	KuPS
22.01.11	f	16.00	HIFK	MyPa
22.01.11	f	14.00	VPS	GBK
22.01.11	f	13.30	PoPa	MuSa
22.01.11	f	16.00	KooTeePee	Futura
22.01.11	f	10.00	Viikingit	BK-46
22.01.11	f		Pallo-Iirot	Hämeenlinna
22.01.11	f	14.00	VPS	GBK
22.01.11	lc	13.15	Honka	Mariehamn
23.01.11	f	16.15	TPV	Jazz
24.01.11	u17		Bel	Fin	Minsk
25.01.11	lc	17.00	TPS	HJK
25.01.11	u17		Lithuania	Fin	Minsk
25.01.11	u15		Fin	Ireland
27.01.11	u17		Belarus	Fin	Minsk
27.01.11	u15		Fin	Ireland
27.01.11	f	16.45	TPV	Ilves-Kissat
28.01.11	f	18.30	SJK	ViPa
28.01.11	Lahti				Uusi Lahti Cup
28.01.11	Lahti				Uusi Lahti Cup
28.01.11	Lahti				Uusi Lahti Cup
28.01.11	Lahti				Uusi Lahti Cup
28.01.11	lc	17.00	TPS	Honka
29.01.11	Lahti				Uusi Lahti Cup
29.01.11	Lahti				Uusi Lahti Cup
29.01.11	Lahti				Uusi Lahti Cup
29.01.11	Lahti				Uusi Lahti Cup
29.01.11	f	16.00	HIFK	Viikingit
29.01.11	f		Pallohonka	KäPa
29.01.11	f	11.30	OPS	HauPa
29.01.11	lc	16.00	Jaro	Oulu
29.01.11	lc	14.00	JJK	VPS
29.01.11	u17		*	Fin	Minsk
30.01.11	Lahti		bronze		Uusi Lahti Cup
30.01.11	Lahti		final		Uusi Lahti Cup
30.01.11	f		Klubi04	Atlantis

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

Dodgy matches in Finland

I have been frequently asked to talk about this and fixed matches in general in Finland. Unfortunately there are a few well-recorded cases like that of Allianssi  and Mr. Ye some years back and some others that really are no secret to anyone with interest in the local betting market, but I have a good reason to hope that it is not as common as some people might think.

Yes, I do have guaranteed info of a few fixed matches and also matches where the opposing clubs have intentionally lost vs. Finnish clubs in the European competition. But there is a but; where to draw the line when talking about proven cases, likely suspects and just wild rumours?

---------------
The line was here. I do not want to get involved in casting a shadow on anyone whose team mate has probably taken part in match fixing. There were also last summer some very strange market moves in some matches at Veikkausliiga, Ykkönen and Kakkonen, but in most cases the teams whose odds crashed also happened to lose the match in the end - so the market move was based on wrong facts or the players played wrong. Rumours take place easily on a vulnerable market like this.

Sorry guys, I know it would make an interesting topic but it will not be discussed here any further. For the Newsletter customers there will naturally be a warning in case there are signs of any foul play.

Friendly season goes on; Honka - Haka Ft 1-2

Edit 1-2 (1-0). A bit strange experience, during the first half I had no doubts that Honka would score more and win in a comfortable manner, on the second half it was the visitors who took the control of the game to a big astonishment of everyone watching the game. The Honka kids lost the ball already in defence and could not get the ball into the dangerous right wing Haarala-Otaru-Puustinen at all. There was a good chance or two for Honka to go 2-0 but they failed and Haka equalizing was in the end well deserved. 1-2 goal was the last touch of the match.

Honka did field a lot of youngsters like a week before vs PK35, but they looked tired and scared in this match and there are at least a few names I would forget now when talking about playing in the League, it will and should not happen. Haka have only a couple of names who yet have established themselves, but they were strong and confident enough to put up a good fight. One of the worst halves of Honka I remember ever seeing but have to give credit to Haka, and in John Weckström they have made an excellent signing, also Gela has grown up a lot as a player.

Line-ups did live a lot, but after Schuller came out on ht the Honka mf play died. Haka took their best midfielders  Matrone and Weckström out as well during ht and started using the wingers.

I am not sure if it was the first ever home loss for Honka at their indoor Arena or not, but at least it is very rare. The home advantage is huge as the pitch is always different from what the visitors are used to, the lightning is so poor that is often difficult to say whether the player running on the opposite flank is home or away, white or black.

Next week Honka host JJK same time & same place. Haka´s next scheduled match is the opening round of the league cup Jan 18th away at Mariehamn.

Haka on Friday: Markus Koljander (65. Ville Kauppinen), Juuso Tuovinen (80. Kwesi Biney), Timi Lahti (46. Mikko-Petteri Latosaari), Juuso Salonen, Josef Chavez, John Weckström (46. Arto Lindberg), Marco Matrone (46. Xhevdet Gela), David Ramadingaye (46. Mohamed Koroma, Teemu Pastila (46. Kaarlo Rantanen), Jaakko Juuti (46. Benito Yllaconza), Kalle Multanen (65. Aleksi Nieminen).

Conpared to the starting XI of the first league match of 2010 there is 1 player remaining and he also wore the captain´s armband this time, Jaakko Juuti who had 1 league match on his belt before last season.
*******************************

CET 14.15 on Friday indoors in Espoo.  
Edit: Opening hc -0,75, the odds have been between 1.75 - 2.04.

Both teams have changed a lot since last season, Honka won PK35 2-1 (0-1) in their first friendly and Haka won the Police national team by same numbers or so.

In the league both won their home match last season, this is a testing period. Expecting asian hc to be -0,5. Open widely at asian market. Midfielder Xhevdet Gela (Haka) has been 2 weeks training with AEK Athens and if that leads to a transfer it would be a surprising one.

Honka miss Savage due injury, Heilala and Lepola were also at least missing last week. Haka gk Pesonen recovering from injury.

Transfers so far;

Honka IN:
MacPherlin Omagbemi Dudu,  (KuPS) - unsettled
Ilari Äijälä, 2012 (MyPa)

OUT
Rami Hakanpää (HJK)
John Weckström (Haka)
Markus Paatelainen
Ville Koskimaa (VPS)
Janne Henriksson (VPS)
Aleksandr Kokko
Jere Pyhäranta (TamU)

Haka IN:

Obi Metzger, 2011+1 (FC Viikingit)
Marco Matrone, 2011 (FF Jaro)
John Weckström, 2011 (FC Honka)

OUT:
Kalle Parviainen (FC Inter)
Markus Joenmäki (KuPS)
Ben Traore
Quincy Osei
Mikko Innanen (MyPa)
Jani Kauppila (AC Oulu)

***************

2010 betting stats so far --> April 18th

Unverified, roughly half of them live, but as they are frequently asked here is the summary. I am not selling picks, but the over all background information and the detailed asian handicap price limits, and because I am not always around the computer myself at the time of the biggest market moves you may easily get bigger prices and value than I do. I have two open picks for tonight, but as the free sample period is now over there are no more estimations published here on a regular basis. Ask puntteri@gmail.com for detailed info and updated offer.

2010 Bets Finland		N	W	V	L	Money return
Jan		29	16	8	5	133,9
Feb		28	14	1,5	12,5	107,44
March		32	14,5	5,5	12	121,06
April		12	5,5	2	4,5	111,36
Total		101	50	17	34	118,26

HJK TV

Here, for anyone who would like to see what the training facilities of the reigning champions are at this time of the year.

It is an interview of the physio of the club, HJK got bad news last week as their best striker so far this season Akseli Pelvas will need to undergo surgery and will be away for some time. Other long-term injured players Jarno Parikka, Janne Saarinen and Matias Lindström are not returning any time soon either, and it is no surprise that HJK hava dediced to sign a few new players, but I will talk more about them when I have seen them in action. A defender from Sweden and a Dutch striker from Fulham reserves have been named.

There have been also new signings and tests at least at TPS and JJK, and it looks like that along with the big number of experienced players returning to the Veikkausliiga there are better players in the League than ever before.

***

About ads at Finnish football Newsletter

There will be some ads for bookies on the right side from time to time, at least until I get fed up with them myself. I am very skeptical that they would bring in any revenue in a small scale blog like this which already does have  a betting-oriented clientele, but in case you are  not yet a customer at Pinnacle then I strongly advice you to sign up.  If you do I probably get a dime or two!

U18 at St. Petersburg: Finland - Ukraine

The Granatko tournament goes on. Finland lost their first game against Turkey 1-2 and Ukraine drew 1-1 with the Azeris.

Last head to head - match was a goalless draw, and a low-scoring match is also to be expected today.

No bets however because I lack a lot of information. If you want to study yourself here is the link for the tournament.

Finland starting eleven;

1 Saku-Pekka Sahlgren, Reima
7 Joel Wulff, TPS
2 Toni Takamäki, FC Honka
6 Lum Rexhepi, HJK
15 Carl Jenkinson, Charlton Athletic
3 Atte Hoivala, KuPS
10 Rico Laitinen, FC Reipas
5 Kalle Kauppi, FC Inter
13 Jesse Ahonen, HJK
18 Teemu Pastila, MP
14 Tim Väyrynen, FC Honka

Para ver o arco-íris, é preciso não temer a chuva.

Which is a quote from Paolo Coelho, translating as " to enjoy the rainbow, first enjoy the rain."

I could understand that it means you have to enjoy (suffer perhaps?) your work first before you get the reward.

Suits very well with any betting projects one might have.

Finland - Turkey U18 4th Jan at 13.00 GMT in Russia

I have strong ideas about this match, need to get my bet in before it is time for more details. Edit: pre-match limits were ridiculous, I took Turkey -1 @ 1.69 & over 2.5 @ 1.81

Finland are missing Fulham gk Jesse Joronen - a matchwinner type of a goalie - and one of the biggest promises Juho Lehtonen, the season is off and there is very little talent in this group. Last summer Finland got beaten badly by the Turks. They played three matches, Turkey won 2-0, 0-2 and 0-3.

Finland starting 11;
1 Saku-Pekka Sahlgren, Reima
3 Atte Hoivala, KuPS
6 Lum Rexhepi, HJK
4 Samu Nieminen, JJK
15 Carl Jenkinson, Charlton Athletic
11 Jesper Engström, VIFK
8 Santeri Ahola, HJK
16 Santeri Mäkinen, TPS
13 Jesse Ahonen, HJK
18 Teemu Pastila, MP
14 Tim Väyrynen, FC Honka