MIFK – VPSMIFK:1-3-3-1-3-1
VPS:3-3-3-3-3-0
H2H: 3-2-3. 21.03.2009 League Cup MIFK – VPS 3-1.
MIFK has rested for 1.5 weeks while VPS have played twice and will need to take the difficult trip to Mariehamn. Both teams are in excellent form, MIFK has not yet lost at home and only once in the League, while VPS was on a winning streak of five wins before losing to
HJK dramatically 3-4.
A result that neither the team nor the manager was happy about and their reaction has been to blame the referee but if you give out a two-goal lead twice in the game there is perhaps a time to look at the mirror too?
Anttilainen 7/1 and
Ingves 11/1 are doubtful for the home side, their absence would weaken the offence significantly, ” ”We have trained well though we have not been able to use our own stadium because it was reserved to the Independent Islands Games. Getting at least one of those players mentioned above in the starting line-up would be massive, but we will not know until Sunday, ” says
Pekka Lyyski, MIFK coach.
MIFK is getting some unexpected media coverage lately, FIFA Futbol Mundial is creating a show on the island about the team, World Soccer is having a reporter out there and Patrik Rikama was elected the 4th best player of the week, a quote saying that ”Patrik Rikama (IFK Mariehamn - Finland) - Another clean sheet for the island club as they rise up the Finnish league table, and the full-back was much to thank. ”
Jani Lyyski,
VPS central-defender returns to the island for the first time after leason´s transfer from MIFK, but his knowledge of the team is not much of a use as MIFK has changed almost completely from last season and there are only two players left in the starting eleven.
VPS have a problem in front of the goal as they need to field
Henrik Moisander 4/0 who seems to totally have lost his confidence and there is no trust for him in the defence either. Except 1st choice gk Henri Sillanpää 10/0 VPS have a full squad to choose from.
MIFK : 29 Gustav Långbacka 12/0 - 24 Mate Dujilo 10/1- 6 Marcus Olofsson 11/1 – 22 Alexandros Pappas 11/0 – 23 Paulus Arajuuri 10/1 – 8 Kenneth Gustavsson 10/0 - 9 Ante Simunac 10/2 – 10 Tamás Gruborovics 12/4 – 11 Mika Niskala 12/1 – 30 Sasha Anttilainen 7/1 - 26 Wilhelm Ingves 11/1
Bench: 15 Amos Ekhalie 5/0, 24 Mate Dujilo 10/1, 4 Johan Carlsson 9/0, 1 Willis Ochieng (gk) 0/0, 14 Arsim Gashi 11/1
Unavailable: 2 Voloshyn 6/0, 18 Dmytro Pronevych 2/0 ,(suspended), 5 Peter Blomberg 0/0 (retired)
Coach : Pekka Lyyski
VPS: 12 Henrik Moisander (gk) 4/0 - 8 Jani Lyyski 12/1 – 11 Toni Hahto 11/0 – 16 Jyrki Saranpää 12/1 – 19 Jan Berg 12/0 – 3 Lawrence Smith 8/1 – 7 Tero Koskela 11/1 – 14 Jens Nygård 12/3 - 22 Tony Björk 12/1 - 10 Antonio Inutile 11/3 – 23 Jyri Hietaharju 12/1
Bench: 4 Jussi Äijälä 9/0, 6 Petteri Forsell 8/1, 9 Jussi Aalto 5/1, 20 Rikard Lindroos 8/1, 25 Pekka Kainu 7/0
Unavailable: 2 Jan Ahlvik 0/0, 24 Benjamin Slotte 0/0, 1 Henri Sillanpää 10/0
Coaches: Juha Reini & Petri Vuorinen
FF Jaro – HJKJaro:3-0-3-3-1-1
HJK: 1-1-3-3-0-3
H2H:2-7-10. League Cup 07.02.2009 HJK - Jaro 1-0
FF Jaro has ended twice in a row into a goalless draw, and defender Jens Portin is happy about it,” The defence has played perfectly lately, and scoring goals should be no problem as we have created enough goal chances. There will be more goals soon, I am not least worried. I am expecting a tough game as
HJK is always a HJK even that they have had difficulties on the road and we have been strong at home. This is kind of a top-clash as the League is so tight this year.”
It is indeed. Only five points separate Inter at 7th place from leaders
Haka and HJK.
Jaro was testing players but in the end decided against both of them mostly due bureaucratic reasons. There are no major absentees, but there is room for other injuries in the team.
HJK had started the game against
VPS with stiff feet and found themselves early on two goals down, and the long bus ride to Pietarsaari is exactly the same than it was to Vaasa. ”This time we can not afford to concede three goals and have to be more careful in the defense, ” says one of the VPS-game heroes mf Cheyne Fowler, ” We need to keep the ball and get Jaro tired, exactly like what happened at Vaasa when we finally just ran over them.”
Jukka Sauso is likely to return to central defence after recovering from concussion in the Inter-game, on the injury list there are only Roiha 3/0 fur sure, Taulo 4/0 and Haapala 5/0 are doubtful.
It has been rumoured that
Mika Laurikainen, the FF Jaro coach who is not going to continue at Pietarsaari after this season might be heading to HJK for next season.
Jaro: 1 Markus Koljander 11/0 – 2 Jani Tanska 12/1 - 5 Kristian Kojola 12/2 – 7 Marco Matrone 11/1 - 10 Jonas Emet 12/2 – 16 Papa Niang 12/2 – 17 Petter Meyer 11/1 - 18 Mikko Hyyrynen 10/2 – 19 Sebastian Mannström 12/4 - 22 Jens Portin 12/0 – 23 Joonas Laurikainen 12/2
Bench: 6 Janne Vellamo 11/0, 9 Björn-Erik Sundqvist 3/0, 12 Vitali Teles 1/0, 21 Daniel Fellman 7/0, 30 Jesse Öst 0/0, 11 Jani Koivisto 3/1, 3 Heikki Aho 7/0,
Unavailable: 8 Jari Sara 0/0, 13 Jani Sarajärvi 0/0
Coach: Mika Laurikainen
HJK: 1 Wille Wallén 12/0 – 3 Mikko Hauhia 11/0 – 4 Mohamed Kamara 11/2 – 6 Cheyne Fowler 3/1 – 9 Sebastian Sorsa 12/3 – 10 Juho Mäkelä 12/4 - 13 Pyry Kärkkäinen 12/2 – 14 Valeri Popovits 12/3 – 17 Dawda Bah 12/3 – 20 Jukka Raitala 12/0 - 18 Juhani Ojala 2/0
Bench: 2 Mikko Hauhia 2/0, 12 Jani Viander (gk) 0/0, 21 Petri Oravainen 10/0, 26 Johannes Westö 1/0, 27 Mikko Sumusalo 1/0, 28 Nosh A Lody 0/0, 31 Akseli Pelvas 7/2, 32 Sami Salmi 0/0, 16 Jarno Parikka 12/2, 5 Jukka Sauso 11/0
Unavailable:15 Paulus Roiha 3/0, 7 Tuomas Haapala 5/0, 8 Ville Taulo 4/0,
Coach : Antti Muurinen
MyPa – Haka MyPa:1-1-0-0-3-0
Haka:3-3-3-0-3-1
H2H: 8-3-7. League Cup 14.02.2009 Haka – MyPa 2-3
MYPA has been missing important playmaker Ady who returns to the squad after recovering from injury. The home side has been having huge goal creating problems without him, and the strikers in the team are not that good that they could a lot chances themselves.
Along the years this has been an even fixture, and both teams have traditionally been sponsored by big paper factories who pay the bills and build the stadions, this has been changing only lately due to world-wide economic crisis. Haka goalkeeper
Janne Korhonen played 11 seasons at MyPa, only to get transferred for this season to get some new ideas and challenges, and knows the home perfectly, as does
Haka coach
Olli Huttunen, ” MyPa has always been one of the toughest places to go to, we have been succesful here along the years, but the points have never been easy to get. Somehow the style of play of MyPa seems to suit us,” he says.
MyPa had high hopes and finding themselves at top spots after a good pre-season and nice results against HJK (1-0) and Honka (0-0), but the relegation play-off spot is becoming a real threat unless MyPa gets some wins. Thus all the pressure is on the home side, leaders Haka have reached a lot of points - the experts seem to think there are already too many – and they can take a a more relaxed approach to the game.
Sampsa Timoska 5/0 is the only absentee for MyPa, and Haka have no injury worries while only
Parviainen 0/0 and
Minkenen 4/0 are unavailable.
MYPA: 1 Antti Kuismala 11/0 – 4 Antti Uimaniemi 11/0 – 11 Ilari Äijälä 9/3 – 18 Tuomas Aho 11/0 – 16 Toni Huttunen 11/1 - 6 Tuomo Könönen 10/0 - 8 Ady 9/2 – 2 Miikka Multaharju 11/0 - 7 Ben Webster 1/0 – 9 Saku Puhakainen 11/0 – 19 Maxim Votinov 9/2
Bench: 5 Jarno Tuunainen 0/0, 13 Toni Lindberg 8/0, 15 Ville Oksanen 10/0, 12 Mika Johansson (gk) 0/0, 14 Tosaint Ricketts 7/3, 20 Felipe Benevedes 1/0, 23 Niko Nakari 4/0,, 24 Nebi Mustafi 6/0
Unavailable: 3 Sampsa Timoska 5/0
Coach : Janne Lindberg
Haka: 1 Janne Korhonen 12/0 – 2 Diego Corpache 12/1 – 18 Jari Nikkilä 11/0 - 4 Markus Joenmäki 3/0 - 22 Jarno Mattila 12/0 - 6 Sebastian Strandvall 12/2 - 7 Mikko Innanen 12/2 – 11 Antti Hynynen 11/2 - 10 Mika Mäkitalo 11/2 - 8 Jani Kauppila 12/0 - 9 Niko Ikävalko 10/2
Bench:12 Saku Pesonen (gk) 0/0, 15 Nicolas Kivistö 6/0, 16 Jani Bäckman 7/1, 20 Sami Ristilä 8/1, 3 Petri Viljanen 8/0, 21 Pietari Holopainen 10/5, 28 Hans Denissen 2/0
Unavailable: 5 Kalle Parviainen 0/0, 14 Valeri Minkenen 4/0
Coach : Olli Huttunen
Inter – LahtiInter:3-3-0-0-3-0
Lahti:0-0-1-0-0-3
H2H: 6-5-5. League Cup 28.02.2009 Inter – Lahti 1-1.
Inter is in the middle of goal-keeping crisis as both keepers are suspended.
Patrick Bantamoi is still suffering a two-match ban of the red card against HJK, and the same punishment came to
David Monsalve in the next game and on Sunday Inter will put young and unexperienced
Eemeli Reponen into the pitch.
Last season´s champions
Inter have lost four of their five games, and their desire to repeat the surprise Championship is slipping through their fingers.
The month of July will be decisive for the reast of the season, when Inter have ten ! games to play in the League and CL-qualifications. ”It was frustrating to see out players giving out the victory to TamU when we had a two-goal lead,” says coach
Job Dragtsma, ” we played like little kids, we have problems with the fitness of strikers and now also the the clubs we play are making things more difficult for us not playing actively and giving us a chance to press hard and high, which has been our trademark.”
”We are going to give a lot of pressure for the 19-yo goalkeeper Reponen,” says
Lahti coach
Ilkka Mäkelä, ” but Inter home
Veritas stadion is definitely the most difficult place in the country and it is not going to be easy for us.”
Lahti had a bad streak of not winning the games five times in the row, but now they are back in the game with two consecutive wins, one of the in Europa League against
Dinamo Tirana 4-1 at home in Lahti. The main architect being once again former CL-hero
Jari Litmanen.
”This is a tough place, the players are doing well at the moment, but I could see they were very tired after the Tirana – match, and I have think about resting some of them ahead of away trip to Albania next week.”
Mika Ojala 10/2 will still be unavailable for Inter, and the goalkeepers Bantamoi 11/0 and Monsalve 1/0.
Lahti is only missing long-term patient Veltheim, but is likely to rotate their players.
Inter Turku: 13 Eemeli Reponen (gk) 1/0 – 3 Claudio Verino 11/1 – 5 Alberto Ramirez 11/1 – 7 Ari Nyman 12/0 – 9 Guillano Grot 10/3 – 11 Timo Furuholm 10/3 – 14 Joni Aho 10/0 – 15 Severi Paajanen 12/0 – 18 Ats Purje 8/1 – 24 Joni Kauko 8/1 – 29 Henri Lehtonen 12/0
Bench: 8 Touko Tumanto 6/0, 20 Arttu Seppälä 1/0, 21 Pablo Gomez-Marttila 0/0, 22 Sami Sanevuori 7/0, 23 Ville Nikkari 7/0, 27 Kennedy 11/1, 25 Ville Mäkilä 0/0, 26 Felix Åkerlund 0/0, 19 Aristides Pertot 7/0, 6 Jermu Gustafsson 0/0
Unavailable: 17 Mika Ojala 10/2, 1 Patrick Bantamoi (gk)11/0, 12 David Monsalve (gk) 1/0
Coach : Job Dragtsma
FC Lahti: Viktor Szentpeteri 8/0 – 2 Heikki Haara 12/1 – 3 Henri Toivomäki 12/0 - 4 Janne Moilanen 4/0 – 6 Kalle Eerola 9/0 - 8 Mohamed Fofana 11/3 - 9 Rafael 11/2 – 11 Drilon Shala 12/5 – 14 Konsta Hietanen 12/0 – 15 Jukka Vanninen 11/0 - 17 Eero Korte 12/2
Bench: 10 Jari Litmanen 8/0, 12 Toni Huuhka 9/1, 19 Riku Heini 7/0, 20 Jonne Kemppinen 10/1, 21 Kaarlo Rantanen 2/0, 22 Juha Tuomi (gk) 4/0
Unavailable: 7 Jukka Veltheim 2/0 for the rest of the season
Coach : Ilkka Mäkelä
