Lineups HJK vs HIFK

Outdoors at Sonera. Streams available.

FF Jaro signing a "right winger" from Greece - Katidis?

Unless the storm in the media is too much.

Sportmarket Pro update

I have several times mentioned and promoted this betting broker as it simply is the ultimate tool to beat the bookies.

No charges. None.

Minimum bet 50€, minimum deposit 250€. 

No maximum bet as such, and all bets can be repeated constantly until you feel happy with your stake.

Track odds movements on every listed game. 

Example:

Bet with nine bookmakers/ exchanges through a single account.

Example of an early match, not yet nine though:

Your bet is ALWAYS matched automatically at the best available odds. Always.

See odds move before they even do so on the bookmakers own site ! Isn't that fantastic?

Bet football, tennis, american fooball, basketball, rugby, ice hockey and baseball.

Make your betting account great again!

High limits and winning accounts are never restricted. Never.

Be a winner.

Deposit instantly via Skrill or Neteller, or via bank transfer and move money between your accounts and those of your friends at the click of a button !

Excellent mobile app.

Future fulfilment facility which enables you to seek out the odds that YOU want !

They are super friendly, but you need never speak to a human to deposit funds, or place a bet, so don't be confused by the name "broker" !

 If you have not yet registered with Sportmarket  Pro yet, I urge you to do so via this link.

Suomen cup continues on Friday

Highlights from matchday 1 here.

Inter Turku will start their season and introduce a few new familiar faces vs EIF. Local book also opened matches for the weekend.

Veikkausliiga transfers 2017

Due to the fact that the transfer window is more or less always open here this would be a never-ending story,
so I decided to give you an overview of what is going on now, and links to more detailed sources. Hope it is ok?

Playerdatabase, Transfermarkt and local fan forum FF2 should be more up to date.

This site is an excellent place for detailed info of 2016, Minor Soccer League.

At the moment January 19th the overview is about like this:

MIFK lost 3 key players gk Viitala, mf Assis and striker Orgill. All in all MIFK used only 16 players last season and were lucky to avoid injuries, so far their only signing is an striker from MLS/USL , Lucky Mkosama. Edit, mf Robbie Sellin also introduced, might be good.

Verdict: MIFK not going to repeat last season's success. 3-6.


HJK is once again changing quite a lot. There are some good new defenders Obilor and Patronen, but on the other hand all wingers have gone. Top striker Morelos also likely to be sold and need to be replaced.

Verdict: Far from ready but always a favourite to do well and win stuff.

SJK had and do have a strong squad, but there are some holes now too as a few players changed to Ilves, top striker Riski is on loan at a low level German side and one important midfielder retired.

Verdict: No worries, but perhaps need a high profile striker, or perhaps not as there are good kids. Top-2.

VPS over- achieved last season are there were really not that many key players. However some of them have left, gk Kobozev and cb Boxall.  Most of the leaving players are not missed.  A lot of VPS success was down to good coaching and a bit of luck.

Verdict: Can not see them in top-3, they were the most boring team to follow last season and that is likely to continue as they tend to pass the ball on their own half for hours. 6-8.

Ilves did lose their top winger Soisalo to Middlesbrough, but there are some new faces who bring something new - and depth at least - to the squad. Good cd Tanska, all-round handyman Penninkangas and occasionally effective striker Tuco.

Verdict: Top-6.

RoPS are one the losers at the transfer markets and lack of funds shows in the signings. Losing top scorer Kokko in the middle of last season was however the biggest blow. RoPS lost 5 regular starters, and from the signings I would not except a lot apart from striker Tukiainen who finally can show if he can make it in Veikkausliiga, and I think he can if the midfield can feed him.

Bottom half.

KuPS are of the most interesting clubs this season, mostly because of managerial change as the gone Rajamäki was a poor tactician. New guy Honkavaara (HIFK) was early out there to sign the names he wanted, and even if they are not the biggest household names this might actually work. Not sure about the keeper situation though, Otso Virtanen did not get any playing time at Hibernians and I am afraid there is a reason for it.

Verdict: Top half unless keeper problems arise big time.

Lahti. Blah... mediocrity, bad Brazilian signings and a manager who has yet to earn my trust. Another club needing a keeper since the Russian one is gone. Latest signing mf Helmke has been a top player in this league before and he might do some difference, or not. He has not played for a veeeeery long time at all.

Verdict: 8th or so.

PS Kemi. Biggest losers so far, a lot of new faces in and it has taken a lot of imagination to handpick them. The latest cb Kaljumäe from Levadia has the highest profile.

Verdict: Would be automatically relegated unless there was JJK. Relegation play-off then.

HIFK. A combination of a few top players and a dozen of kids who will not be let to play. In most parts you might call it unchanged since last season. Lack of money a big hindrance to build the team, but they might get old timer Mikael Forssell cheap as he is no longer wanted at HJK.

Verdict: Will survive because of Kemi and JJK.

Inter Turku. Winners of the silly season but still a few players - like a cb - needed, and the presence of Shefki Kuqi at the managerial seat always kind of a time bomb. Faubert, Furuholm, Mäkitalo all top signings and the fiasco of 2016 will be quickly forgotten.

Verdict: Might be top-4, but nothing would surprise with Kuqi, Kuqi, Faubert, Furuholm..

JJK They were a rather weak side to win Ykkönen and promotion, and some of their key players already gone and unreplaced. Half the starting 11 need to be replaced if they want to dream of survival in the league.

Verdict: Gone. Bye.

FIN odds for FIN cup - Suomen cup

Naturally no odds for SJK vs SJK here, someone offered 1.07 for a sure thing.

Suomen Cup 2017 - FIN Cup

The newly formatted Suomen Cup group phase will start on Friday and here are the fixtures for week 3.

There are 5 groups of 6 clubs in each, there was almost no competition for the few places thar were open for all clubs as all 12 Veikkausliiga clubs, all 10 Ykkönen clubs and the best 4 Kakkonen clubs were automatically invited (and forced) to take part.  The winners of the group go to best-8, the remaining 3 places require a play-off between all runners-up and "best" third placed.

The 4 clubs who more or less won their place to the group phase are

HauPa

Legirus Inter

Pallo-Iirot

SJK Academy

Legirus were promoted to Kakkonen, the rest are from one level below, Kolmonen. SJK Academy may win a cabinet promotion though as there is one Kakkonen club giving up for financial reasons, YPA. They will be replaced either by Villiketut, or SJK Academy. (Edit: Villiketut got promoted, SJK Academy continue at Kolmonen.)

The fact which makes this cup format super interesting is, that for the clubs taking part in the group phase have to have some kind of an official squad ready. Now. Not in April or May but now. The policy until now has been that there are trialists all preseason, and they were also able  to play in the league cup. The consequence is that some of the clubs have signed a lot of cheap kids to be able to take part, and the lineups in some cases are almost ridiculously weak. This is also a big difference for non-Veikkausliiga clubs who previously had only friendlies to play during Jan-April.

Most - if not all - of the matches will be available for betting also at Asian markets. The least likely matches not to be found are those with the Kolmonen clubs involved, and/or if there are matches at the busiest hours on the weekends. However as the matches are played indoors anyway in arenas with very limited facilities they may also be played at silly hours, very early local time, and thus they may attract huge volumes at the markets as they are almost the only competitive matches available for the betting, worldwide! Inter Turku seem to have a regular spot at 14:00 on Fridays for example.

In those cases when there is only limited access at Asian markets like Singbet, IBCbet or ISN there are also betting brokers available, my personal favourite tool is Sportmarket PRO. More about it can be found in a separate article in this blog. In case you still have a healthy account at Bet365 you will do just fine.


The groups are:

Group A

None of these is impressing at any way right now, Kemi have signed a lot of unknown young players and I doubt that their scouting is faultless. OPS will be an exception in the rule I mentioned earlier, they do not give a damn about this cup and they will order their load of Africans later. OPS manager' s 14 yo son played in their latest friendly vs Jaro and it tells a lot about their attitude here.

Group B

SJK will win this group, but it is rather remarkable that the FA allowed their Academy to play in the same group.

Group C

HJK wins this one, but Honka are once again building a strong team even if they are at Ykkönen 2017. Return to Veikkausliiga looms ahead! Gnistan is the reserve team of HIFK this year and in some other country this would not be allowed.

Group D

Inter Turku should return to limelight after a disappointing year, and perhaps they even are a title contender? MIFK will return to mediocrity after a a Leicesterish  title season.

Group E

Strong group, Ilves, KuPS and Lahti to decide the winner between themselves. 

First cup odds have been released at some eurobookies already on Monday.