A look back at what’s been making the headlines in Finnish football over the course of the past week or so.

Inter make perfect start in Veikkausliiga

2011 Veikkausliiga runners-up Inter romped to a 0-5 victory at Lahti on Sunday to keep up their 100% record in 2012 and inflict Lahti’s first home defeat in three matches since their promotion to the top division. After opening a two-goal lead inside the first half an hour, Inter looked comfortable for the whole match and scored three more in the last fifteen minutes. Meanwhile, reigning champions HJK slipped to their second defeat of the season by conceding a goal in the second minute of injury time to MyPa. They’re now three points behind league leaders Inter in fifth place, having played one game fewer. It’s still very early in the season, of course, but they must be worried about the points they have dropped already. Joel Pohjanpalo, who scored a hat-trick in their opening match, hasn’t found the net since and has been substituted twice. Elsewhere, Senegalese forward Papa Niang converted a last-minute penalty to give Jaro a 1-0 victory over KuPS to give them their first win of the season. TPS beat Haka 2-0, with Aleksi Ristola scoring in his third consecutive Veikkausliiga match. The weekend’s other result was Mariehamn 0-0 Honka, and JJK lost 0-2 to VPS on Monday evening, which moved the visitors up to fourth in the league.

Hyypiä unbeaten in five at Leverkusen

Sami Hyypiä’s fledgling managerial career has got off to a flying start. Having taken over a team who had just lost five matches in a row, he and his co-caretaker Sascha Lewandowski have turned their fortunes around so dramatically that they are now unbeaten in five matches. In that time they have secured three wins and two draws, with their latest victory, which came against Hannover 96, guaranteeing them European football next season in the Europa League. Hannover had been one of their rivals for a top six place in the Bundesliga going into that match, which makes the victory all the more impressive. Hyypiä has been strongly tipped to take over as full-time manager at the club, but he is keeping his options open, saying “I’m not convinced this career is for me”. He could choose to go back to the lower profile role of a coach, but he will have done his reputation no harm at all in the meantime.

Finland’s match against Turkey to be televised

Finland’s upcoming friendly international against Turkey, due to be played on the 26th of May in Salzburg, Austria, will be broadcast in Finland on the national broadcaster YLE, it has been announced. That might not seem like news, but the showing of friendly matches always seems to be in the balance with Finland, particularly when it comes to away fixtures. Further complicating the matter in this case is that the match is not happening on a designated FIFA match day, which means that some first-choice players will not be available to the teams. That is more likely to affect Finland than Turkey, whose league will have finished by then. The Veikkausliiga is played from April to October.

Source: Finnish Football Association (in Finnish)

A look back at what’s been making the headlines in Finnish football over the course of the past week or so.

TPS take spot-kick victory in Liigacup final

2011 double winners HJK couldn’t add to their trophy collection as they were beaten on penalty kicks by TPS in last week’s Liigacup final. TPS took the lead in the last few minutes of the first half through Juho Lähde before HJK, playing in their home stadium, levelled things up just after the break with a Joel Pohjanpalo goal. Despite dictating the play for most of the game, the Helsinki-based club couldn’t find a winner, so the match finished 1-1 and went to a shoot-out. Erfan Zeneli missed the first penalty for HJK, after which Petteri Pennanen scored for TPS. When HJK’s earlier goalscorer Pohjanpalo missed with their second attempt, the cup looked to be heading to Turku. They converted all their spot kicks to take a 4-3 victory.

Match report (in Finnish): Veikkausliiga

Finnish participation in Europe ends as AZ crash out

AZ Alkmaar were the only side left in European competition with Finnish players in their squad up until last Thursday, when they were knocked out by Valencia. A somewhat fortunate 2-1 home victory in the home leg had given them hope of progressing to the semi-finals, but a convincing 4-0 win for the Spanish side in the return fixture sent them crashing out of the competition. Niklas Moisander and his defence could not prevent the French defender Adil Rami from scoring two goals from two corners in the same number of minutes, firstly with a header and then a volley. Jordi Alba and Pablo Hernández finished the job off the Valencia in the second half.

A quarter-final elimination is nothing to be ashamed of for a club like AZ, but they must be disappointed with the manner in which they exited the competition. One unused substitute in their match against Valencia was centre back Thomas Lam, a Dutch and Finnish national who has represented Finland at the under-19 level. He could be a player to watch in the future.

Respect day to provide farewell for Finland legends

The Finnish Football Association have announced a pair of exhibition matches to be played on the 8th of September. Going under the title of “Respect”, the first will be between “Veikkausliiga Legends” and “Football Association Gladiators”, while the second match, the main event, will see a Finland team made up of core national team players from the early 2000s, including Sami Hyypiä and Jari Litmanen, take on an invitational World XI. Finland will be led by Roy Hodgson, who was in charge of the national team with some success between 2006 and 2007, while Richard Møller Nielsen, Finland’s head coach between 1996 and 1999, will be responsible for managing their opponents. The team compositions will be announced in May.

The day will serve two purposes: firstly, it will serve as a testimonial match for Finland’s Silver Generation, who came very close to qualifying for a major tournament on a couple of occasions, and secondly, it will raise money for charity. Which charity the money will go to has yet to be decided. I’ll bring you more news about that, as well as the teams and the day itself, when it is made available.

Press release (in Finnish): Suomen Palloliitto

A look back at what’s been making the headlines in Finnish football over the course of the past week or so.

Two Finns left standing in Europa League

The number of Finns involved in the Europa League this season has fallen to two. Former Finland captain Petri Pasanen and his Red Bull Salzburg side were knocked out of the competition after an 8-1 aggregate thrashing by Metalist Kharkiv of Ukraine. Pasanen must shoulder some of the blame for being part of the most porous defence in the first round of the knock-out stage.

Elsewhere, Rubin Kazan were knocked out by Olympiakos with a 2-0 aggregate scoreline, but they would not have been fielding either of their Finns in the competition anyway: Roman Eremenko is cup-tied and his brother Alexei was removed from the club’s “A List” tournament squad after picking up an injury in Finland’s 2-1 defeat to Denmark in November of last year.

Another Finnish international ineligible to play in the Europa League for the rest of this season is Teemu Pukki, who watched on as his club Schalke overcame Viktoria Plzeň in extra time, 4-2 on aggregate, thanks to a hat-trick from his fellow striker Klaus-Jan Huntelaar.

That leaves AZ Alkmaar of the Netherlands as the only team left in the competition with Finnish players in their squad. Niklas Moisander captained them, as always, on Thursday night as they edged past Anderlecht with a 0-2 aggregate scoreline. The AZ defence took a battering in the opening fifteen minutes, as Moisander admitted, but saves by their goalkeeper Esteban and “a bit of luck” kept their clean sheet intact before Maarten Martens sealed the tie for them with an away goal in the 54th minute. AZ signed another Finnish player, goalkeeper Niki Mäenpää, in October, and has been added to their Europa League squad (PDF). He has a reserve goalkeeper’s role at the club, however, and didn’t feature on Thursday.

This blog is happy to support the pair of remaining Finns in the Europa League: come on AZ!

This post was made as a contribution to the Europa Legion, a network of Europa League bloggers on Twitter.

Jenkinson-less Arsenal blown away by Milan

There is still one Finnish player involved in the Champions League, too, but I doubt that will be the case for much longer. Arsenal suffered a heavy defeat at Milan last Wednesday, the 4-0 scoreline once again highlighting their lack of a cutting edge: Arsenal had 53% of the possession and the same number of shots on target as their opponents but couldn’t force an away goal, which would have given them hope for the return leg. Carl Jenkinson didn’t play in the match, as he was still recovering from the back injury that has kept him out of action since November the 5th. Jenkinson has since played 45 minutes for Arsenal’s reserve side, in a 0-5 victory over Norwich, and could play some part when Milan visit London on March the 6th. It seems highly unlikely, however, that he or Arsenal will be playing any further part in the competition after that.

Liigacup group stage passes half-way mark

More results from Finland’s league cup to bring you since the last post on this blog:

Group 1: Inter 5-0 Mariehamn, Inter 2-0 Haka
Group 2: Honka 4-1 Lahti, Honka 4-0 HJK, MyPa 2-1 Honka, Lahti 1-2 HJK
Group 3: Jaro 3-2 JJK, VPS 1-0 Jaro, KuPS 1-3 JJK

Honka became the first team to qualify for the knock-out part of the tournament, having amassed 12 points from five matches in group 2. HJK can join them with a win over MyPa on the 3rd of March; depending on MyPa’s other results, a draw or even a defeat might suffice. Most of the other teams in the competition have played only three matches out of six, so it’s too early to say who is going to qualify from groups 1 and 3.

Tickets for the Liigacup final, to be played on the 4th of March at the Sonera Stadium in Helsinki, are now on sale starting at 5€ (3€ for concessions).

Ojala replaces Väyrynen in Finland squad

Mika Väyrynen has been forced to withdraw from Finland’s squad of players to face Austria in a friendly next Wednesday. The Leeds United midfielder is recovering from a groin injury. Although he has been able to train with his club, it was decided by Mixu Paatelainen and his coaching staff that they didn’t want to take any risks with him, so he has been sent back to England. Mika Ojala (two international caps, no goals), the FC Inter winger, has been called up as his replacement. Ojala has been in fine form lately, scoring and creating plenty of goals last season for his club alongside Timo Furuholm as well as leading the Finland IX’s goal chart in the recently-finished Komia tournament. He was also on the scoresheet in the Liigacup yesterday as Inter beat Haka 2-0, so he deserves his chance. Of course, being in the squad is no guarantee that he will receive any time on the pitch in Klagenfurt.

Former international Aki Riihilahti retires

Aki Riihilahti, one of Finland’s better-known players internationally, announced on Tuesday that he is calling an end to his career. Riihilahti accumulated 69 caps for Finland, the first coming in February 1998 against Cyprus and the last in October 2007 against Spain. He managed to get on the scoresheet eleven times in that time, a respectable figure for a primarily defensive midfielder. He is also in a small group of Finland players who have won more international matches than they have lost (29 against 22). His club career both started and finished with Finland’s HJK – he made 102 appearances for them over two spells – and took him to Honka, Vålerenga of Norway, Crystal Palace of England, Kaiserslautern of Germany and Djurgårdens of Sweden before he returned home. He is probably best-remembered for his time at Crystal Palace, where he made 157 appearances over five years. That encompassed one season in the Premier League, where he was one of Palace’s best players and a fan favourite, but succumbed to injury before the end of the season as the team were relegated.

Personally speaking, I saw Riihilahti play for HJK a couple of times last season and I was impressed at how well he was performing at his age – he is now 35. His passing started many of the team’s moves going forward, and his strong presence acted as a useful shield for the defence. HJK, who have already lost Alexander Ring and Cheyne Fowler from their midfield, might struggle to replace him for the season ahead and may have benefited from another season of “Ägä”, as he is nicknamed.

A look back at what’s been making the headlines in Finnish football over the course of the past week. Note that “week” in this sense is used with a lot of creative freedom – many of these stories are from January.

Sauli Niinistö resigns as head of Finnish FA after winning election

Sauli Niinistö was elected on Sunday as the next President of Finland, beating Pekka Haavisto by a margin of over 25%. He will succeed the outgoing incumbent, Tarja Halonen, in March. Niinistö had served as chairman of the Finnish Football Association since he was appointed in November 2009, but has now stepped down from the role to give full attention to his new job. One of the vice-chairmen who served under him, Markku Lehtola, will now take over on an interim basis until a new chairman can be appointed by a Football Association committee in October.

Finland internationals make transfer window moves

A number of high-profile Finnish internationals made transfers in this January’s European transfer window. The most popular destination was Germany. Alexander Ring moved to Borussia Mönchengladbach on a long-term loan deal which runs until the summer of 2013; Mönchengladbach had been interested in buying him from HJK but could not agree a fee. It is understood that they now have an option to buy him when his loan period ends. The top scorer in last season’s Veikkausliiga, Timo Furuholm, moved to second division German side Fortuna Düsseldorf on a free transfer after his contract expired. Ring and Furuholm follow in the footsteps of Teemu Pukki, who moved to Schalke 04 last summer, and many Finnish internationals before him. Meanwhile, both Riku Riski and his younger brother Roope, who is an under-21 international, moved to Norwegian club Hønefoss.

The domestic transfer window is still open for Finnish clubs, as the season doesn’t begin until later in the spring. One recent transfer of note involved Demba Savage, scorer of 15 goals in 29 appearances last year, from Honka to their capital city rivals, HJK.

Finland’s Liigacup group stage gets underway

The pre-season warm-up tournament for the Veikkausliiga, known as the Liigacup, kicked off in January and has seen its first seven matches completed. The results are below. Some highlights of the tournament so far include Honka pulling off a shock 0-2 victory over HJK, the holders and 2011 Veikkausliiga champions, and FC Inter winning the first Turku derby of the season against TPS.

Group 1
Inter 1-0 TPS, Mariehamn 3-0 TPS (Haka are yet to play a match)
Group 2
HJK 3-2 Lahti, HJK 4-0 MyPa, HJK 0-2 Honka
Group 3
JJK 1-1 KuPS, Jaro 1-0 VPS

The full competition schedule can be found at the Veikkausliiga website.

Mixed results for Finland in Trinidad & Tobago

Finland played two recent friendlies in Trinidad & Tobago, coming away with a victory against the full international side on the 22nd of January but a defeat against the Olympic side three days later. The first match saw Finland turn a 2-1 deficit into a 2-3 victory thanks to quick-fire goals from Toni Kolehmainen and Mika Ääritalo in the 75th and 78th minutes. Riku Riski had scored for Finland in the first half, while their opponents goals were scored by Mekeil Williams and Kevin Molino. The second match was not a full international, with Trinidad & Tobago fielding players they plan to use at this summer’s 2012 Olympics in London and Finland playing a weakened team, featuring mainly domestic players. Finland lost 1-0, with the only goal in the match scored by Jamal Gay.

Komia tournament begins, Finland XI’s start off against Djurgårdens

The third Komia tournament started in Seinäjoki yesterday with HJK playing out a 0-0 draw with hosts SJK. Matches will be played until Sunday, with a Finland XI team due to face Swedish league side Djurgårdens tomorrow evening. They will then play against Flora Tallinn on Friday evening and Örebro on Sunday at noon. Although the Finland team will be led by Mixu Paatelainen and his coaching staff, it is likely to bear little resemblance to the national side. Instead it offers a chance to evaluate some young and untested players. In addition to those already mentioned, the other teams taking part in the tournament are JJK and VPS, who will contest their Liigacup match as part of the tournament on Saturday.

Happy new year! Sorry for the lack of activity on this blog recently. I’m afraid it might have to continue for a while longer, as I prepare for my final matriculation exams. In the meantime, here’s a look at Finland’s 2012 schedule.

This page will be updated when new information is available.

January

13th: Liigacup group stage begins
22nd: Trinidad and Tobago vs Finland (friendly international), Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago
25th: Trinidad and Tobago (2012 Olympic Squad) vs Finland (friendly international), Tobago, Trinidad and Tobago

February

9th: Djurgårdens IF vs Finland XI (Komia tournament), Seinäjoki, Finland
10th: Finland XI vs Flora Tallinn (Komia tournament), Seinäjoki, Finland
12th: Örebro vs Finland XI (Komia tournament), Seinäjoki, Finland
14th: Champions League knock-out stage begins
16th: Europa League knock-out stage begins
29th: Austria vs Finland (friendly international), Klagenfurt, Austria

March

17th: Liigacup group stage ends, knock-out stage dates TBA

April

Nothing scheduled yet.

May

9th: Europa League final
19th: Champions League final

June, July

Nothing scheduled yet.

August

15th: Northern Ireland vs Finland (friendly international), Belfast, Northern Ireland

September

7th: Finland vs France (2014 World Cup qualifier), Helsinki, Finland
11th: Czech Republic vs Finland (friendly international), TBA, Czech Republic

October

12th: Finland vs Georgia (2014 World Cup qualifier), Helsinki, Finland

November, December

Nothing scheduled yet.

NB: The Finnish players still involved in European competition are Carl Jenkinson (Arsenal), Alexei Eremenko Jr and Roman Eremenko (both Rubin Kazan), Niklas Moisander (AZ Alkmaar), Petri Pasanen (Red Bull Salzburg), and Teemu Pukki (Schalke 04). Some of those players had been cup-tied for the group stages, and will need to be added to their club’s squads if they are to take part in the knock-out stages. Arsenal are in the last 16 of the Champions League, while the other clubs listed are in the last 32 of the Europa League.