This Sunday saw the opening round of the 2012 Veikkausliiga season, with all but two of the league’s twelve teams in action. The five matches had their fair share of talking points, but one man, or rather one boy, managed to steal the show.

HJK started the defence of their league championship with a home fixture against IFK Mariehamn, who finished seventh last year. For a match they were expected to win, they started poorly. Mariehamn gave a signal of their intent to play attacking football with the first real chance of the match, a Petteri Forsell free kick after five minutes. Indeed, it was the visitors who took the lead, scoring shortly after the half-time interval through Amos Ekhalie.

The champions were forced to react to going a goal behind, and they brought on two players who played significant parts in their success last season, Erfan Zeneli and Sebastian Sorsa. It was a player in their starting XI who went on to steal the show, however. A cross from Sorsa in the 70th minute was met by the head of Joel Pohjanpalo, who steered the ball into the bottom corner of the IFK net.

It was only one minute before Pohjanpalo put his side in the lead with a second goal, this time with a fine shot on the turn from inside the penalty area. A brace was impressive enough for the 17-year-old, but he wasn’t done yet. Two minutes later he became the scorer of the fastest hat-trick in Finnish league history after working hard to make space for himself on the edge of the area before firing a shot past Simon Nurme, the Mariehamn goalkeeper.

Mariehamn tried to hit back but the tide had turned irreversibly against them. They were beaten almost single-handedly, as HJK had not played well at all as a team. But that will be quickly forgotten, while Pohjanpalo’s remarkable achievement is long remembered. This was only his second league appearance for HJK, though he had been scoring regularly in their pre-season and got a goal in the team’s Liigacup final penalty shoot-out defeat to TPS last week.

The media attention on Pohjanpalo between now and HJK’s next match on Thursday will be huge. I’ve already heard that there were a number of scouts watching him at today’s match. His club will be hoping he could be this season’s Teemu Pukki, scoring plenty of goals and eventually netting them a nice profit. I hope for his sake, though, he sticks with the club beyond this summer. He doesn’t even turn 18 until September.

If you’re wondering about this article’s title, incidentally, it’s because one translation of Pohjanpalo into English is “Fire of the north”. It could equally be “Burning of the bottom”, but the kid deserves a better nickname than that.

Elsewhere, JJK put up a good fight to come back from 2-0 down against KuPS to take a 2-2 draw. Lasse Linjala and Babatunde Wusu, both of whom had come on as substitutes for the team from Jyväkylä, scored in the 86th and 87th minutes to deny KuPs a victory. Ilja Venäläinen and Paul Obiefule had scored for the home side.

The day’s full results are as follows:

TPS 0-1 MyPa
Honka 1-1 VPS
Lahti 1-0 Haka
HJK 3-1 Mariehamn
KuPS 2-2 JJK

This year’s Veikkausliiga season drew to a close today with a final round of six matches. The main point of interest was which two teams of Inter Turku, JJK and Honka would make it into the Europa League qualifiers by finishing second and third. Here’s how that story unfolded over the course of the afternoon (times are approximate).

14:00
Kick off in Mariehamn vs Honka and Inter Turku vs JJK, as well as the other four matches being played around the country, HJK vs Haka, Jaro vs MyPa, VPS vs RoPS and KuPS vs TPS.

14:08
The first goal of the afternoon is scored by Babatunde Wusu for JJK, provisionally moving them up to second place and leaving Inter Turku in fourth.

14:20
The league’s top scorer, Timo Furuholm, equalises for Inter against JJK. His contract is on the verge of expiry and today was quite probably his last match for Inter, the club he’s been with for six years. They go provisionally second and JJK go third. Meanwhile, veteran midfielder Aki Riihilahti has opened the scoring for HJK against Haka.

14:37
Inter take the lead through their captain, Henri Lehtonen. The score is now 2-1, but the provisional rankings don’t change as Honka are still drawing against Mariehamn. Elsewhere, there’s been a flurry of goals in Jaro’s match against MyPa, four in eight minutes to make it 2-2.

14:45
Half-time whistles begin to be blown up and down Finland. Inter lead JJK 2-1, while Mariehamn and Honka are still goalless. The other scores are HJK 2-0 Haka, Jaro 2-2 MyPa, VPS 1-0 RoPS and KuPS 1-0 TPS.

15:00
There are 45 minutes until the end of the season as the second halves get underway. Honka know a win will get them onto the figurative podium and into European competition.

15:27
34-year-old defender Anssi Viren is substituted by JJK as they try to get something from their match against Inter, and is replaced by midfielder Patrick Poutiainen. That was Viren’s last appearance for them after three years at the club. JJK have now made all three of their allowed substitutions.

15:33
Tapio Heikkilä scores for Honka to give them a 0-1 lead over Mariehamn and move them into provisional third place, with JJK falling to fourth. Honka just need to defend that scoreline to give them third place, while JJK suddenly need to beat Inter to finish in the top three. In Helsinki, Jari Litmanen is taken off by HJK to a warm reception, with speculation continuing to swirl about his retirement from the game.

15:45
The end of normal time in the afternoon’s matches. Despite JJK’s best efforts, they still trail Inter by a two goals to one, which would leave them in fourth place. But then… drama! Approximately 135 kilometres away, IFK Mariehamn snatch a last-gasp equaliser through Hendrik Helmke. It is the German midfielder’s first and only goal for the season, in his 28th appearance. What a time to get it – as well as lifting his own side from eighth to seventh in the table, it means Honka drop to fourth in the table with JJK moving back up to the bronze medal position.

15:48
As the full-time whistles are blown, there is misery for Honka but a double celebration in Turku, where home side Inter have secured second place and visitors JJK fortuitously finish third, their best ever result. It marks the culmination of an astonishing season for them; in 2010 and 2009, their first season in the Veikkausliiga, they finished 13th and had to come through a relegation play-off to stay in the division. They can now look forward to a European adventure next year.

Match-day results

• Mariehamn 1-1 Honka
• HJK 5-2 Haka
• Jaro 2-4 MyPa
• VPS 2-1 RoPS
• KuPS 2-0 TPS
• Inter 2-1 JJK

Season results

• Veikkausliiga champions, Champions League second qualifying round: HJK
• Runners-up, Europa League second qualifying round: Inter Turku
• Third place, Europa League first qualifying round: JJK
• Relegated to Ykkönen: RoPS

KuPS will also play in the Europa League first qualifying round thanks to reaching the Finnish Cup final, which was won by HJK, whose entry to the Champions League takes priority.

The final table can be seen on the Veikkausliiga website.

First and last places might already be decided, but there’s plenty to look forward to as Finland’s top division heads into its final match day. Results from Wednesday’s round of matches set up an enticing play-off between Inter Turku and JJK for second place, with Honka trying to steal third place from one of them. Second and third places grant access to next year’s Europa League qualifiers.

Inter’s 1-1 draw in their midweek derby against TPS left them in second place, ahead of JJK on goal difference, and meant that TPS can finish no higher than fourth. JJK left it very late to take three points off Mariehamn, eventually winning 2-0 with goals in the 85th and 90th minutes, to leave them tied on points with Inter but with an inferior goal difference.

Mariehamn now host Honka, who can theoretically finish second or third, but would need to win by at least eight goals and hope Inter and JJK draw to finish second. Honka’s 1-1 draw with Jaro in midweek left them two points behind their rivals, but they will be guaranteed third place if they can win tomorrow thanks to having a better goal difference than JJK. Their fate is in their own hands, but the Åland Islands aren’t always an easy place to get a result from.

Sixth through eleventh places in the table are tightly packed, with only six points separating them, and all the teams in that part of the table have the possibility to change their finishing positions this weekend. KuPS and Haka are seventh and eight respectively, despite the latter beating the former 2-1 on Wednesday. KuPS host TPS tomorrow while Haka are away at champions HJK, who will be looking to end their successful campaign on a high note. Ninth-placed MyPa will play at eleventh-placed Jaro, and finally VPS play the Ykkönen-bound RoPS.

All of Saturday’s matches kick off at 14:00 Finnish time (UTC+2), which means that at around a quarter to four tomorrow afternoon, we’ll know the final positions of all twelve teams, we’ll know which teams are heading for the Europa League next season, and that will be the end of another Veikkausliiga season. Look out for the results later on this blog!

Saturday’s Veikkausliiga results threw up only one surprise, with Inter Turku losing to Mariehamn. The other six teams of the top seven all picked up victories, while the bottom five lost, in what was largely a top half vs bottom half weekend. RoPS were relegated from the division.

RoPS’ long-awaited relegation from the Veikkausliiga was confirmed as they lost 1-0 at KuPS, Ilja Venäläinen getting the game’s only goal for the home side. That ended their run of two consecutive victories, as well as KuPS’ run of two consecutive losses. With other results going their way, RoPS could have kept their hopes of survival alive with a win. They will play in the second-tier Ykkönen next season and will undergo a period of rebuilding after the tumultuous year they have had, both on and off the field.

A 43rd-minute goal from Toni Lehtinen was enough to give Mariehamn a 1-0 home win over Inter, who could have moved to within two points of second place with a victory. They were missing one of their two key players this season, attacking midfielder Mika Ojala, who was suspended after accruing four yellow cards over the course of the season, including two in his last two matches.

Inter’s rivals for second and third places, which give entry to the Europa League qualifiers, all managed to take maximum points from their weekend matches. Honka won 0-1 at VPS thanks to a goal from Henri Aalto, while TPS beat Haka by the same margin, with the South African Leroy Maluka coming off the bench to grab an 89th-minute winner after Toni Kolehmainen had missed a penalty shortly before. The lack of goals in those matches was more than made up for by the JJK’s thrilling 2-3 victory over Jaro; Mattias Wargh got two for the home side but goals from Babatunde Wusu, Mikko Manninen and Tamas Gruborovics gave JJK their first win in five matches.

The other match of the weekend also featured a healthy number of goals; HJK cruised to a comfortable 4-1 home win over MyPa, their goals coming from Berat Sadik, Robin Lod, and Cheyne Fowler, who got a brace. The away side had opened the scoring through Ville Oksanen in the fifth minute and kept their lead until half-time, but capitulated in the second period as they conceded four goals in the space of thirty minutes.

Finland to play against Denmark and in domestic tournament

A couple of interesting pieces of national team related news from last week. Firstly, Finland will face Denmark in a friendly on the 15th of November, at a Danish stadium which is yet to be decided. The kick-off time for that match is 21:15 Finnish time (UTC+2). Denmark recently qualified for the 2012 European Championships by finishing top of qualifying group H, ahead of Portugal. Depending on the strength of teams fielded by both sides, it could be a tough match and a good test for Finland.

Secondly, the Football Association announced that they will take part in next February’s Komia tournament in Seinäjoki, which is normally played by domestic teams from Finland and Sweden as a warm-up for the start of their league seasons. The matches will obviously not be full internationals, meaning that the availability of Finland’s top players is likely to be limited, but a number of young and domestically based Finnish players will make up a squad under the guidance of Mixu Paatelainen and the rest of the national team’s coaching staff. The matches will be played at the Wallsport Areena, which has an artificial grass surface. Seinäjoen Pallokerho, SJK, have recently been promoted to Ykkönen for next season and will host the tournament, while the other teams taking part are Veikkausliiga champions HJK, this season’s surprise package JJK, Flora Tallinn from Estonia and Djurgården and Örebro from Sweden. The Finland team will only play three matches, however, so they will not face all possible opponents. The full tournament schedule is yet to be published.

Last week saw the resumption of domestic football in Finland after the international break, and there were a number of surprising results in the Veikkausliiga. The teams threatened with relegation all picked up some points while the teams vying for the Europa League places all lost.

Rovaniemi-based RoPS, bottom of Finland’s top division, managed to beat Haka 0-1 away from home on Thursday before securing a 3-1 victory over TPS, themselves in the hunt for second or third place, giving them their first back to back wins in any competition since the League Cup in March. TPS drew their other match of the week 1-1 against MyPa. RoPS’ effort to avoid relegation was somewhat dented when the nearest team to them, VPS, drew 1-1 with Mariehamn and then picked up a surprise 1-2 win at JJK, another team trying for European football next year.

JJK’s other result was a somewhat more impressive 1-1 draw against champions HJK in Helsinki, but they have now slipped down to fourth place, out of the Europa League spots. Honka of Espoo also managed to draw with HJK in their derby match, as well as managing a 1-4 win over Finnish Cup runners-up KuPS to move into third place.

Second-placed Inter Turku succumbed to Jaro, another team hovering near the bottom of the table, in a 3-2 defeat. Jaro lost 5-2 at Mariehamn this evening, while Inter beat Haka 1-0 with a goal from Henri Lehtonen, who now has four goals in three matches and 14 for the season, an impressive tally for a player who is naturally a left-back. Finally, a Mikko Innanen goal gave MyPa a 1-0 win over KuPS this evening, in a basically meaningless mid-table clash.

Inter still look most likely to finish in second place, while there are now three teams squabbling over third: Honka, JJK and TPS. TPS seem to have the most difficult run-in, as they are due to face Haka, Inter and KuPS. JJK will play Jaro, Mariehamn and Inter, while Honka probably have the easiest matches on paper, against VPS, Jaro and Mariehamn. But as the last week has proved, results at this stage of the season are difficult to predict.

At the other end of the table, RoPS are seven points adrift in the single relegation place with a possible nine points remaining, meaning that their fate is not in their hands. Only VPS and Jaro are still in danger of relegation, and they both need to win just one of their last three matches to be safe. RoPS will be trying to keep up their good form and hoping one of their rivals slips up, but I think it’s highly unlikely they will survive.