'Amerikkalaiset' at Finlandia 2011 (Wicks, Tabe...)

Since there are quite a few Americans playing on top-2 tiers of Finnish football I thought it might be good time to start new overall topic as the upcoming season will start in about 2 weeks (28.4).

Finnish preseason is one of the longest in the world and teams have already played League Cup till final match (FC Honka - Tampere United) and few early rounds of Finnish Cup to settle Finnish cup champion.

Start of this year has been really odd as there have been huge issues with league licenses on topflight and match fixing scandal involving few foreign players.

AC Oulu lost it's league lisence due bad finances on last few years although they are moving to new stadium.

8 Zambian (6 RoPS, 2 who played in the year 2010 for AC Oulu) and 2 Georgian footballers (RoPS) got arrested and are facing trial for taking bribes (of around 50 000 euros) from Singaporean businessman. The same Singaporean got Bahrain-Togo (no Togolese players...) international match on his CV and was caught on Rovaniemi, Finland. RoPS terminated contracts of those involved, so did HJK and OPS.

Tampere United also took marketing money (300 000 euros) from the same Singaporean company and are currently considered to be dropped out of the league.

Finnish league clubs with American players:

IFK Mariehamn

'Grönvitt - Greenwhite'
'the Island Monkeys'

IFK Mariehamn is a mix-up of foreign legion, elite Finnish league players and local youth talent. Upper midtable and qualification to Europe-league could be possible.

Josh Wicks (2012):

27-year-old former D.C. United goalkeeper Wicks signed deal until 2012 and is most likely number one for the autonomous island club. Finnish keeper Gustav Långbacka will provide decent competition but he lost his starting role at start of last season after having awful saving percentage.

Giuseppe 'Joe' Funicello (2011):

23-year-old Wingback Funicello arrived from topflight of Iceland. Marienhamn's foreign defensive lineup (Danish-Brazilian-Canadian-American) is quite good at least if you look at CV's which include U21 of Denmark (Olesen) and Spanish La Liga (de Abreu).

Mason Trafford (2012)

It is expected that either Canadian-American Trafford or his Brazilian-Portuguese-Italian centreback pair Fernando de Abreu will take that leading centreback role at IFK Mariehamn previously filled by Jani Lyyski (Djurgården) and Paulus Arajuuri (Kalmar FF). 18-year-old Finnish U-18 national team defender Johannes Nordström is perhaps the most talented 'islander' for some time and will most likely see some regular action too.

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Rovaniemen Palloseura (RoPS)

RoPS got hit really hard with 8 of it's foreign players involved in match fixing scandal. Finding replacements for those are under way and so far RoPS have brought in Finnish U-21 centreback Thomas Götzl, former Finnish U21 midfielder Muinonen and couple local (Northern Finland) lower division players. Welsh manager John Allen will have some work to do but RoPS finances are in excellent shape thanks to investments made to local real estates by the club with money from Cup winners Cup quarter finals in the 80's.

Etchu Tabe (2011)

24-year-old American-Cameronian Tabe had a good and solid season for RoPS as starting centreback when they won promotion to Finnish top division last season. He has been used as striker, target-man lately on friendlies as RoPS really lack in striking department at the moment. His physical side has been adored but first touch and finishing leave questions whether it will be permanent position for Tabe.

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II tier, 'Ykkönen':

AC Oulu

AC Oulu lost their place in league due horrible finances but moving out to new stadium, derby of Oulu (AC Oulu - OPS) and having some good youth prospects are still positives for season 2011. AC Oulu, if they do not lose most of their better players, should be able to challenge for promotion.

Jeremy Vuolo (2011+1)
23-year-old Vuolo will be starter goalkeeper for AC Oulu after securing his contract on 2-week-trial (while they were a league club). 18-year-old Finnish U-18 shot stopper Juhani Pennanen will provide back-up.

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Helsinfors Idrotts Föreningen Kamraterna(HIFK)
- Helsingin IFK

IFK promoted from Finnish third tier at end of last season beating Ilves and FC Santa Claus on promotion qualifiers. Very traditional club with enormous potential would have chance to become one of biggest clubs of Finland, once again, should they avoid relegation and be able to build on that.

Kellan Wilson (2011+1)

29-year-old keeper will play with a star on his shirt. Should carry responsibity of guarding IFK goal.

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PS Kemi

PS Kemi have perhaps one of their most talented squads in the few last years with arrival of Adriano and contract extension for Keijo Huusko. Still promotion should be out of reach.

Dan Stevens (2011)

25-year-old versatile attacking midfielder/striker Stevens just signed contract with PS Kemi but is expected to take his place in the starting eleven.

Mason Trafford at Mariehamn is also a Yank. And actually, not sure Funicello is a citizen, though he may be.

Still trying to nail down 2011 whereabouts for the following guys who were there last year:

Corcoran Chris
Lewis Garry
Smith Lawrence
Woodward Samuel
Eckhardt Greg
Pope Brian

If anybody knows, please holler.

I can help with Lawrence Smith. He is in the 3rd tier (Kakkonen) with a club called GBK (Gamlakarleby Bollklubb) in Kokkola.

Roster page

Uuh, didn't know that Trafford was actually American. Thought he was only Canadian... Better add him up.

Corcoran moved to GBK from Ekenäs IF for this season. Both tier-3 clubs.

Garry changed to Salon Palloilijat outfit from Ekenäs IF. 3-tier also both.

Smith has been with GBK this season.

Woodward moved from Gnistan (3-tier) to Viikingit (2-tier promotion canditates) but shouldn't be first XI starter.

Eckhardt and Pope either won't be continuing with Vaasan Palloseura (VPS). Rumours say that Eckhardt wanted too much money for rotation-role that VPS was planning for him. No updates on either ones new club.

This is excellent, thanks folks. Looks like we're still seeking confirmation that Lewis has landed but beyond that, this is a great help. Will keep looking for Pope and Eckhardt, too.

It was actually confirmed today by Salon Seudun Sanomat that Garry Lewis convinced on his trial at the 3-tier club Salon Palloilijat (SalPa) and will play for them this season.

Chris Corcoran's 3-tier club Gamlakarleby Bollklubben (GBK) got through from their Finnish Cup fixture against Maskun Palloseura (MaPS, 4-tier) with 3-1 overtime win. Corcoran assisted GBK's first goal.



More photos:

http://gbk.kuvat.fi/kuvat/Kausi+2011/GBK+Edustus/Suomen+Cup/

FWIW, Finland's top division is currently rated as the 34th best in UEFA (out of 53 top leagues rated).

Ain't Finnish top division actually 30th out of 53 on UEFA coefficent 2010-2011?

Denmark 12th, Norway 26th, Sweden 28th and Iceland 40th for comparison.

30th here

http://www.xs4all.nl/~kassiesa/bert/uefa/data/method4/crank2011.html

34th there ...

http://www.xs4all.nl/~kassiesa/bert/uefa/data/method4/ccoef2011.html

eh, do I need to find the reasons for this discrepancy?

'The UEFA country ranking is determined by the sum of the UEFA country coefficients over the last 5 years.' And the other coefficients are 2010-11 ranking points.

I think that first one is better 'meter' for league comparison but didn't personally actually know that there are both of them...

The first ranking is the 5-year ranking that UEFA also use as their official ranking, while the second ranking is just to show how the countries did in the Europa Cups this past season, but it is not really an official ranking in any way....

Personally I would rather prefer a 3-year ranking, because you cant really use 5 year old results if you want to get a real picture of how good the leagues are right now... The 3-year ranking would look like this :
http://www.xs4all.nl/~kassiesa/bert/uefa/data/method4/crank2013.html
.

IFK Mariehamn progressed to quarter finals of Finnish Cup by beating title contenders FC Honka 1-0.

Goalkeeper Josh Wicks assisted IFK's only goal with long goalkick as an error from Honka defender allowed Finnish international striker Toni Lehtinen to score. Wicks was named as MVP of the match by IFK website.

IFK's defensive lineup was:

Wicks; Olesen (C), de Abreu, Trafford, Olofsson:

90 minutes for both Wicks and Mason Trafford (CB), Joe Funicello didn't feature.

Chris Corcoran's GBK got knocked out of Finnish Cup with 0-2 loss against league side Valkeakosken Haka. Corcoran played the whole match and enjoyed good game even leaving Haka-supporters saying that he could play at higher level than third tier.

When DCU played Real Madrid in a friendly a few years back, Josh made a bunch of fantastic saves.

Of course, he also had his infamous meltdown.

Historically, Finns have produced some pretty decent GK's (and I ain't just talking Jorma Valtonen). It'd be interesting to see if Wicks takes to the local training.

Wicks seems to have the best CV out of Americans that are playing in Finland currently. Lamar Neagle also had some merit to his name before coming to Northern Europe but despite scoring 2 goals in 4 league appearances for IFK Mariehamn he didn't get new contract from them although he did enough to earn MLS-contract with Seattle for this season.

Mariehamn is a quite small town that is part of autonomous region of Åland isles (still the biggest town around there) located between Sweden and Finland. Not many there speak Finnish but Finnish-Swedish so IFK Mariehamn players are taught Swedish to use both on and off the pitch. Also very tranquil place - especially during the winter period when boat traffic between Sweden and Finland mainland doesn't bring in tourists - which should help him cool off...

Of course if Wicks can first claim number one position at IFK and then make his name as one of the top-5 keepers of Finnish league then there might be offers coming in from most likely Sweden,, Norway, Denmark, Belgium or Holland.

HIFK returned to 'Ykkönen', Finnish 2-tier with 3-2 victory over promotion canditates FC Viikingit. Kellan Wilson played the whole match for IFK.

Wilson will also get some decent competition for number one place as Finnish U-19 national team keeper Walter Viitala will join HIFK on season long loan from top division outfit FC Honka.

Topflight side IFK Mariehamn announced today that they have acquired four new players, all former Finnish U21-national team players, from Tampere United who got excluded from all league activity for this season. Centreback Kristian Kojola and versatile wingback Jarkko Värttö both got 2-year deals which most likely will mean serious challenge for Mason Trafford's and Joe Funicello's place in the first eleven although there are 33 rounds to be played in this year's league so everyone should get to see some action.

IFK Mariehamn also won 2-tier side JIPPO 4-0 on Finnish Cup and progressed to next round which will show whether they will be playing on the final of Finnish Cup. IFK on that day:

Wicks – Olesen, de Abreu (68:e Ekhalie), Trafford, Olofsson – Strandvall, Bellisomo, Helmke, Forsell – Ingves (61:a Okodugha), Lehtinen

Funicello didn't feature.

Wicks played the whole game for IFK Mariehamn, when his side brought all three points home from Kouvola. It was the opening game of the Veikkausliiga season, and IFK beat MYPA 2 - 0 after goals by Strandvall and Ingves.

Funicello did not feature, but IFK's American Canadian defender Mason Trafford got two "lions" from the press jury (2nd MVP). Wicks was also praised for his performance in Finnish media.

I was actually in the stands watching that match.

Very good performance from Wicks. He looked to be totally in control, and didn't let anything past him in the air. Although MyPa didn't really challenge him that much as IFK Mariehamn controlled the play it was still indication that he could perhaps even become one of the best goalies in the league.

Trafford on the other hand enjoyed good match while doing everything fine as centreback should when having a good match... Kojola could still take either his or Fernando de Abreu's place in the opening eleven as IFK was overally very solid unit when defending.

That thing IFK head coach Pekka Lyyski said about Wicks:

'He is an outstanding goalkeeper, can reach far, is active, a leader type on and off the pitch. Cannot be wrong about that anymore, he has played that well.'

Wicks replied to Lyyski's praise:

'I like that. I try to work hard. I am grateful and try to stay humble and do what I do.'

He also said about move to Finland:

'I got injured last year and didn't get to play that much so my agent got me here. IFK liked what they did see and I stayed over here because of that.

About the Finnish league and his plans for the future:

'The game is physical and quite quick. I want to keep on winning games and get to bigger clubs and leagues.'

I have to agree with you, since I watched the game on telly (I was about to drive up to Kouvola, but couldn't find the time/company in the end of the day).

Having seen IFK in the pre season, you could definetely expect a decent performance, but yesterday was far beyond that. Very solid passing and defending, topped with an actually effective attacking game. I was very pleased with what I saw, and I think this was the best first kick IFK have had during their spell in the Veikkausliiga, this being their 7th season.

If Wicks continues to play at the same level as yesterday, he will for sure attract the attention of bigger clubs both in Finland and abroad. Let's enjoy him while he's here!

Up the Green & White!

Etchu Tabe played the whole game for RoPS, when his team surprisingly beat FF Jaro in their season opener 1 - 0.

Here's Garry's player page:
http://www.salpajalkapallo.fi/edustus/pelaajakortti.asp?id=53&joukkueid=10&kausiid=10

It's Showdown Americano today in Mariehamn, when IFK plays RoPS in the Islanders' home opener. Etchu Tabe ought to be in the starting lineup for RoPS, since he seems to have had a good match as centre back against FF Jaro.

Wicks obviously starts for IFK, but whether Funicello plays or not, remains to be seen.

Etchu Tabe equalised the game against IFK Mariehamn in the 89th minute, making the FT score 3 - 3. He played the whole match for RoPS.

Josh Wicks played 90 minutes for IFK, as well. Funicello did not feature.

Finns Behaving Badly

Mairehamn has joined RoPS as clubs featuring American players that has been implicated in the match fixing scandal. The player allegedly involved was GK Willis Ochieng who Josh Wicks replaced.

(There are some articles linked in Etchu Tabe's thread that have info on this scandal and the players involved from RoPS for anyone interested.)

Seems like "G.I. Joe" Funicello hasn't been playing much. Having seen him in action (admittedly, just once) I would have thought he would be a good fit for this level. Any idea what's up here?