Saturday sees the 17th edition of the Liigacup eventually reach it's final - the competition which began in Lahti on 16th January comes full circle with the final in Lahti on 6th April. The twelve Veikkausliiga clubs have duked it out, and we end up with a rematch of the opening game of the tournament. Group 1 opened with Lahti playing JJK at Kisapuisto in temperatures of -10c, and ended in a goalless draw.
Photo of the first match between Lahti and JJK in January
The second match between the two clubs also took place in Kisapuisto on 5th February, with JJK the home team. It also ended in a draw, Olli Tynkkynen opened the scoring for Lahti before Eero Markkanen equalised.
Taken during the second match (photo by Maalipotku)
Group one ended with TPS as group winners, while Lahti were runners-up and JJK were one of the best third place sides. Lahti defeated group 3 winners RoPS 1-0 in the quarter-finals, then thoroughly beat KuPS 3-0 in the semi-finals. JJK surprised most by defeating HJK on penalties in the last eight (after a 0-0 draw), then defeated TPS on penalties (again after a 0-0 draw) to reach the final. The first silverware is up for grabs this weekend, and while it may not give a precise indication of what is to come, the glory is in the trophy. The last Liigacup winner to finish the league season in first place was FC Inter in 2008. But both teams will be looking to put a marker down for the season, and what better way than with a trophy.
The prize for Saturday's winners
Statistics Lahti have played five matches in the Liigacup, scoring 8 goals and conceding 3. JJK have played five matches and scored 7 goals and conceded five, all in the group stage. The final is being played in Lahti, due to Lahti having the better group stage record. Lahti have won the Liigacup once, in 2007 they defeated Inter on penalties in the final after a 0-0 draw. JJK reached the final in 2011, but lost to Honka in Espoo (after another 0-0 draw). JJK's top scorer in the competition is Eero Marrkanen with four goals (including a hat-trick against Inter). Lahti's top scorers are Olli Tynkkynen and Loorents Hertsi with two goals each. At the time of writing, Lahti are even money to win in 90 minutes with Unibet, while JJK are 5/2 against.
We continue the vintage programme reviews with our first club match, and it's a big one from 1980. Finnish champions Oulun Palloseura (OPS) visited European giants Liverpool at Anfield in the second leg of their first round tie. The first match in Finland ended 1-1, a late equaliser from Seppo Puotiniemi earning OPS a draw. We'll tell you how the second leg ended later on.
As programmes go, this is a world away from the internationals with England and Scotland in the mid-70s. The 'Anfield Review' sold for 30p, but is much nearer to the matchday magazines of today. There are 28 pages, but no colour other than the excessive pink and red throughout. The second leg took place two weeks after the first, so there are plenty of features and photographs.
The inside cover immediately throws at you Liverpool's array of trophies, at the time they had 12 league titles, 2 European Cups, 2 UEFA Cups and 2 FA Cups (they won their first of eight league cups that season). There are also small pieces by Chairman John W. Smith and manager Bob Paisley. The coach mentions the difficulty in playing 'supposedly weak opposition', but gave OPS a back-handed compliment in how they battled on a small and rutted pitch.
There is a feature about the Liverpool fans who travelled to Finland - all six of them (three from Birkenhead, one each from Netherton, Bootle and Ashton). By all accounts, it was quite the voyage in the days before low cost airlines. The 132 hour round trip started after Liverpool's previous home game with West Brom, ended in Oulu, and went directly to Southampton for Liverpool's next game at the Dell. The cost? £114 each.
It's on the page 6-7 spread that we meet OPS - an informal squad photo. Retro kit afficionados will appreciate the Hummel kits and Adidas football boots.
The writer of the section below reminds us of how OPS won their previous league title, narrowly edging out KuPS, and there is a laugh at how a 'mere 800' people turned up for a match between the league and cup winners, yet 14,000 attended the first leg against Liverpool.
After a reminder of Liverpool's record in European fixtures, pages 10-11 bombard us. Features on the two British players based in Oulu (Scotsman Hugh Smith and Englishman Keith Armstrong - who went on to be a key figure in Finnish football), young marker Leo Houtsonen and a strong defence compete for attention.
The Brits had previously played together in Hong Kong, and the piece is quite sure they were more likely to return to the Far East than play in England... Not a lot of information is known about Smith (feel free to let me know if you can help!), but Armstrong continues to be involved in Finland. While he never did return to England, he played for a variety of Finnish clubs until 1992, while he has won the Veikkausliiga as a coach with Haka and HJK. He is currently sporting director at Ykkönen club SJK.
OPS's banking on their strong defence refers to their strong defensive record, conceding 25 goals in 29 matches in the previous season. A quick profile of their players follows, and refers to Olympic team striker Juhani Himanka. Leo Houtsonen had apparently spent a week trialing with Norwich City. We're also reminded that "All the OPS players, of course, are part-timers".
The next pages are a 'player parade', with pen pics of each squad memeber. A fine collection of traditional looking Finns, but unlike a number of 1980 photos, there were no outrageous haircuts of facial hair.
A photo gallery of the first leg takes four pages, and we see a photo of future manager Kenny Dalglish in the cockpit, along with the pre-match band.
Pages 16-17 have two photos of the Liverpool goal, scored by Terry McDermott, hidden away in the masses.
There's a European quiz on pages 20-21, sample questions include 'how many British clubs have been in the final of the European Cup, and can you name them?', and 'where is this season's European Cup final to be staged?'. The answers were: Five (Celtic, Manchester United, Leeds, Liverpool and Nottingham Forest), and Paris.
Liverpool man Jim Kennefick, whose general brief according to Alan Hansen was 'handled the club's travel plans', has a page to himself and his viewpoint. Luckily it's not too controversial, he is grateful to OPS chairman Matti Heikkinen for their city tour, and such sights as 'a large power station'.
Jim also talks about how Liverpool took a large selection of LFC merchandise with them to Oulu, and sold all of it. The column gives a patronising pat on the head to the Oulu players, "what a great bonus it must be for their team to visit Anfield". Hmm.
The final page has the teams for the match, with a selection of household names for the home side, along with the details of the Icelandic officials. The scoreboard has the other fixtures around Europe that evening, with some big clubs involved - Real Madrid v Limerick, Ajax v Dinamo Tirana and Bayern Munich v Olympiakos.
And so to the match itself - and a landslide it was. Liverpool won 10-1 (11-2 on aggregate), and there were hat-tricks for Graeme Souness and McDermott, a brace for David Fairclough, and goals for Ray Kennedy and Sammy Lee. OPS did pull it back to 4-1 with a goal from Armstrong, but it was all in vain.
Liverpool went on to win their third European Cup that season, defeating Real Madrid 1-0 in the Paris final through a goal from Alan Kennedy.
The highlights of Liverpool 10-1 OPS are as below.
We hope you have enjoyed this trip down memory lane, the next in the series will be the international between Wales and Finland from 2003.
