Tero Wester Photography

Here is a ‘huge’ collection of football pictures from this season (still ongoing). There are some UEFA Europa League qualifications matches, Finnish league and cup games and as a top of the cake, three national game.

Maybe the biggest matches in Finnish league are Turku’s derby games between FC TPS and FC Inter Turku. First derby was played in May and it was full of excitement. TPS scored twice and was going to victory but in the end it was Inter who was closer to win the game – but final draw was 2-2. Second derby in August was clear case. TPS was way much better and their scored two goals quite easily and with better luck they would have scored couple more. Atmosphere could have been better in this latest derby but still it was a derby after all and it’s always something more than just an ordinary league game.

Both teams from Turku qualified also to UEFA Europa League. This time both got opponent from Belgium and as you might guess, Belgium teams won. TPS almost manage to drop Cercle Brügge but five minutes before final whistle Cercle scored second goal and they continued the tournament with away goals (aggregate 2-2).

Inter’s opposite was KRC Genk and in advance it was expected to be better team than Cercle (based on bet rankings in Belgium league). And it was. When judge blows the final whistle in first leg, scoreboard said it all – 5-1 to visitors. This I must say that result doesn’t tell you all. Inter played quite well and when they scored 1-2 they did have a slight change to equalization. But they only hit to post and next Genk scored couple more goal and game was played. No questions who was better.

15.5.2010 TPS – FC Inter Turku 2-2
22.7.2010 TPS – Cercle Brügge (BEL) 1-2
29.7.2010 FC Inter Turku – KRC Genk (BEL) 1-5
15.8.2010 FC Inter Turku – TPS 1-2

All FC Inter Turku match-galleries are here.
All FC TPS match-galleries are here.

Finnish national team played friendly game against Estonia in Tallinn’s A. le Coq -stadium in May. Result was shameful for Finns – 2-0 for Estonia and this is a compliment for Finns, it could have been even worst, maybe 4-0… Really apathetic and inefficient playing from Finland. There was also one pre-match and it was Jalgpallihaigla against SMJK. Both are national team official supporters team. Estonia won that game also. They managed to score goal from penalty kick and even thought Finns kept the ball they were lost in Estonian 16-area. And our penalty hit only to post. This was my first away match but hopefully not the last.

Last training match before EURO 2012 qualifications was played in my home stadium in Turku between Finland and Belgium. Finland won 1-0 and this was the first time when they have won when I have photograph the game. Ten minutes before final whistle Finland goalkeeper Otto Fredriksson bumble to Markus Heikkinen and break Markus teeth (you can see two teeth in the pic above). Otto also got open wound to his head and it took over six minutes before game was continued. I’ll try to sell those accident pics to some Finnish media houses but they were not intrested – at least nobody never answered to mail.

21.5.2010 Estonia – Finland 2-0
21.5.2010 Jalgpallihaigla – SMJK 1-0
11.8.2010 Finland – Belgium 1-0

Few days after Estonia game we made some history in my hometown Kaarina (small town in Turku’s neighbor). There was 1167 spectators to watch Finland and Switzerland under-16 national game. That is a lot in small town like Kaarina and U16 game. Swiss team was way much better than our team and they beat us 4-0. Swiss are top teams in the world in this age-class (they were 4th in World Cup earlier).

25.5.2010 Finland U16 – Switzerland 0-4

And there will many more games left, league games, cup-final and national team qualifications. I will post new pics to this blog so keep visiting! You can opened slide show by clicking this lovely dancer from TPS cheerleaders.