Club Latino Español Helsinki – MPS/Atletico Malmi (07-10-2017)

For work in Helsinki, Finland, I am excited to see some games over the weekend. I was once before in Helsinki, and only saw one game, of PK-35, but this time there are some problems too: it is World Cup Qualifier weekend, so the top leagues don’t play. The best I can find is the Kolmonen, which means Third Division, but is actually the fourth tier of Finnish football, which is organized regionally.

 

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I meet up with ER, a Brit who lives in Helsinki and who loves the beautiful game too, at a Astroturf pitch that is squeezed between three major stadiums: the Sonera Stadium (now Tella 5G-Arena), home ground of Veikkausliiga (first division) team HJK Helsinki; the Olympic Stadium, home of the Finnish national team, and the Helsinki Ice Hall, home of the top ice hockey team HIFK (which I will visit later that day).

 
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The early afternoon game is between the exotic Club Latino Español Helsinki, which indeed exists almost exclusively of Latinos, and MPS/Atletico Malmi, the former youth team of third division club Malmin Palloseura (MPS), which has become a semi-independent club itself. While both are from Helsinki, nether team is from this particular area, which perhaps explains why there are at best 25 spectators (including ER, his 2-year old son, and me).

 
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The game starts well. In the second minute the visitors get alone in front of the goalie, but shoot at him. In the 7^th minute a CLE defender give a back pass to his own goalie, which leads to an indirect free kick in the penalty box, which is shot hard at the massive wall on the goal line.

 
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The game is fairly slow, the control fairly decent, because of the Astroturf, but the passing mediocre. ER leaves after 30 minutes, as his son cannot appreciate the game. Despite a few half chances on both sides, the half time score is 0-0 and I start to doubt whether any goals will be scored at all.

 
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I miss the first minutes of the second half, desperately trying to get something to eat in the area around the pitch, but when I’m back, the visitors get a big chance, when they lob the ball over the goalie, who seems to be spaced out, it hits the crossbar, and is headed in, as the goalie barely responds: 0-1. Atletico Malmi is much better but slow and imprecise, while CLE is poor and slow, at time fairly dramatic. The level of play is probably comparable to fourth division amateur in the Netherlands, although those teams play for far more people (as did I at age 11).

 
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Halfway the second half the visitors have a shot from close to the goal, which is saved well by the goalie. A few minutes later they shoot a rebound hard at the goalkeeper. Then a very easy ball for the CLE goalie to pick up is fumbled and Atletico player puts the ball in from 2 meters: 0-2. Just two minutes later a bizarre, long goal kick is controlled by the CLE striker, who runs and easily scores low through the legs of the goalie: 1-2. Out of nowhere we have a game!

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However, only a few minutes later a long attack of the visitors is finished from close by: 1-3. This is also the final score, although I see on a website that it ended 1-5. This would mean that the visitors scored twice in the first few minutes f the second half, which I missed. Whatever the final score, this was some of the lowest quality football I have ever seen and almost devoid of any atmosphere. More like a very semi-organized league game than a fourth division game.