The biggest story of the Sixth Round was Tampere United's decision to play their home tie against Jaro at Tammela Stadium, a ground considered by many to be Finland's best. The significance of this is not obvious to those who have not been closely following Tampere football in recent years, so I will recap briefly.

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Inter are not the luckiest team in Veikkausliiga, it has to be said. After losing Patrick Bantamoi to a red card in Sunday's 2-0 defeat to HJK at Pallokenttä (HJK's usual Töölö home having it's new grass rested for the Euro 2009 championships in late August), their second goalkeeper David Moncalves was sent off in the 57th minute at Ratina today after bringing down Tampere United's Aleksei Kangaskolkka and preventing a goalscoring opportunity.

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Ari Hjelm has been with Tampere United throughout their ten-year history, first as an assistant to Harri Kampman and then from 2001 as head coach. He has won three championships, and it is a common refrain in Tampere that he is primarily responsible for the club's success, and that he is the best coach in the country.

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Maybe one day TPS will come to Tampere and try to play football. They've tried the hump it, lump it, boot the opposition method enough times to know by now that it doesn't work, but against TamU today it was fouling, hoofing and kicking again. In 2007 there was a red card for a player [...] Click to continue reading...

Tampere United v TPS This game will be played in Pirkkala, at PJK's home ground. Although this is a good 15km from Tampere, it is still the closest TamU have come to home in this League Cup campaign, having played their home games in Pori and Seinäjoki so far. This sorry situation is a result of [.. Click to continue reading...

Tampere United v TPS This game will be played in Pirkkala, at PJK's home ground. Although this is a good 15km from Tampere, it is still the closest TamU have come to home in this League Cup campaign, having played their home games in Pori and Seinäjoki so far. This sorry situation is a result of [.. Click to continue reading...

TAMPERE UNITED won a dramatic tie against Buducnost Podgorica, the champions of Montenegro. A 1-1 draw in the away leg on 23 July was enough to see TamU through after a narrow victory in the home game a week earlier. TamU went 1-0 up through makeshift striker Henri Myntti, but had a nervous finish after [. Click to continue reading...

MyPa v TamU TamU played extraordinarily well against Buducnost, at least until they went 2-0 up. You would expect them to rest a few players today though, before what could be a hectic trip to Montenegro for the second leg, so maybe Hjelm or Hynynen will get a start. MyPa are also playing quite well after [. Click to continue reading...