When it all comes down to it, football is about putting the ball in the back of the net. And as Fredrikstad's strikers spurned chance after chance, one of their former frontmen produced two neat finishes and sent last season's runners-up in the Tippeliga crashing into Adeccoliga-obscurity. FFK-manager Tom Nordlie will no doubt have been thrilled to note that the club he left to save Fredrikstad, Kongsvinger, casually climbed their first hirdle with a 3-1 win over Sogndal.

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Lawrence Smith is expected to get the start up top as VPS line up against their visitors from Finland's autonomous province, the Aaland Islands, at Hietalahti on Saturday afternoon in the season's ultimate contest. Click to continue reading...

Video Info:
14.10.2009 - FIFA World Cup Qualifiers
Germany - Finland 1:1

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A last gasp Podolski goal earned Germany a draw against Finland.

0-1 Johansson

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CONCACAF World Cup Qualifying: Costa Rica - USA is on ESPN2 with the pre-game starting at 7:30pm and Mexico - Trinidad & Tobago is on Telemundo at 8pm. Salt Lake - New York is on ESPN2 at 10pm. WCQ on GolTV: Germany - Finland at noon and Italy - Cyprus at 2pm. On Setanta: Portugal - Malta at 2:40pm and Greece - Luxembourg at 5pm. Click to continue reading...

A goal from Niklas Moisander sealed a late win for Finland over Wales who scored through in form Manchester City man Craig Bellamy.

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Unbeatable England
20 Countries That Have Never Won A Football Match Against England
1. Albania (4 attempts)
2. Bulgaria (8 attempts)
3. Cameroon (4 attempts)
4. Canada (1 attempt)
5. China (1 attempt)
6. Colombia (5 attempts)
7. Ecuador (2 attempts)
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The Newcastle official site has today published Newcastle players' involvement in the upcoming Internationals. Nile Ranger - called up by England U19 side The two week International break will start after next Saturday's games. Here are the lads involved in the International games. Nile Ranger and Ryan Donaldson England Under-19s 9. Click to continue reading...

Our Friends in the North
The 11 Most Northerly Top Flight Football Teams In The World
1. Tromsø (Norway) 69° 38' 56" N
2. Bodø/Glimt (Norway) 67° 16' 39"N
3. RoPS (Finland) 66° 29' 59" N
4. KR (Iceland) 64° 8' 44" N
5. Þróttur (Iceland) 64° 8' 36" N
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Hello to all Russia fans. Yesterday (Sept 9) Russia defeated Wales 3-1 in Cardiff to earn a playoff spot and eliminate the home team. Germany's 4-0 defeat of Azerbaijan effectively eliminated the visitors as well as Finland and Liechtenstein. This means that Group 4 in the UEFA zone of the Click to continue reading...

In just a few hours time our England's women football team will battle Germany in the final of the European Championships in Finland (live on BBC2 at 5pm) Now Womens football is not taken as seriously over here as it is in the USA, Sweden or Germany. It is because of our stupid machismo. But the girls have done us [. Click to continue reading...

England beat the Netherlands 2-1 on Sunday evening to move into the final of the 2009 European Women's Football Championships in Finland, where they will play Germany on Sunday night. Perhaps predictably (and exactly as they did when the under-21 team made similar progress during the summer), the English press have reacted hysterically to the news.

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.World Cup qualifiers Europe (Group 1) Denmark 1 1 Portugal Hungary 1 2 Sweden World Cup qualifiers Europe (Group 2) Moldova 0 0 Luxembourg Israel 0 1 Latvia Switzerland 2 0 Greece World Cup qualifiers Europe (Group 3) Poland 1 1 Northern Ireland Slovakia 2 2 Czech Republic World Cup qualifiers [. Click to continue reading...

England eliminated hosts Finland in the quarter-finals of the UEFA European Women's Championship 2009 on a brace from from Eniola Aluko earlier today. Fara Williams added to Aluko's tally. Substitute Annica Sjölund goal for Finland in the 66th-minute and Linda Sällström's late effort rallied the hosts. Click to continue reading...

Now I am never one to blow my own trumpet but I wrote the following blog BEFORE Roy Hodgson was touted as the Great Britain manager at the Olympics and was seen as a future England manager.
As ever PMP is on the pulse of the footballing world.
Either that or I just got lucky... Click to continue reading...

The Stars beat the Lynx in OT yesterday, gaining ground in the WNBA play-off hunt. Anybody else find the WNBA site kinda frustrating? I have a hard time getting to the articles ... but maybe it's just me.

But on the basketball front, here's a heartwarming article about a Tennessee girls' high school basketball team 50 years later!

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Today would have been my parents' 58th or 59th wedding anniversary ... an interesting thought. Maybe scary, too.

RPE heads back to school this morning, and the rhythm of life shifts ... and will settle again, after some adjusting. Hope it's a great year!

England has made it through to the quarterfinals with a draw vs Sweden (good job)!

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England fought their way back - are slugging their way through the tournament. Knowing a little about how shabbily they are treated by the English FA, I'm pulling for them. Kelly Smith has a crazy-good goal here. Enjoy. Commentary is in Russian. Their next game is against Sweden on Monday. Not sure what time yet - looks like 7:00pm in Finland? Click to continue reading...

Despite the post below being fact as of yesterday afternoon, it was confirmed by TPS Turku last night that Wayne Brown will be remaining at the Finnish club until 17th October. It was a surprise announcement, as Brown had returned to the UK and was about to take a fortnight off before returning to action. Click to continue reading...

TPS Turku bade ‘farewell' to Wayne Brown this week after the Fulham midfielder finished his summer loan spell at the club. The attacking midfielder, who is hoping to break into the first team of the Premier League club this season, made a very positive impression on Finnish football, scoring an impressive six goals in 19 [. Click to continue reading...

Gary Megson has recently praised keeper Jussi Jaaskelainen before the start of new season, saying that he wouldn't swap him for any other goalie. When things come from Gary Megson, you've got to take them with a pinch of salt, but he's been spot on in his praise for the Fin.

Jussi Jaaskelainen has spent 12 years at Bolton and he is definitely one of the best ever Premiership keepers.

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On Monday, I'm off to Finland for a week on holiday. During that time, as is usual when I'm on my travels (and I hope long-term HEGS readers will note that I've not been out of the country for nearly five months since my return from Mexico!), the site will be updated slightly less frequently. [...] Click to continue reading...

"I don't have anyone famous in my phone – just my team-mates."

Jussi Jasskelainen's recent interview with The Guardian's Rob Smyth reveals what we already knew about BWFC goalkeeper and that is that he is an utterly likeable fella.

The only shock that Jussi revealed was a dubious taste in music, admitting to recently buying the chart's top 20 (he also mentions Justin Timberlake).

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Haka (2nd) TPS (3rd), Monday 7 PM
Live on Urheilukanava and streams

PREVIEW: This week and the next are of definitive nature as far as the title race is concerned. TPS will play both Haka and table-topping HJK this week, and two wins could see them occupy the driving seat.

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Veikkausliiga heads north today, with long journeys deep into the countryside for HJK and Tampere United. RoPS, KuPS and VPS all have nice grounds but terrible pitches, and the difficulty of getting results there has been evident in recent seasons, with VPS acting as a bit of a bogey side for TamU and KuPS getting a memorable 3-2 win against HJK late last season to help them to a play-off spot.

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FC Inter (6th) IFK Mariehamn (4th), Saturday 6:30 PM

The weekend (Monday included) has a full round of Veikkausliiga in store for football fans. Tonight's game is first of the seven matches to be played, and NFN will treat you to minute-by-minute updates of the game in this post.

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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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Ilves have been playing again for a season and a half now, and for the most part they've been up near the top of the Kakkonen group B table. Tampere photographer Petteri Lehtonen has been following them, and has kindly agreed to allow NFN to use his photos to bring a little bit of Kakkonen to our readers.

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The preview of the sxth round should take many forms, the first one being a homage to Pasi Rautiainen. This Monday's match between Honka and TPS in Tapiola turned into something of a media event, with most of the Finnish under-21 squad presented with roses for their achievement in failing to win a single game or point, and scoring a solitary penalty during their three matches in Sweden.

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FC Honka (5th) TPS (3rd), Monday 7 PM
Live on Urheilukanava and streams

Ilta-Sanomat's Ville Väänänen already declared that the title race will be run between three teams. There are 13 games to be played, but he is on the right track. Haka and HJK are five points adrift from TPS, who are third with a game in hand.

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Watching Tampere United struggle to a single goal victory over JJK at Ratina yesterday, it occurred to me just how astonishing it is that anyone watches Finnish football. The first half was enjoyably predictable, as TamU attacked and JJk attempted to string a few passes together. JJK's South Korean striker Nam was brought off injured, and someone curled a shot against the bar for the Jyväskyläns (it could very possibly have been Koskela), and Rafinha got the winner when Sinisalo's headed past his own keeper, but overall it was a pretty run of the mill Veikkausliiga match.

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The cause of Andrey Arshavin's recent sickness has been revealed by a Russian newspaper today. Arsenal's 28-year-old became ill before Russia's World Cup Qualifier with Finland last month and was pictured being physically sick in a training session (see picture below). But instead of falling ill due to a virus or weather, it was too [. Click to continue reading...

Last night, a great night from brand new KuPS signing Dickson Nwakaeme helped KuPS to a 3-0 win over RoPS, while TamU did exactly what was needed and overcame JJK with the scoreline 1-0. A more detailed round-up is on the way once the round is completed, but for now we are taking a look at today's games

FC Inter (7th) FC Lahti (9th), Sunday 6:30 PM

As the league table indicates, both sides are underperforming.

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I'm just getting the hang of this twitter business, several decades after most other journalists in the western hemisphere, and as such I thought I'd give it a go while here waiting for TamU v JJK to start. Live updates will be posted throughout the game, if you are at all bothered you can read them from my twitter page.

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Here we go again. Tonight has two games in store for us, followed by four on Sunday and one on Monday. I'll only be previewing Saturday's games for now, because I have to go and attend a drunken psycho circus of 30 000 people.

Tampere United (10th) JJK (13th), Saturday 6:30 PM

Underachieving TamU can hope for European spots at best, but they did show some promise when they cancelled out a two-goal deficit and emerged as the victors in their last game against Inter on Wednesday.

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