The roundup - 29th July 2019


The roundup
22nd to 28th July 2019

The big stories
Koskenkorva appeal dismissed
In the preceding week, the league amended the result between Kankaanpään Maila v Koskenkorvan Urheilijat on 14th July 2019 due to Koskenkorva fielding an ineligible player. Koskenkorva lodged an appeal against this within the required time. Having considered the same Koskenkorva’s appeal was dismissed. The loss of their appeal leaves Koskenkorva struggling at the bottom of the league and means that they are fighting for survival. Those 3 points would have been really handy!

KPL firm up their team for 2020
KPL made moves last week to secure their lineup for next season. 
KPL signed two-year deals with Valtteri Luoma and Matti Saukko, as well as one-year deals for Toni Laakso, Santeri Löppönen, Jere Paananen and Ville Pesu were collaborated with one year's club.
"We have a really tough body that still needs some reinforcements. Negotiations will continue with the current players and there are already some step marks. At the moment, there is nothing to say about the game management, but negotiations are also underway” says Stefan Sburatura , KPL's player contracts manager (Translation is via google translate).

Post season picture
With only 2 weeks of the regular season left, Superpesis Roundup is looking at the remaining fights for playoff places. An “elimination number” has been calculated for each team outside of the top 8, which represents the margin the team has to make a playoff spot before they are eliminated, i.e. a team with an elimination number of 6 could drop 5 points from their remaining games and still make the playoffs IF the 8th place team does not win any more points from their remaining games. If, in this example, the 8th place team scored 7 points in their remaining games, the other team would be eliminated irrespective of their results. 

Guaranteed postseason places
As the season is drawing to its climax, the following teams have secured their place in the top 8:
Vimpelin Veto - guaranteed top 4 (home field advantage in playoffs) 
Sotkamon Jymy - guaranteed top 4 (home field advantage in playoffs)
KPL 
Joensuun Maila

Who’s in the hunt
As things stand, the following teams are all vying for playoff spots, but are currently outside the top 8:

9th: IPV
Likelihood: very good
Points behind: 2
Elimination number: 16 
Summary: IPV have had fairly good form of late and won 2 of the last 5 games. With Siilinjärvi to play twice before the end of the season as well as Koskenkorva, IPV should be thinking that they will take 9 points from those games.

10th Kiteen Pallo -90
Likelihood: very good
Points behind: 2
Elimination number: 16 
Summary: Kitee have a tougher schedule than IPV, facing JoMa and Tahko, but they do have Kempele (who are in awful form) and Koskenkorva so would hope to take 6 points from those games. The big challenge will be 2 games against Kankaanpää, who are currently 8th and therefore gives a Kitee the chance to take their destiny in to their own hands.

11th Siilinjärven Pesis
Likelihood: highly unlikely
Points behind: 6
Elimination number: 12 
Summary: The highlight of SiiPe’s season was their away win 0-2 over Sotkamo Jymy, to expect them to make the playoffs is an outside shot to say the least. Siilinjärvi are realistically just trying to escape the relegation spots. Siilinjärvi’s win over Kempele at the back end of last week gave the team hope that they can leapfrog Kempele into 11th. SiiPe’s remaining fixtures make for grim reading as they have Seinajoen JymyJussit, Hyvinkään Tahko, Vimpelin Veto and Joensuun Maila in the mix. SiiPe will be hoping for some heroics like they produced at Sotkamo if they are to stay clear of relegation and (you never know) could just nip into 8th place for the last playoff slot.

12th Kempeleen Kiri
Likelihood: poor
Points behind: 6
Elimination number: 12
Summary: if their form continues Kempele will be fighting to stave off relegation, realistically this will be their focus until the end of the season. Kempele have a chance to make the playoffs if they can gather 6 points from their remaining games against Alajärvi and Koskenkorva, but with games against Sotkamo and Raahe it looks unlikely they can overcome the deficit.

13th Koskenkorvan Urheilijat
Likelihood: extremely unlikely
Points behind: 11
Elimination number: 7 
Summary: Koskenkorva have had a sharp reality check this season, having made the playoffs in 2018 and being knocked out by Sotkamo, to being 13th in the table and having won only 2 games since May, both of which came against Siilinjärvi. Koskenkorva’s remaining fixtures have 2 big names in Vimpelin Veto and Joensuun Maila, but also games against Alajärvi and Kempele who are struggling for points at the moment also. Koskenkorva have potential in their ranks, but have not been able to string it together this season and have not made an impact since winning 3 from 6 games at the start of the season.

14th Alajärven Ankkurit
Likelihood: a small miracle would be required
Points behind: 11
Elimination number: 7
Summary: Having beaten Koskenkorva and IPV in their last 5 matches Alajärvi have done rather well form themselves of late, although that is in the context of a very poor start to the season. Alajärvi have amassed only 5 points in their last 5 games - which is more than Koskenkorva, but is still some margin off the pace of the teams above them jostling for a playoff spot. Whilst Alajärvi are technically still in the hunt for a playoff spot, the reality is that they need to focus on the inevitable relegation battle ahead of them. 

Under the spotlight
The spotlight is remaining firmly on Kempeleen Kiri as they failed to win any games in their last 5 and only picked up 1 point; in fact they haven’t had a win since 29th June 2019. They are again the only team to have lost the last 5 games and are sinking towards the bottom of the table fast. Results are now crucial for Kempele, even in games they don’t win, they will need to start picking up points to try and stave off relegation. Kempele will face KPL and Alajärven this coming week and both games will prove challenging for different reasons.

The table

With playoffs and relegation games only a few weeks away, things are starting to slot into place in the table. Here is a rundown of the league table:



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