Finals review 2021

In 5 games we were treated to some tense games and superb defence, but in the end Manse PP managed to break through and seal their first men’s championship in the club’s history in a 1-0 win over KPL.

Manse finished top of the league in the regular season and soon became favourites to reach the final; however they were soon faced with elimination from the playoffs when they unexpectedly lost the first 2 games of their quarterfinal series against IPV. In the end, neither IPV or reigning champions Sotkamo could stop the star-studded team from securing their first final in only their second season in Superpesis.

In my predictions going into the final, I struggled to pick a clear winner, but ended up backing KPL. At that point, I was convinced that Manse hadn’t reached their true potential this season and thought KPL would exploit that. A few weeks later and it seems that Manse did indeed unlock their potential and showed the strength of their defensive game in ways we rarely got to see in the regular season. 

Manse made the headlines last year when they went on to sign star players from across the league, making their lineup seem more like a fantasy pesis lineup rather than an achievable squad. With key signings from championship winning players, winning was at the core of this team’s DNA. Henri Puputti had made 19 consecutive postseason appearances and Juha Puhtimäki had just come off the back of an incredible regular season with JoMa, where they had a 21 game winning streak that continued into the post season. Other former JoMa names include Lauri Kivinen, Tuomas Jussila and Simo Vainikainen, as well as Juha Niemi, who had signed for Manse the year before. But it wasn’t just an all-star team that had winning at its core; the game manager for Manse is the legendary Matti Iivarinen.

When you compare the number of championship players from the 2 teams, Manse has 6 gold medalists and a total of 12 gold medals, compared to KPL who has 2 gold medalists and 12 gold medals (10 of which belong to Toni Kohonen). Manse were built to do one thing - win the championship, and that is exactly what the did. Even though KPL boast a lot of finals experience, they still haven’t managed to clinch the title and their 45 year long search for gold continues.

The games in the finals series were by no means a one-sided contest and each game could have easily turned one way or the other. None of the games saw a team win both jakso, in fact there were 4 jakso in the series where the score was tied. The overall number of runs scored for and against each side was 16 - 14 in favour of Manse, meaning that there was only a 2 run difference in score across the whole series.

Pitcher Juha Puhtimäki had an exceptional series, with a large proportion of outs being attributed to his dependable and swift throws as well as his tactical pitches. Janne Kivipelto was no push over however, and KPL saw an equal number of stunning plays that got the better of the leagues most explosive offence. The key to the final game of the series was the changes Manse made during the break between jakso. The first jakso had been a tense 0-0 draw, with neither side being able to break through. In the second jakso, Manse came out with a shuffled batting lineup that saw Topias Lilja in the number 2 spot (up from 7) and Jussila in to 4 (down from 2). This simple change made a big impact in the first inning as it gave Manse some new ways to challenge KPL’s defence, seeing an end to the deadlock with a 2-0 lead. Henri Puputti slotted the ball into space in right field to give the home side some extra breathing room and put pressure on KPL. In the end however, the 3-0 deficit was too much for Kopla to overcome and the jubilant Manse crowd counted down the outs until the final whistle signalled an end to the game and indeed the season.

Photographs 

Cover - (c) Manse PP 2021

Photograph 2 - (c) Manse PP 2021