Helsinki Open GP/IO 22&23 May 2010

Official site of Helsinki Open is

http://ho2010.subu.fi/

You can also ask questions here.

It is possible that from Perugia will come 4 players:

Francesco Mattiangeli
Federico Mattiangeli
Alessandro Arca
Fabrizio Livoni

It is possible that from Perugia will come 4 players:

Francesco Mattiangeli
Federico Mattiangeli
Alessandro Arca
Fabrizio Livoni

Absolutely yes ! Just send me your registration.

kari.hakkarainen(at)tieto.com

I just need to tell one thing. There will be no team event, even that was the plan before. The tournaments will be like this:

22.5 saturday GP
- individual open
- individual veterans
- individual U15

players can play in 2 categories

23.5 sunday IO
- individual open

We are not able to organize more, sorry.

no problem for the team.

De Francesco wrote:It is possible that from Perugia will come 4 players

This would be great news! I hope they will enjoy the sauna also...

De Francesco wrote:It is possible that from Perugia will come 4 players:

Francesco Mattiangeli
Federico Mattiangeli
Alessandro Arca
Fabrizio Livoni

This would be excellent for our tournament, and important for the development of the finnish players who can't travel to foreign tournaments! If there is anything to ask, they can ask also in italian.

We were thinking of having some information in the tournament pages in 4-5 different languages, but that will have to wait for next year, due to lack of time.

The most international tournament so far in Finland with at least six nationals present!

We will have a buffet dinner at the competition venue. Also, sauna on Saturday will be hot (but not too hot for the foreigners)...

It's more like a buffet lunch than dinner, but some warm food, bread and sallad anyway. It'll cost about 5€. I understood that also a small café with snacks will be there.

It maybe should be noted that you can watch the Champions League final Bayern-Inter (Forza Bayern! Es gibt nur ein Uli Höness...) also at the location of the sauna.

If you need help in transport from the hotel, airport etc, just ask. Traditionally we try to arrange some help in transport.

We'll probably set the tables up on friday evening, so if you want to come and have flick, ask about the specific time.

The draw has been made:

Saturday:

http://ho2010.subu.fi/HO2010_GP.htm

Sunday:

http://ho2010.subu.fi/HO2010_IO.htm

All the best, much fun and take good care on my friend Fred. I guess you folks will together watch the Champions League final on TV somewhere.
Please comfort him if Bayern Munich will lose

Looks like it will be a lot of fun. I wish I could make it... Enjoy!

Thanks! We'll try to have an enjoyable tournament with good spirit and sportsmanship.

The draw was strange with two groups on saturday that have three players out of four from the same club (especially Zinga's team SiSu which has 4 players and 3 are in the same group). Also sunday I'm in a group with George Papadopoulos, with whom I have played about 20 training games during the last month. A different opposition would have been welcome change! And the same goes to Marko Karhunen and Jarkko Lindholm, who are the only players in the city of Lappeenranta and play each other 100+ times a year.

Thossa wrote:All the best, much fun and take good care on my friend Fred. I guess you folks will together watch the Champions League final on TV somewhere.
Please comfort him if Bayern Munich will lose

We have hired a private sauna premises (in contact with a bar) for saturday evening, so everyone who wants to come can watch the game there (you can also skip going to sauna and just enjoy the game and good company.

Sorry, Thossa, but if Bayern loses (or worse still, if Mourinho's Inter wins), at least I can't comfort anyone because I'm too disappointed.

(By the way, it's funny that the only italian player on the field will probably be Diego Contento of Bayern.)

Unofficially some results (out of memory).

GP Open:

QF
Papadaopoulos-Kouvonkorpi 1-0
Karhunen-T. Sihvola (Zinga) 1-0
Mattiangeli- T. Gioux 6-0
Hodds-Vulpes 2-0?

SF
Mattiangeli-Papadopoulos 2-0
Hodds-Karhunen 1-1, shoot-out 2-1 after 8 shots!

Final
Mattiangeli-Hodds 5-0

U-15 winner was F. Gioux
There was real drama for the small boys when F.Gioux and J. Tuominen were in the same group in the Open, and the finnish junior was going through to the next round, but Florian equalised to 4-4 with 3 seconds left on the clock and went through.

The veterans continue tomorrow.

Pardon Titi! Your last name was spelled wrong in my previous post.

Unofficial results from sunday (from memory):

Open IO
QF
Karhunen-Kouvonkorpi 3-0
Mattiangeli-Hodds ?
J.Sihvola-W. Hölttä 1-1, shoot-out 2-1
T.Sihvola-Papadopoulos 1-0

SF
Mattiangeli-T.Sihvola 2-0
Karhunen-J. Sihvola 2-1 aet

Final
Karhunen-Mattiangeli 2-1 (0-1)

So Karhunen became the first finn to win an IO. Mattiangeli wasn't playing as well as on saturday. He was a bit tired from partying Inter's CL win, and had a leg injury. But Karhunen played very well in the final.

Veterans from saturday
Final
Mattiangeli-Giaux 1-0

Veterans on sunday (a league with 5 players)
Vainqueur: Giaux

Probably the best tournament in Helsinki. Nice players, good venue, and also excellent results for the home players.

And now to sleep...

What a surprise! I'm very happy for Marco Karhunen. I remember he paid us a visit in my club in Templeuve a few years ago. A good souvenir. Good news also for Titi Giaux. He sent me a message telling he enjoyed the tournament very much and that he recommends this tournament. Well done!

Marko Karhunen is a very good and fair player. Superb result for him and for the Finns.
I hope next year we meet each other to the final!!
Congrats Marko.

Giorgos Aggelinas

I agree it was an excellent tournament and a great weekend, thanks guys !

Vesa, you are correct my GP win v Vulpes was 2-0. The IO game with Mattiangeli was 0-4.

I look forward to my next visit. Kiitos Suomi !

Final
Karhunen-Mattiangeli 2-1 (0-1)

So Karhunen became the first finn to win an IO. Mattiangeli wasn't playing as well as on saturday.

After saturday I said that Mattiangeli is the best player ever to play in Finland, and then Karhunen beats him in the next day. Historical result !

I agree it was an excellent tournament and a great weekend, thanks guys !

Vesa, you are correct my GP win v Vulpes was 2-0. The IO game with Mattiangeli was 0-4.

I look forward to my next visit. Kiitos Suomi !

Thank you very much. You are always welcome. I need one more chance to have a 0-0 againts you.

I hope some photos will be available soon. We all are curious

And all results!!!

Thomas Vulpes wrote:And all results!!!

Sorry, I tried to follow the official FISTF communications directive and include necessary delay to the results.

The results are now online:
http://ho2010.subu.fi/HO2010_GP.htm
http://ho2010.subu.fi/HO2010_IO.htm

We had a great weekend! Thanks for all competitors, especially for those who dared to come to the sauna night. I hope that I did not ruin Martin's and Fred's Sunday competition with the Sisu shots...

Great result for Marko! However, I have to say that it was not only Marko, we Finns got good result in all frontiers. On Sunday we had three players in semifinals, Jere proved in U-15 that he is capable to challenging the international players, Juho came back to the Finnish top, and many other player stretched the skill level to compete with our international quests.

Last, in my opinion the best part of the weekend was the U-15 competition. It was really enjoyable to see juniors play football outside on breaks, make some noise, run, win (and lose), follow the better players play and most of all have fun. They are the future of the game!

Great job. Cheers to Suomi. Hope we will welcome a lot of yours at the World Cup. As far as I can see, you made a very good promotion for next year. I am sure a lot of players more will going to Helsinki 2011. I think, I shall better start saving money for next year

Can you send me pictures if possible with Fred. For the German webseit.
thomas-vulpes@web.de

thanks

Big thanks also from me to all our foreign players, was pleasure to meet you!

I requested in our forums and now in here. All available photos from our foreign guests can be sent to my email. Easiest way is to click the email button under my avatar.

I'm really happy everyone enjoyed the tournament. It was a pleasure to meet all the foreigners and I thoroughly enjoyed getting to speak many different languages. Especially italian is something that is rarely possible in Finland. The only thing that didn't go as planned (by me) was the CL final, but at least it made Mattiangeli (despite the defeat clearly the best player ever in Finland) drink more on saturday night...

I'm afraid that as the photographing was nobodys responsability, there are not as many photos as we would have liked. I for one, forgot it entirely with all the work and play. So a majority of the photos must be gathered from the players who want to send them to us.

So in the end all the hours that were put in, really paid off as a good tournament. As an example my week was the following. I was responsible for the venue (one of my work places). Wednesday 8 hours (17-01) without breaks building tables with Juho and Wille. Friday 6 hours (16.30-22.30) building the competition hall and making everything ready at the venue (after that 3 hours of normal work). On saturday at the venue 8.30-19.00. On Sunday 8.30-18.30 plus 1,5 hours in the evening after putting the kids to sleep. I know that Hönkki (Kari) did unbelievable amount of work also. And we both thought that the main organizers of these events really have no chance of playing to the full.

I just want make this point that the organizing is really hard work, at least for the passionate ones. And this makes it impossible to play the best game you can. I was playing well in the group and was very much in the game in the after lunch quarter final game against Karhunen. In the second half the absolute tiredness struck and I even had foggy eyes at one point. It would have been fun to try with better preparation. But if I would have somehow surprised him (unlikely) then the finnish tournament win would still be in the future.

This is a fact in every tournament, I assume. At the World Cup I remember being the referee for a team game (Holland-Italy) with Robbie Thoen. And he looked really exhausted, and it showed also in the play. This is something that can often be forgotten, but it shouldn't. That's why I have to say I'm extremely happy with my own results, but at the same time I know that in other circumstances I could've had even better ones.. This isn't humble, but why should it be. I also feel for Hönkki (Kari), because in all the Opens we have had, he has never had an equal chance to all the others.

I don't want to make anyone feel bad or anything. I just needed to write this. With all the hype normally going to the winners and the overall atmosphere, also the ones who make it possible with hours and hours and hours of work should be remembered. In all the competitions, and especially the really big ones.

zinga wrote:Last, in my opinion the best part of the weekend was the U-15 competition. It was really enjoyable to see juniors play football outside on breaks, make some noise, run, win (and lose), follow the better players play and most of all have fun. They are the future of the game!

My best moment was when Florian Giaux met Fred Vulpes in the barrages. In the extra time many players were watching, but the Florian fan section (the other U-15 players plus 1 friend of theirs) on the upper stand of the hall were all cheering him like an older friend. Some of them had already lost to him, but it didn't bother them. It was a pleasure to see how kids make good friends in a second without a common language (Florian spoke almost only french, which none of the other kids spoke).

Great memories also from the joking in the Vulpes-F. Giaux game (very nice with the big man and the little boy sharing a laugh and sense of humour). And also the very good spirit in almost all of the games (players calling their own finger fouls on the shooting line etc). The atmosphere was simply stunning all weekend!

p.s. Also I want to thank the greek-finnish George "Yrjö" Papadopoulos for helping with the work on friday. He isn't living in Finland permanently, but still gave a helping hand.