Marked for Gastón Arraya
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match28 Jul 2029
A hiding for KTP
Beaten 1‑4 by IFK Mariehamn, and beaten everywhere it matters. The inquest starts on the training pitch on Monday morning.
Match28 Jul 2029
No end in sight to KTP's wait for a win
4 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at KTP has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad30 Jul 2029
Tempers go at KTP
Diego Temoche was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Player ratings30 Jul 2029
Successful dribbles: 21. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad30 Jul 2029
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Boardroom30 Jul 2029
Doors closed at KTP
The music was off and the showers ran late. What was said in that dressing room stays there, but Saturday will publish the minutes.
Squad30 Jul 2029
An error at the back is a moment; an error in goal is a goal. Maksym Zhuk knows it, the crowd knew it instantly, and there was nobody behind him to make it anything else.
Squad30 Jul 2029
Every debut is a small story about the future: Daniel Arajuuri, 17 years old, off the academy pitches and into the first team. The parents in the stand will keep the programme.
Player ratings30 Jul 2029
Marked 5.66, and generously at that. Nothing came off, and by the end the crowd had stopped expecting it to.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match16 Jul 2029
KTP are in real trouble now
Position 10, 15 points, and a fixture list with fewer games left in it than excuses. The arithmetic is not cruel yet, but it has stopped being kind.
Player ratings16 Jul 2029
Successful dribbles: 25. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad16 Jul 2029
Miloš Zličić in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at KTP this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match14 Jul 2029
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad16 Jul 2029
The manager makes an example of Gastón Arraya
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Player ratings16 Jul 2029
Shots: 12. Goals: none. The chances were there and they were good ones, and they went into the stand, the goalkeeper's arms and the side netting in roughly that order.
Market16 Jul 2029
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Miloš Zličić’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
Player ratings16 Jul 2029
5.79 on the card. Some afternoons a footballer looks like a man who has only just been introduced to the game, and this was one of them.
Market16 Jul 2029
KTP have let the market know Danylo Hazhalov can be had. No price in the advert, but everyone in the trade knows roughly what it says.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match19 Aug 2028
The wait goes on for KTP
7 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Market21 Aug 2028
Only the photograph left for Onni Hänninen
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Onni Hänninen will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around KTP the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad21 Aug 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at KTP this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match19 Aug 2028
A bad afternoon for KTP against SJK
1‑2 to SJK, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Player ratings21 Aug 2028
Successful dribbles: 19. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Player ratings21 Aug 2028
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.45, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Squad21 Aug 2028
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Squad21 Aug 2028
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; KTP are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Squad21 Aug 2028
4 goals and a season average of 7.33. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match5 Aug 2028
The wait goes on for KTP
5 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Squad7 Aug 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at KTP this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad7 Aug 2028
He is 21, he is averaging 7.05, and older professionals have started passing to him in the difficult minutes. That last part is the real scouting report.
Squad7 Aug 2028
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Gastón Arraya commits to KTP for another 2 years.
Player ratings7 Aug 2028
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 9.19, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Match5 Aug 2028
Honours even between KTP and RoPS
1‑1, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
Squad7 Aug 2028
The manager makes an example of Onni Hänninen
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Player ratings7 Aug 2028
Successful dribbles: 13. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Player ratings7 Aug 2028
Joni Mäkelä leaves them behind him
Shots: 4. Goals: none. The chances were there and they were good ones, and they went into the stand, the goalkeeper's arms and the side netting in roughly that order.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad17 Jul 2028
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 15 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Market17 Jul 2028
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at KTP, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad17 Jul 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at KTP this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market17 Jul 2028
The phone has started ringing about Samuli Hölttä again, and this time the name on the line is KuPS. KTP are listening politely and promising nothing.
Player ratings17 Jul 2028
Marked 8.89 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Player ratings17 Jul 2028
A performance of 8.74 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Squad17 Jul 2028
Defences have started doubling up on Diego Temoche
4 goals and a season average of 7.33 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
Match15 Jul 2028
A 2‑2 draw with Inter Turku leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
Squad17 Jul 2028
The manager makes an example of Gastón Arraya
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match10 May 2028
KTP through in the cup
A 0‑0 win over HIFK, and the draw for the next round can be watched with some interest for once.
Match13 May 2028
No end in sight to KTP's wait for a win
9 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at KTP has to find a result from somewhere.
Player ratings15 May 2028
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 32 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
Squad15 May 2028
A shoot-out is remembered by its ending, and this one ends with Adrián Acosta: 1 kept out, and a set of supporters who will describe every one of them for the next twenty years.
Squad15 May 2028
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Market15 May 2028
Samuli Hölttä has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around KTP they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Player ratings15 May 2028
Successful dribbles: 22. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad15 May 2028
Tempers go at KTP
Miloš Zličić was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Match13 May 2028
6 unbeaten for KTP
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 6 matches without defeat is a foundation KTP did not have in the autumn.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market24 Jan 2028
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what KTP can pretend not to have heard.
Market24 Jan 2028
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at KTP is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad24 Jan 2028
Tempers go at KTP
Miloš Zličić was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.