June 7, 2004
Tampere United striker Henri Scheweleff is out of action for about a month after an ankle injury against FC KooTeePee on Sunday. Scheweleff's injury was caused by a nasty, late tackle by Vesa Helenius. Heikki Aho is also still sidelined for about a week
June 3, 2004
Tampere United were drawn to meet an opponent from Luxembourg in the first round of UEFA Intertoto Cup. Grevenmacher ended up fourth in their domestic league last year. The first leg will be played in Luxembourg on June 20th and Tampere United will be hosting Luxembourgians in Ratina Stadium on June 27th at 7pm.
June 3, 2004
Tampere United's forward Antti Pohja is Veikkausliiga's Player of the Month in May. Pohja was also selected to the Team of the Month. Surprisingly no other United players were.
May 28, 2004
The renewed Ratina Stadium hosted its first big match as Finland and Sweden met in an international friendly on Friday night. The game was sold out as 16,500 spectators packed to the stadium. National team coach Antti Muurinen had not chosen any Tampere United players to his squad this time. Maybe that's why the match ended to a disappointing defeat. Finland-Sweden 1-3 (1-2).
May 27, 2004
Tampere United's star striker Henri Scheweleff wore captain's armband and showed example to his teammates by scoring both goals as Finland beat Poland in U21 clash in Turku 2-0. Other United players in the match were Antti Ojanper�, Toni Junnila and Heikki Aho, who got injured already after couple minutes of play. He is doubtful for Sunday's league game against RoPS in Tampere.
May 9, 2004
The first home game against AC Allianssi on Monday May 10th is also a farewell game to the old Tammela Stadium. Hopefully the team has regrouped from the disgraceful loss last Friday and we will have a game to remember tomorrow. The match starts at 6:30 pm in Tammela.
May 7, 2004
Petri Hein�nen and Pasi Salmela are ruled out of Tampere United's league opener against FC Jazz in Pori. Both of them have problems with abdominal injuries and are expected to miss first few games. These injuries might open up places for young Erik Westerholm and J-P Savolainen in the starting line-up. Match report after tonight's game from here.
May 1, 2004
After another long, cold and dark winter the football season is about to get started. Tampere United travels to Pori next Friday to take on FC Jazz in the season opener.
Several different experts have placed Tampere United among the top teams in their pre-season polls. The pride of Tampere has lost two significant players (Jari Niemi, RAEC Mons and Tero Koskela, Fredrikstads BK) from their last years third placed team. The gaps left by those players should be filled by two returning star players midfielder Jarkko Wiss and fans favorite forward Antti Pohja. Also new acquisitions Toni Junnila and J-P Savolainen should bring some happy moments to the fans at the Ratina Stadium during the season. The teams health situation looks good at the moment, only wingback Petri Hein�nen has been suffering from some minor injuries and is a doubt for the first game.
The Finnish Veikkausliiga is expected to be extremely close at the top this year. Pre-season favorites with Tampere United include HJK Helsinki, FC Haka, AC Allianssi and FC Inter Turku. And also Fc Lahti has to be considered after they signed national hero and superstar Jari Litmanen from Ajax Amsterdam a couple weeks back. Fc Jazz, Kotkan Tp, FC H�meenlinna and TP-47 will most likely be the teams battling against relegation.
April 28, 2004
Ratina Blues, the very unofficial fanpage of Tampere United football club is now open. This is most likely the first and the only Tampere United site in english. It includes all the basic information about the club, mostly concentrating on match reports and player ratings. The purpose of this page is to give all the international fans of Tampere United a chance to follow the clubs success in the Finnish League and in its search for European glory. (I don't know if the club has any international fans, if not the site won't be too busy I guess). Thank you for reading this far. If you have any feedback or suggestions please email me: [email protected]