Grankulla IFK

Ground: Kauniaisten keskuskenttä

Visits: 1

Date: 20th June 2018

Match: Grankulla IFK - Kaarinan Pojat 3-2 (Kakkonen, Lohko B)

Attendance: 80

When Sweden qualified for the 2018 World Cup I decided to try and get tickets for at least one of these games. In the end Sweden´s games were drawn to be played in Nizhny Novgorod, Sochi and Ekaterinburg. Like most of Sweden´s fans I was hoping for St Petersburg or Moscow, the easy destinations in the 2018 World Cup. Going through my options I decided to attend two games, Brazil v Costa Rica (in St Petersburg) and Germany v Sweden (in Sochi). The game in St Petersburg was on Friday afternoon but finding out a full round of league games were being played in Finland on Wednesday evening I decided to start the trip with a flight to Helsinki. From Helsinki there are four trains a day to St Petersburg and that was of course the reason I started my trip with a flight to Finland. At 09.40 on Wednesday morning my SAS-flight left Copenhagen and 13.30, one hour time difference, I could check-in at my hotel in central Helsinki. I could then have chosen to go to Tampere for Ilves v Lahti in Veikkausliiga but wanting to make it as easy as possible for me I looked at games in the Helsinki area. Grankulla IFK play at Kauniaisten keskuskenttä and from the central railway station it only takes 20 minutes to reach Grankulla. Last year Grankulla played in Ykkönen but this season they are back in Kakkonen. A Finnish friend of mine told me I should try to speak Swedish only at Grankulla and I promised him to give it a try!

Kick-off at Kauniaisten keskuskenttä was at 18.30 and 50 minutes before the game would start I was outside the ground. As I was taking a few pictures of the exterior of the ground someone (in Swedish) asked me “You must be that Swedish guy on his way to St Petersburg”. The power of Social media! At this ground I could speak Swedish only but the announcer of course used both Swedish and Finnish. Grankulla IFK are second of the table and are aiming for an instant return to Ykkönen. At half-time the visitors, Kaarinan Pojat were 1-0 up though. The 100 or so present at Kauniaisten keskuskenttä could then witness four goals being scored in the second half. Three of those goals were scored by Grankulla IFK who managed to win 3-2. An entertaining second half and a nice start to my trip. Around 21.00 I was back in central Helsinki. Tomorrow I head for Russia and that will for sure be an adventure!