Kuopion Palloseura

Ground: Väre Areena (Kuopion keskuskenttä)

Visits: 1

Date: 7th July 2024

Match: KuPS - Gnistan 3-1 (Veikkausliiga)

Attendance: 3 081

On Sunday morning I woke up in Tampere and after breakfast I made the short walk to the bus station. My destination for the day was Kuopio where I later in the evening would watch KuPS v Gnistan. Going by train to Kuopio I only had seven minutes between trains in Pieksämäki (and the next one was 3 hours later). I looked at buses and to my delight there was a bus departing at 09.50. By bus it is 4h 10 min from Tampere to Kuopio but having two seats to myself it was quite a comfortable bus journey. In Kuopio I had booked a room for the night at the Lapland hotel which is next to the bus/train station. I made it to my room and then went back to the hotel lobby where I met up with Danish groundhopper Michael. He was (obviously) also going to KuPS v Gnistan and had booked the same hotel as I had. In fact our rooms were opposite each other meaning a good groundhopper presence at floor 4! We then went out to have something to eat and drink. I was also looking at doing some kind of sightseeing but with it raining I skipped that part.

From the hotel it was around 25 minutes to Väre Areena, the home of KuPS, but due to an error in reading the map it took slightly longer than that for us to reach the entrance. Väre Areena has a main (west) stand with around 2,600 seats and a small seated stand in the north end. The far side has an open wooden stand and a few natural viewing spots. Thankfully the rain ceased and during the first half the sun made some appearances as well. Kuopion Palloseura (KuPS) would go top of the league if they beat Gnistan. Gnistan are from Oulunkylä (Åggelby) in Helsinki and I visited them last season. The 2024 season is actually their first ever season in Finland´s top division. Gnistan brought five loyal fans to Kuopio this Sunday evening but this was to be a frustrating evening for them. After 30 minutes it was 3-0 to KuPS with the second of those goals being a screaming free-kick. Gnistan pulled a goal back and had several really good opportunities to score more goals. No additional goals were scored though and it ended 3-1 to KuPS.

Once back at the hotel we ordered Fish of the day (delicious) and said goodbye to each other. I would leave Kuopio by train at 08.26 but Michael and a more easy start to Monday morning and only left around 11am. Shortly after 10pm on Monday evening I was back home and I could look back on yet another really enjoyable visit to Finland.