Liiga rivalries

Rcknrollkillnmachine

Registered User
Sep 22, 2017
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402
Finland
I'm aware of the obvious hate for teams like TPS and IFK (Jokerit too but another league, of course) so as someone who has been following Liiga for over three seasons what are the intense rivalries between teams e.g. I always enjoy Rauma Lukko - Pori Ässät games as they're fiercely contested and the fans are loud.

Some background would be great as well along with some Mestis rivalries (I guess Espoo are marked as a big target to beat)

Kiitos :)
 

SoupyFIN

#OneTerritory
Nov 7, 2011
41,382
3,380
Sport doesn't have that many.

Jukurit (Mestis days)
KooKoo (Mestis days)
Ässät ('09 qualification series)

Funnily enough Hermes, a nearby team (Kokkola is about 120km north from Vaasa) that Sport had the biggest rivalry with in the past, is their farm team now.
 

Rcknrollkillnmachine

Registered User
Sep 22, 2017
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402
Finland
I know that Tampere and Turku have a serious mutual dislike of each other; TPS in recent memory haven't played great against Tappara although against Ilves I can't recall from past seasons.
 

Halberdier

Registered User
May 14, 2016
4,467
4,980
Classic, pretty much obvious rivals are:

Tappara vs. Ilves
Ässät vs. Lukko

Back in the day there were also:

HIFK vs. Jokerit
TPS vs. TUTO (for quite short amount of time)

Also there was quite firece rivalry between TPS and Jokerit in the 90's, for obvious reasons, both being at the finals about every year.

As for my favourite team, Tappara (well, you could guess that from my nickname...) classic rivalries have been against Ilves (obvious), but also against TPS (competitive team, 2nd most successfull FEL team after Tappara), HIFK (don't even know why) and most recently Kärpät for fierce playoffs series between Tappara and Kärpät.

There used to be some love & hate relationships with Jokerit and to some degree even with Ässät & K-Espoo/Blues (r.i.p), but not that much. Also Lukko players and fans had to really hate us after many playoff series defeats.

If Sport and Ässät were neighbours, that would be an interesting and hate-filled battle, for sure ;-)
 

Rcknrollkillnmachine

Registered User
Sep 22, 2017
576
402
Finland
Classic, pretty much obvious rivals are:

Tappara vs. Ilves
Ässät vs. Lukko

Back in the day there were also:

HIFK vs. Jokerit
TPS vs. TUTO (for quite short amount of time)

Also there was quite firece rivalry between TPS and Jokerit in the 90's, for obvious reasons, both being at the finals about every year.

As for my favourite team, Tappara (well, you could guess that from my nickname...) classic rivalries have been against Ilves (obvious), but also against TPS (competitive team, 2nd most successfull FEL team after Tappara), HIFK (don't even know why) and most recently Kärpät for fierce playoffs series between Tappara and Kärpät.

There used to be some love & hate relationships with Jokerit and to some degree even with Ässät & K-Espoo/Blues (r.i.p), but not that much. Also Lukko players and fans had to really hate us after many playoff series defeats.

If Sport and Ässät were neighbours, that would be an interesting and hate-filled battle, for sure ;-)

Funny story a friend from back in my home country told me: visits Tampere (first time in Finland) and has no idea about hockey. He see's an Ilves shirt, loves the logo and the fact it's green so buys it.

Later that night while wearing said shirt walks into what could be described as a Tappara bar and almost gets killed until they found out he's a foreigner. After that they laughed.
 

Lapa

Global Moderator
Feb 21, 2010
13,149
2,057
Sport doesn't have that many.

Jukurit (Mestis days)
KooKoo (Mestis days)
Ässät ('09 qualification series)

Funnily enough Hermes, a nearby team (Kokkola is about 120km north from Vaasa) that Sport had the biggest rivalry with in the past, is their farm team now.

Man, I miss Hermes v Sport matches from the early 2000s. One of my best childhood memories.
 

Qurpiz

Carry me home!
Nov 5, 2006
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I've always felt HIFK and Ässät fans had something. I wouldn't say friendship, I guess it's the red colour and the "brand" of hockey.

At least, what the fans think their brand is.
 

Rcknrollkillnmachine

Registered User
Sep 22, 2017
576
402
Finland
I've always felt HIFK and Ässät fans had something. I wouldn't say friendship, I guess it's the red colour and the "brand" of hockey.

At least, what the fans think their brand is.

I guess it's not a usual thing in hockey compared to say football in Italy but reading that is interesting.

I suppose the fact that opposition fans can sit with home team fans at least in Liiga without any trouble largely shows that almost every set of supporters can enjoy the rivalry and game itself albeit with some exceptions of course.
 

Albatros

Registered User
Aug 19, 2017
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Ostsee
ilves_hifk061012%20%281%29.JPG
 

Stubu

Registered User
Dec 16, 2015
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Funny story a friend from back in my home country told me: visits Tampere (first time in Finland) and has no idea about hockey. He see's an Ilves shirt, loves the logo and the fact it's green so buys it.
How many home countries do you have?

Later that night while wearing said shirt walks into what could be described as a Tappara bar and almost gets killed until they found out he's a foreigner. After that they laughed.
This is proper and as it should be.
 

Rcknrollkillnmachine

Registered User
Sep 22, 2017
576
402
Finland
I've always felt HIFK and Ässät fans had something. I wouldn't say friendship, I guess it's the red colour and the "brand" of hockey.

At least, what the fans think their brand is.

Ässät- IFK in Pori tonight. I was almost tempted to take the bus with the IFK fans for the experience between both sets of supporters.
 

Lepardi

Registered User
Jan 1, 2008
2,262
689
Finland
Funny story a friend from back in my home country told me: visits Tampere (first time in Finland) and has no idea about hockey. He see's an Ilves shirt, loves the logo and the fact it's green so buys it.

Later that night while wearing said shirt walks into what could be described as a Tappara bar and almost gets killed until they found out he's a foreigner. After that they laughed.

Why did your friend decide to go all the way to Mouhijärvi to get a drink if he was visiting Tampere for the first time? I think staying here would have made more sense. It's pretty hard to carry a conversation in English in rural Finland.

I'm Irish so the rub of the green. :)

When I traveled to USA for the first time in 2011, we went to New York, Boston, Baltimore and D.C. I bought some Celtics gear just because I thought they had the best colors out of all the major league teams in those cities. The fact that I've supported Ilves since I was eight years old might have had something to do with that. I've been following the Celtics pretty closely since that trip.

Most New York teams have pretty horrendous colors. Here in Tampere we don't like the combination of orange and blue one bit.

This is proper and as it should be.

Actually, you're not gonna get killed here in Pirkanmaa for wearing an Ilves or Tappara jersey in the wrong bar, and I think that's a good thing. When selecting your favorite team becomes a question of life and death, something's not right.
 

Rcknrollkillnmachine

Registered User
Sep 22, 2017
576
402
Finland
Why did your friend decide to go all the way to Mouhijärvi to get a drink if he was visiting Tampere for the first time? I think staying here would have made more sense. It's pretty hard to carry a conversation in English in rural Finland.

He never really explained to be honest, and true even when I'm in the countryside I use my Finnish a lot more in terms of conversing with people apart from my job.

I'd love to get up to Tampere to watch IFK play either team; saw them play Tappara last season in Jäähalli: electric atmosphere.
 

SoupyFIN

#OneTerritory
Nov 7, 2011
41,382
3,380
It's pretty hard to carry a conversation in English in rural Finland.
Holy stereotype batman. I think what you meant was, that older generation Finns regardless of the place where they live have their struggles with English.

And from my own experience, it's more of a confidence thing for Finns with conversation in English than a lack of skill. People don't like being "on the spot", where they don't have the luxury of reading a written task multiple times and thinking it through. We have good English skill per say, but it's more of learning/writing skill, than actual verbal communication.
 

Toro2017

Registered User
Sep 14, 2017
189
71
I've been told that there is also somekind of rivalry between JYP and Kalpa.
 

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