KUPS

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Kuopion Palloseura (or KuPS) is a Finnish football club, based in the 8th most populated city of Finland, Kuopio. It currently plays in Finland's top division, Veikkausliiga. The club manager is Juha Malinen (currently the most experienced in Veikkausliiga), and it plays its home matches at Magnum Areena. Until June 2005 KuPS used to play at an aged track and field stadium in Väinölänniemi, which is said to be one of the most beautiful sporting places in Finland. Väinölänniemi is a cape surrounded by a local lake, Kallavesi.

KuPS was founded in 1923 and hold the 4th place in the all-time table of the Finnish Premier League (called Veikkausliiga since 1991).

KuPS have played in the top flight for 50 seasons and claimed five league (1956, 1958, 1966, 1974, 1976), two Finnish Cup (1968, 1989) titles and one Finnish League Cup title (2006). In addition to that KuPS have finished in second place eight times (1950, 1954, 1964, 1967, 1969, 1975, 1977, 1979), third in 1953 and claimed numerous junior titles.

Their reserve team, KuPS Akatemia (tr: KuPS Academy) plays in the Second Division Group A (Kakkonen lohko A).

KuPS returned to top flight for the season 2005 after a year in the First Division (Ykkönen). Season 2005 ended in 10th place, with KuPS easily avoiding the relegation play-off (13th place) and direct relegation (14th place).

On 1st of April 2006 KuPS won ( 1-0 ; Hartikainen 86' ) last year league champions, MyPa in Finnish League Cup Semi Final match and secured a place in the Finnish League Cup Final. On 12th of April 2006 in Finnair Stadium, Helsinki KuPS won FC KooTeePee ( 2-1 ; Oinonen 29", Ikavalko 37", Oinonen 44") in the League Cup Final and ended their 17-year dry season without titles.

The supporters' club of KuPS is called Banzai.

Team for season 2006

Patrick Bantamoi

Olli-Pekka Itälä

Matti Hurme

Patrik Turunen

Jani Hartikainen (c)

Mohamed "Medo" Kamara

Janne Mahlakaarto

Tamas Gruborovics

Miikka Oinonen

Seth Ablade

Marko Kivilä

Pyry Kärkkäinen

Berat Sadik

Dimitri Klimov

Jussi Heikelä

Jonni Heikkinen

Aki Sipilä

Niko Kuusisto

Roope Reinikainen

Jari Partanen

Harri Penttilä

Samuli Kaivonurmi

Notable players

Marcus Gayle (1990, 9 goals in 22 league games, was top goalscorer of the season)
Mart Poom (1992, played in 9 league games)
Aulis Rytkönen (KuPS-icon)

External links

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Veikkausliiga 2006
FC Haka \| FC Honka \| HJK \| IFK Mariehamn \| FC Inter \| FF Jaro \| FC KooTeePee KuPS \| FC Lahti \| MyPa \| Tampere United \| Turun Palloseura \| VPS