Mäkelä keen to cure Lahti's bad habits

Ilkka Mäkelä is hoping there is "no curse on the club" as FC Lahti look to find a successful league campaign to follow up their impressive pre-season form in Finland.

Bad habit
Having won the Finnish League Cup last spring, Lahti have once more thrived in the pre-season tournament, winning five games and drawing the other. Coach Mäkelä, who took over from Antti Muurinen at the end of the 2007 campaign, is now hoping that the club can break their traditional cycle of playing well before the campaign and disappointing when it counts. Last season's League Cup success preceded an eighth-placed finish in the league, but Mäkelä still feels there is value in the competition. "Of course, you don't get a single point from League Cup matches, but it is absolute rubbish to say these results don't matter," he said. "When a team learns how to win matches you can sense it every day in the atmosphere in the squad."

'I wasn't here'
In past campaigns, Lahti have learned how to win matches in pre-season and then seemingly forgotten once the Veikkausliiga kicked off. "It is impossible for me to say what caused what in previous seasons – I wasn't here," said Mäkelä, who won the 2005 title with Myllykosken Pallo-47. "But I do not believe there is any magic in it or a curse on the club." Indeed, the new coach is merely hoping to make a break from the past, saying that "we don't judge ourselves to what has or has not been done in the past". But with the new season on the horizon, he will certainly be hoping to improve on Lahti's best-ever finish in the Finnish top division – fifth in 2003 – as their tenth Veikkausliiga campaign kicks off in four weeks' time.

Lahti momentum
Lahti are not being billed as potential title winners, but if they can maintain their pre-season momentum, the All Blacks could yet spring a surprise. "It is important how we play, but the results should not be underestimated," said Mäkela. "The atmosphere in and around the team is very positive. We have scored a good few goals and kept three clean sheets in a row."