City Stars (FC Kuusysi)

City Stars

Full name	City Stars
Founded	1982
Ground	Kisapuiston kenttä, Lahti Finland (Capacity: 4,000)
Manager	Petri Järvinen
Coach	Petri Haapsaari (GK)
League	Kakkonen
2009	1st - Kolmonen (Helsinki and Uusimaa)
Home colours

City Stars is a football club from Lahti in Finland. The club was formed in 1982 and their home ground is at the Kisapuiston kenttä. The team currently plays in the Kakkonen (Second Division). The Head coach is Petri Järvinen.

History

City Stars spent many seasons in the lower divisions of the Finnish football league following their formation in 1982. The year 2006 saw a huge change in fortunes when they won Section 2 of the Kolmonen (Helsinki and Uusimaa). The team then won the promotion play-off group to seal promotion.^[1]

In early 2007 City Stars became part of the Lahti club, FC Kuusysi, and established their own business unit within the organisation. At the same time City Stars received support from Petri Pasanen, the Finnish international, and Kari Kangasaho, the Kuusysi coach. In 2007-2008 seasons the club also formed a cooperative link with FC Lahti.

City Stars played two seasons in the Kakkonen (Second Division), the third tier of Finnish football from 2007 to 2008 before relegation back to the Kolmonen (Third Division). Their stay at the lower level was short-lived as another promotion in 2009 saw them back in the Kakkonen for 2010 after narrowly beating local rivals Salpausselän Reipas by 2 points.^[2]

City Stars have fine reputation as a good cup team, especially in the Finnish Cup (Suomen Cup). In the 2009 competition they battled their way through to quarter finals before losing 0-3 to FC Honka.

City Stars are proud to take part in the Uusi Lahti Cup tournament. In 2007 they beat Estonian first division club FC Levadia Tallinn and were ranked in positions 5-6. In 2008, the team reached a similar position by winning a penalty shoot-out against JJK Jyväskylä from the (First Division). In 2010 the team lost 3-0 to HJK Helsinki in the quarter-finals but beat PoPa Pori 2-1 in the ranking match.

FC Kuusysi

Season to season

Season Level Division Section Administration Position Movements 2000 Tier 5 Nelonen (Fourth Division) Section 2 Uusimaa (SPL Uusimaa) 1st Promoted 2001 Tier 4 Kolmonen (Third Division) Section 3 Helsinki & Uusimaa (SPL Helsinki) 2002 Tier 4 Kolmonen (Third Division) Section 3 Helsinki & Uusimaa (SPL Helsinki) 3rd 2003 Tier 4 Kolmonen (Third Division) Section 2 Helsinki & Uusimaa (SPL Uusimaa) 3rd 2004 Tier 4 Kolmonen (Third Division) Section 2 Helsinki & Uusimaa (SPL Uusimaa) 2nd 2005 Tier 4 Kolmonen (Third Division) Section 2 Helsinki & Uusimaa (SPL Uusimaa) 1st Play-Offs 2006 Tier 4 Kolmonen (Third Division) Section 2 Helsinki & Uusimaa (SPL Uusimaa) 1st Promoted 2007 Tier 3 Kakkonen (Second Division) Group A Finnish FA (Suomen Pallolitto) 5th 2008 Tier 3 Kakkonen (Second Division) Group A Finnish FA (Suomen Pallolitto) 12th Relegated 2009 Tier 4 Kolmonen (Third Division) Section 3 Helsinki & Uusimaa (SPL Uusimaa) 1st Promoted 2010 Tier 3 Kakkonen (Second Division) Group A Finnish FA (Suomen Pallolitto) 3 seasons in Kakkonen 7 seasons in Kolmonen 1 season in Nelonen

Club Structure

City Stars is part of the FC Kuusysi structure which has 1 men's team, 1 veteran’s team, 1 ladies team, 1 disability team, 15 boys teams and 9 girls teams.

2010 season

City Stars are competing in Group A (Lohko A) of the Kakkonen administered by the Football Association of Finland (Suomen Palloliitto) . This is the third highest tier in the Finnish football system. In 2009 City Stars finished in first position in their Kolmonen (Third Division) section and were promoted to the Kakkonen..

Current Squad for the 2010 Season

Note: Flags indicate national team as has been defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Position Player 1 Tom Hellqvist 2 Antti Hukka 4 Sami Kollanus 5 Ville Karlsson 6 Juuso Pulkkinen 7 Jerry Särkkä 8 Teemu Toukonen 9 Miikka Lähdesmäki 10 Olli Riikonen 11 Jari Holopainen 12 Joonas Westerlund 13 Jonni Kettunen 14 Matias Grefberg 15 Niko Finnström

No. Position Player 16 Teemu Heinonen 17 Jere Pitkälä 18 Jens Tanskanen 19 Markus Hietala 20 Joni Kaarla 21 Ville Vartiainen 22 Timo Lekkermäki 23 Sami Ruponen 24 Niko Tirkkonen 25 Don Grossett 26 Albert Aaltonen 28 Eetu Sassila 30 Petri Haapsaari 50 Vesa Artoma

Notable former players

Toni Huuhka Riku Heini

References and sources

• Official Website
• Finnish Wikipedia
• Suomen Cup
• FC City Stars / FC Kuusysi Fans Facebook

Footnotes

1. ^ "Finland 2006". RSSSF Archives. 2010. http://www.rsssf.com/tablesf/fin06.html. Retrieved 2010-05-20. 
2. ^ "Finland - Divisional Movements 1930-2009". RSSSF Archives. 2010. http://www.rsssf.com/tablesf/finall.html. Retrieved 2010-05-20.