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SAMPO are one of Finland's legendary clubs, but their results haven't been that good in the last few years. This season they want to come back to Top 5 and they managed to gather a solid team with Estonians Raadik and national team setter Keelo. Then they have Mutka and Katraasalo, the experienced Sivonen and Heiskanen... They had a great pre-season period, they beat two strong Top 5 Baltic League clubs (Selver Tallin 3-1, Flamigno 3-1) at a strong tournament in Estonia and with hosts and the winners of the last season's Baltic League Parnuo they were at 2-2 and won the tournament. They also won one tournament in Finland by beating none other than LEKA in the finals with 25-17, 25-18, 25-14 which were at the time without the important Helenius. Their last check-up was against Riento and they won another one at home with 3-1. LEKA lost all of their last season's foreigners (Petty, Johnson, Austin) who had key roles, and they found their replacement in young Finnish players. They had a lot of problems in the pre-season period, but they had two matches against Riento for the start of the championship. They won at home with 3-1, but they were beaten with 3-0 in an away game (15-25, 21-25, 24-26). The new shock came in the first round of the Cup three days ago. They barely beat second-league Maaningen Mahti with 3-2 with their strongest line-up. SAMPO covered this handicap twice last season (+6 away, +16 home) in three matches, and LEKA were a lot stronger at that time. The bookies obviously look at last season's teams while today the situation is different. With it we have a head-to-head result in the pre-season period. SAMPO won with 26 points of difference at neutral grounds, and the fact that LEKA were without Helenius doesn't change the situation that much.