There were no dramatic changes in the top battle of the Veikkausliiga, as KuPS and HJK tied the scores 1-1 in Helsinki Töölö.
KuPS took the lead in the match in the sixth minute of the game. KuPS attacking midfielder Janis Ikaunieks sent a long, spiraling cross into HJK’s box from the central area. Brazilian midfielder Gabriel Bispo had risen up and remained completely free. This took the ball down alongside and placed it in the bottom corner.
The second half was completely HJK’s. For example, scoring attempts were recorded for HJK in the entire match 20–9, shots on goal 9–5 and corner kicks 12–4.
HJK got their equalizing goal from a penalty kick in the 61st minute. Taneli Hämäläinen knocked him down at the end of the penalty area after skilfully passing it by David Browne. Rankkari was sunk by a Serbian tip Bojan Radulovicwho had just come on the field from the substitution.
Head coach of HJK Toni Koskela described after the match that in the first half, KuPS was able to open up HJK’s press and got into long periods of ball control, but in the second half, according to Koskela, the Club was clearly better.
– Even match, maybe we created more goal chances and could have taken three points from this.
KuPS head coach Simo Valakari was pretty much on the same lines as Koskela. He thinks both had their moments.
– We knew exactly how HJK plays. We broke through in the first period, scored a goal, could have scored a few more.
– Both teams are probably disappointed with the result. If we look at it neutrally, it’s a 1-1 game. Even games with small margins, Valakari stated and said that he was proud of his team, which was able to meet the challenge offered by HJK on its home field.
With a win, KuPS would have increased the already significant gap to HJK. Now the difference is three points in favor of KuPS, but KuPS has played one match less.
The number of spectators in the top match was 5,707. It is the second highest number of spectators in the Veikkausliiga season. The HIFK–HJK derby had a little over 7,000 spectators.
On Saturday, FC Honka played 1–1 with IFK Mariehamn. Honka is only three points away from HJK, and has played two matches less than the Helsinki team.
AC Oulu lost their home game to VPS ugly 0–6. After the break, the situation was 0-2, but Oulu’s top scorer Miika Koskela got a straight red card right at the start of the second half. Koskela fell from his back to drive through Tete Yengin. VPS’s goals were distributed among six different players: Aleksi Pahkasalo, Kalle Multanen, Tyler Reid, Antti-Ville RäisänenTete Yengi and Steven Morrissey.
In Saturday’s fourth match, FC Lahti improved its position at the bottom of the series when it beat Inter 2–1. The winning goal was scored in the 89th minute by an experienced top man Macoumba Kandji.
In the Veikkausliiga, a regular season of 22 matches is played as usual, after which the best six advance to the upper and the six weakest to the lower final series. There will be five more matches for each team in the final series.
The story continues after the standings.
HJK does not score goals
The men’s football league victory was considered a trade of two in advance planning. It’s still likely, even if Honkaka hasn’t fallen off the wagon yet.
Already last season, HJK and KuPS had a historically tight victory struggle, when HJK played with an average of 2.19 and KuPS 2.15 points for the season. In addition, HJK reached the group stage of the Conference League, and KuPS also went far in the euro fields.
For this season, HJK was even stronger with famous national team heroes, when the defender Joona Toivio and Jukka Raitala and midfield Perparim Hetemaj returned to the domestic series. A tall Northern Irishman was acquired as a goalkeeper Connor Hazardwho moved from Celtic on loan, and the Serbian striker Radulovic was loaned from AIK for the attack.
Of course, HJK lost, among other things, a midfield player by Lucas Lingmanwho moved to Sweden, and the national team defender who moved to Germany of Daniel O’Shaughnessy.
HJK’s early season has been bumpy. It started the spring with a three-goal win, but then lost 1–4 to Inter Turku at home. After that came another three-game winning streak before a draw against Lahti, who are at the bottom of the series.
HJK went into Saturday’s top fight against KuPS with three games without a win. In the Veikkausliiga, the team had played a draw as a guest of KuPS and lost to AC Oulu and IFK Mariehamn. In the Finnish Cup, Inter left HJK in the quarter-finals stage in the tough competition. In between was a rank-and-file victory over VPS in the Finnish Cup.
In those five matches, HJK scored only one goal. Radulovic is the best scorer in HJK at the beginning of the season with four league goals. In interviews, head coach Koskela has rightly considered inefficiency to be HJK’s biggest problem. The reigning champion has only scored the fourth most goals.
– Yes, we have enough scoring opportunities. Efficiency, how we turn them into goals, is a pain point that needs to be solved, Koskela said after the KuPS match.
Of course, HJK has had a huge number of injuries. They were sidelined against KuPS due to injuries Valtteri MorenHetemaj, Toivio and Roope and Riku Riski. Among them, the season of Moreni and Roope Riski is over.
KuPS’s union has continued, even though Honka ended the streak
KuPS, on the other hand, continued where it left off last season – that is, it did not agree to lose. The season started with five wins before the first draw. On June 18, FC Honka ended KuPS’s record 31-game unbeaten streak.
After last season, KuPS lost, among other things, the Veikkausliiga’s best player, Urho Nissilän. The substitutes have succeeded. In KuPS’s midfield, for example, Brazilian Gabriel Bispo, 25, and a Ghanaian who moved from Danish Nordsjaelland have toiled Clinton Anthony22.
He has been especially responsible for the Kuopio team’s scoring Tim Vayrynen, which has received fire support from the Latvian artist Janis Ikaunieks. However, Väyryne will soon have top-class support when Filip Valencic will be eligible to play when the transfer window opens on July 13.
Honka, VPS and AC Oulu as early season winners
FC Honka, VPS and AC Oulu can be singled out as the biggest successes of the early season.
Honka, used to fighting for European spots, finished ninth in the Veikkausliiga last season.
Of course, the people of Espoo already convinced in the winter by winning the league cup, which is back on the calendar.
Vesa Vasaran the team he has coached since 2017 has allowed only ten hits in the series. Only KuPS has conceded fewer goals.
Honga’s best scorer with five hits has been the youth national team striker, 19 years old Agon Sadiku. The Colombian, who also managed to score twice, has led the defense Aldayr Hernandez26, who previously played in Finland for TPS and HIFK.
AC Oulu, which only retained its place in the league last season against RoPS in the league qualifiers, is in fifth place. The people from Oulu have managed to beat, among others, HJK, Honga and Inter. However, on Saturday, AC Oulu was defeated by league champions VPS in the 20th anniversary game on their home field.
Argentinian striker, 24 years old, arrived from the Belarusian league Michael Lopez has succeeded in scoring six times in Oulu. The 17-year-old kid from Oulu has charmed in the midfield Take the Glue.
The team from Oulu got stronger in June with big names, when a striker seen in Huuhkaj also joined the team Rasmus Karjalainen and most recently the Colombian top player who represented SJK Cristian Valencia.
VPS, considered perhaps the biggest relegation candidate, is sixth in the series. Experienced Steven Morrissey and Kalle Multanen and Australian reinforcement Tete Yengi have scored five goals each. VPS has scored the most goals in the Veikkausliiga, 27, after its six-goal haul on Saturday.
VPS, who won Ykkönen last season and returned to the Veikkausliiga, experienced a hard setback at the end of May when the midfielder, captain Sebastian Strandvall injured against IFK Mariehamn. The 35-year-old Strandvall, who already represented VPS in 2012–14 and returned to the club in 2016, tore his anterior cruciate ligament, so his season is over, the club announced (you will switch to another service).
FC Lahti and SJK have a weak start
FC Lahti, who rose one place to tenth in the series with the win against Inter, has changed its head coach. Piloted the team since 2020 Ilir Zeneli got fired at Midsummer. He was replaced by someone who previously coached the Rovaniemi Ball Club in the Veikkausliiga Mikko Mannila. Before RoPS-pesti, Mannila worked for years in the HJK organization.
SJK narrowly beat HIFK in the opening of the season, but after that there were five losses in a row. Now SJK is ninth in the series.
Last season, SJK finished third behind the fierce top two. However, it wasn’t enough of a show to make KuPS the 2019 champion Jani Honkavaara would have been allowed to continue at SJK. Instead, a Spaniard who coached HIFK the previous season was acquired for Seinäjoki Joaquin Gomez.
HIFK’s financial situation spoke volumes
At the bottom end of the series, HIFK’s financial situation has talked about the beginning of the season in particular. The ownership base of the club was renewed again last fall, when the main owners of the club became Heikki Pajunen, Janne Räsänen, Mirka Lod, Heikki Lehmuskoski and Jan Holst.
HIFK’s scenes had already been stirred up a year earlier, when the cooperation of the Chinese main owner by Lucas Chang Jin with ended in disagreements.
– The goal has been set that one day we will be champions of Finland. But first we’ll get the ground work in order, Heikki Pajunen commented in the fall.
Also CEO of HIFK Soccer Christopher Perret was happy about the new ownership base in the fall. He commented that “we get the economy in better shape, and we don’t have to think about which bills to pay all the time”.
On June 16, 2022, HIFK then published an open letter (you move to another service) on their website. In it, chairman Pajunen spoke about the club’s serious financial problems. Pajunen said that HIFK is 40 percent behind in ticket sales compared to the time before the pandemic. It was also stated that discussions with new investors and business partners have been interrupted due to the war in Ukraine.
Pajunen told STT that the acute need is half a million euros for this year and 140,000 euros in June. The threat was the interruption of the season and the continuation of the representative team’s activities in the fourth highest league level, where HIFK’s second team plays.
June 23 HIFK announced (you switch to another service), that “the first fence has been crossed”. The club thanked those who participated in the support campaign and said that “at least in July, the team will play its matches according to the league schedule”.
It hasn’t gone better on the field. Series jumbo HIFK has won only one of the 11 matches they have played.
HIFK’s head coach changed right at the beginning of the season, when the Portuguese Bernardo Tavares left his position citing family reasons after the first league match. Tavares was not involved in that either due to illness. Immediately after leaving HIFK, Tavares moved to Indonesian PSM Makassar as head coach.
He became the pilot of HIFK Mixu Paatelainen.
Europels begin
Euro games will be played next week. HJK will face the Latvian team RFS in the Champions League qualifiers. The first leg will be played on Wednesday, July 6 in Töölö and the second leg a week later in Riga.
KuPS hosts Georgia’s Dila Gori on Thursday in the first leg of the Conference League qualifiers. SJK starts the Conference League qualifiers on Thursday against Flora from Estonia. Inter, on the other hand, will host Kosovo’s Drita in the Conference League qualifiers on Wednesday.
Also in the Conference League, the second leg of the qualification will be played a week after the first meeting.
Veikkausliiga matches on Saturday 2 July 2022
FC Honka–IFK Mariehamn 1–1 (1–0)
2. Agon Sadiku 1–0
49. John Owoeri 1-1
AC Oulu–VPS 0–6 (0–2)
10. Aleksi Pahkasalo 0–1
45. Kalle Multanen 0–2
55. Tyler Reid 0-3
63. Antti-Ville Räisänen 0–4
78. Tete Yengi 0–5
80. Steven Morrissey 0-6
HJK–KuPS 1–1 (0–1)
6. Gabriel Bispo 0–1
63. Bojan Radulovic rp. 1–1
FC Lahti–FC Inter 2–1 (1–1)
7. Elias Mastokangas 0–1
45+2. Kevin Kouassivi-Benissa’s 1–1
89. Macoumba Kandji rp. 2–1