The seasons of HJK and Honga, who meet in the finals of the Women’s Finnish Cup, have gone in opposite directions. HJK has progressed from victory to victory.
Kamilla Rajander,
Jussi Saarinen
Espoo Honga’s season in the National Football League has been quiet, as the team remained in the lower promotion series, but the team still has a chance to brighten its season with the Finnish Cup championship.
The people of Espoo will face HJK in the final to be played in Tampere on Sunday night
Honga’s goalkeeper Ella-Maria Ervasti says that the league season that went under the bench gives the team an additional boost in pursuit of winning the Finnish Cup.
– Now, when the league has gone a bit the way it is, this is such a golden thing that we will go out and win it, Ervasti vows.
16-year-old Ervasti became his team’s number one goalkeeper in August, when the previous goalkeeper Liisa Tuomi headed to Lithuania.
Honka has given up many of his other star players this season. In July, the team loaned its defender Noora Hämäläinen To the Swedish first division Eskilstuna and in August a defender Inka Kaivola moved to Austria.
Honga’s head coach Omar Adlani has a positive attitude towards players moving abroad.
– I think that is their goal and dream. So who are we to tell them that we have to keep them here away from their dreams?
The head coach sees that one of the club’s main focuses is to offer young players opportunities to go abroad to tougher leagues to challenge themselves and strive to improve.
– If they tell me at the beginning of the season or whenever they join the team that they want to go abroad, then we will try to do so.
The goals are profit and enjoyment
Honga’s final opponent HJK has played strongly throughout the season. The team from Helsinki, which is firmly in the Finnish championship, has lost only one league match this season.
– We are ready and we have done everything we can to ensure that we are well prepared. That’s where Honga’s will to fight comes from, that HJK won’t get off easy, Ella-Maria Ervasti assures.
For the young goalkeeper, this is the first season in which he plays in the Finnish Cup at all.
– When you get this far, I at least feel like I want to give everything to this now.
Omar Adlani, who has been piloting Honga’s representative team since the 2022 season, says that like any other game, the team goes to the final of the Finnish Cup with the goal of winning.
In addition to that, it is important for the young team on Sunday to have fun and enjoy the experience after the ups and downs they have gone through.
– The most important thing is to come in and look around. The stadium is beautiful, the players’ families and friends are here, and we don’t experience this every year, so we want to enjoy it, Adlani emphasizes.
HJK and Honka will meet in the final of the women’s Finnish Cup at the Tammela stadium on Sunday, September 22. at 6:30 p.m.