Ville Lajunen, 34, has won three Finnish Championship silver and one World Championship silver. The pursuit of the championship takes the defender forward.
The final series of the Finnish Championship League Tappara – TPS will continue on Saturday in Turku at 5 pm.
– Of course it kicks forward. It would be nice to feel what winning feels like. However, I live in this day and moment. It is not appropriate to go very far in thoughts. Otherwise not very good will come, TPS defender Ville Lajunen says Sport.
Ville Lajunen, 34, has often been very close to the Finnish championship. He has already played three times in the finals, but every time the defender has had to settle for silver. Last time last year, when Rauma Lukko was better than TPS with a match win of 3–1.
Lajunen has been close to the brightest outside Finland as well. In the spring of 2014, silver was hung on Lajunen’s neck both in the Swedish main series and at the World Championships in Minsk.
Lajunen won silver for the first time in the Espoo Blues in 2008 and 2011. At that time, he was much younger, 23 years old at the time of the latter silver. Over the years and with age, the overriding feeling after a silver medal has naturally changed.
– I have played elsewhere, seen more and realized that I can’t get to the finals every year. They are great events.
– Everyone who does this is terribly hungry to win, and winning is the salt of this thing. That’s why the gang probably wants to play and always get far with their own team, Lajunen spins.
On Saturday, TPS will apply for a tie in the final series in his home trough. In the first final, the winged TPS stayed with Tappara for a long time, but the people of Tampere eventually took the 2-1 lead in the final round. The machine-grinding group then did not give TPS a chance.
The game of Tappara, who cultivates delayed starts, has also often been criticized as boring.
– I don’t know if it’s boring. They play their own kind of puck and they’ve gotten to that point with it. It seems to work just fine. Each team has its own way of playing and they have that. It only helps to put the sticks in the stroller and try to twist the wins, Lajunen says.
According to Lajunen, in the first final, TPS saw what it takes to win one game. Now the people of Turku know what to expect from Saturday’s match.
– We have to improve on simple things and little things: struggles, blocking the puck. We just have to have more desire and will. It has the biggest medicine, Lajunen concludes.