The HJK team that advanced to the group stage of the Europa League is a lot like the team from Helsinki that did the same trick in 2014, writes Urheilu’s digital producer Joska Saarinen.
Everything has turned upside down in two months.
At the end of June, Helsinki Football Club was a club in crisis.
The head coach For Toni Koskela sacks were called for, for good reason.
HJK lost consecutively to AC Oulu, IFK Mariehamn and FC Inter. Playing was mechanical, painful. Players fell into silly mistakes. The Finnish championship was about to escape to Kuopio.
The most enthusiastic ones demand a CEO Aki Riihilahten head to the plate, for good reason.
In the early season, HJK’s matches ran out of food and the audience had a hard time finding a place.
The change started on July 6. That’s when HJK started the European games, i.e. matches, which the organization has particularly invested in in recent years.
HJK narrowly advanced in the first round of the Champions League qualifiers against Latvian FK Riga FS.
Since then, HJK has only drawn 1–1 against AC Oulu in the Veikkausliiga. HJK is involved in the championship battle with FC Honga and KuPS.
At the Europe Games, the public has found its way to the stands and the game has gone on. Although Viktoria Plzen was clearly better in the Champions League qualifiers, HJK has played excellently in the Europa League qualifiers.
to the Europa League after an eight-year hiatus
The last (and only) time the Finnish team played in the group stage of the Europa League was in 2014. Then Mika Lehkosuo took HJK to the group games.
After that European game fall, the Helsinki club has been chasing the next jackpot almost obsessively.
In some years, it has seemed that everything HJK has done has been aimed only at European games, which has been reflected in underperformance in the Veikkausliiga.
After the underperformance, the club management has fallen into panic buying in the player market.
In this year’s midsummer, echoes from past years could be heard.
This time, the player acquisitions made in the middle of the season hit the spot. Aapo Halme, Lucas Lingman and Paulus Arajuuri are domestic elite players at the national team level. Malmö loan Malik Abubakari scored an important goal against Silkeborg.
This year’s team has much in common with HJK in 2014, which advanced to the group stage.
In autumn 2014 Teemu Tainion, Markus Heikkinen, Mika Väyrynen and Mikael Forssell experienced national team stars like him brought leadership to the team. Now the same box is filled by, among other things Perparim Hetemaj, Joona Toivio and Arajuuri.
As the icing on the cake, the foreign reinforcements Malik and David Brownewho ran an incredible show on the left wing all season Murilo and a young promise who strongly orchestrated the midfield game after his injury Santeri Väänänen.
The 2014 team also had top-notch foreigners and hungry youngsters, such as Robin Lod and Nikolai Alho.
Good luck has to be earned
HJK head coach Toni Koskela suddenly looks like a genius.
He is in his third full season as head coach of HJK and the Club is in the group stage of the European games for the second time. Of course, last season it was about the Conference League, to which the Finnish champion team has an easier path than other Euro competitions.
Koskela has received a lot of justified criticism for HJK’s static playing, but the results have come in the most important moments.
In the Veikkausliiga, Koskela has won the championship in both of his full seasons. In Europe games, he has made his team’s defensive play work when the stakes have been at their highest.
It’s a hard work, even though there have been a couple of embarrassing 0-5 peat saunas in the Euro fields.
Koskela has also been lucky.
HJK scored against Silkeborg from the opponent’s goalkeeper From Nicolai Larsen a gift when Malik shot the ball from almost half the field into the goal.
Silkeborg took the goal posts overwhelmingly, but this time the goal post and the sentinels were on the Club’s side.
This does not mean that HJK did not deserve its rare achievement.
The cold fact is that luck plays a big role in the outcome of a football match.
The HJK team led by Koskela had to do a huge amount of right things to get to the point where a little bit of luck changed the season of the “crisis club” once and for all.