21-year-old Top Middle scored two wonderful goals when Helsinki Football Club beat FC Lahti in the second round of the Veikkausliiga with a score of 4–0. In their opening match, HJK experienced a sad 1-3 loss to Kuopio Palloseura, so a fair home win was needed for the biggest champion favorite.
– It was basically a forced win. It feels really good, we really wanted to win, Keskinen told directly after the match.
The scorer of the winning goal was satisfied that the team was not left to worry about the KuPS loss. A draw in their own end warmed up Keski.
– The KuPS match was bad. We only focused on this match after that. We were a bit better defensively today.
Keskinen shot the home team into the lead at the end of his wonderful solo run in the 20th minute of the game. Keskinen started his tempo transport from deep in his own defensive area. With Lahti’s defense canceling, Keskinen got all the way to the edge of the penalty area, from where he accurately shot the falling ball into the bottom corner.
The opening half didn’t offer too many subtleties, but Keskinen’s second goal equaled the opening goal. He got possession of the ball near the penalty area, took one touch to the right and curled the ball into the back top corner.
At the same time, the winger scored as many goals as he did in the entire last season.
– I was positively surprised by how much space I had to run. I like it if there’s that much of it. It’s even quite rare, Keskinen sneered at Lahti’s defense.
In the second half Lucas Lingman already took the reigning Finnish champions to a 3–0 lead with a penalty kick after less than an hour of play.
The final scores were completed at the end of a fast attack Hassane Bande in the 69th minute of the game. HJK striker Luke Plange made a wonderful pass into the goal, and Bande completed the composition with a beautiful lift over the Lahti goalkeeper By Joshua Oluwayemi.
The center would have had a chance for a hat-trick if he had been able to shoot the penalty kick. However, this was not possible.
– There were four guys arguing about the ball. I thought that I can’t take the joke and I’ll do one more on the field, but the team didn’t want to pass anymore in the second half, when everyone wanted to score themselves, Keskinen said.
Security spoke
Possible disorder became a topic of conversation before the match. During the opening round of the weekend, there was some disorderly behavior in some places. For example, in Kuopio, supporters of HJK and KuPS caused fights, as a result of which four people were taken to the tube.
Due to the events of the weekend, the police had stepped up their surveillance for tonight’s match. Sanoma reports before the match, that the police had taken 20 supporters for inspection in front of the stadium on Mannerheimintie.
Chief Commissioner Jere Roimu told Sanom that some of the supporters were arrested to protect them from crime.
– Among other things, they found mouthguards. Apparently they are preparing for an arranged fight or other confrontation. Otherwise, the fan march went peacefully.
Previously in Kuopio, KuPS–HJK match explained to Ruudu Brother Engstrom told Supla in the Veikkausliiga podcastthat HJK supporters would have even thrown torches in the direction of Ruuttu’s delivery van.
Now the police reacted to HJK’s home match in an exceptionally firm way, because according to Jere Roimu, supporters of both Lahti and HJK had caused trouble in the opening round.
The event did not proceed completely without disturbances, Helsinki police report. In addition to the fact that the police already made some arrests before the match, there were also disturbances during the match when, for example, the stadium’s advertising fences were broken.
In addition, according to the release, the security guards and the police were violently resisted. Three criminal reports have been registered for the incidents.
After the match, the police said that they had arrested a total of 16 people during the match event.
– Unfortunately, during the evening, supporters caused excesses. We had to arrest several people. In the future, the Helsinki police will also supervise HJK’s home matches in an enhanced manner. Our goal is to eliminate aggressive behavior from matches and that football matches are safe for all spectators, Roimu stated.
The coach praised the process
HJK’s head coach situation received a lot of attention before the season when he came from Sweden Ferran Sibila was ineligible to be a head coach due to lack of license. Designed as an assistant coach Ossi Virta is nominally the head coach of the team.
Passionate and tactically alert, Virta cheered with satisfaction after the match.
– In my opinion, we played an excellent match and deserved the victory, he told .
Virta said that the team has prepared for the season with high quality and did not succeed at their level in Kuopio. The coach also praised his team’s defense. FC Lahti didn’t really get their ball game going. On the other hand, the away team’s defense cracked really ugly at times when HJK attacked.
– It is gratifying that we had successes on a wide front. We were really much better defensively than in Kuopio, for which we have to thank the whole team and the way we played, Virta praised his troops.