Veikkausliiga already kicked off a few weeks ago so this season guide is way overdue. But let’s not allow that insignificant detail put us off since, despite the first rounds offering some surprises, there are still almost 30 matches to be played, which means that the league’s power balance will even itself out in the [...]
Continue reading...23. November 2011
2011 was a season to remember for HJK. Not only did ‘Klubi’ won their third consecutive title and the Finnish Cup (overall their 24th league championship and 11th cup victory), but they did this in a swashbuckling fashion. The Helsinki team finished the season with a 24-point lead to second-place Inter and scored a whopping 86 goals [...]
Continue reading...15. September 2011
It has been a highly eventful start to the autumn for HJK. First, maintaining their devastating form in the league, the Helsinki club all but secured the Veikkausliiga title already in August. Then, ‘Klubi’ gave Schalke a proper run for their money in the Europa League play-offs, beating the Germans 2-0 at home until imploding [...]
Continue reading...22. August 2011
It is a tedious cliché that Finnish football is small-time and insignificant, but it is unfortunately also kinda true. Precarious finances and a disinterested public make the professional game here seem lower profile than, say, crown green bowls in the UK, or cricket in the United States.
Continue reading...17. August 2011
HJK entertain Schalke tomorrow in the play-off round of the Europa League. Despite the undeniable fact that HJK are marching towards the Veikkausliiga title, the home tie against the German giants is an event that eclipses their whole season (unless they make it into the Europa League group phase of course). The match created a [...]
Continue reading...26. July 2011
HJK made Champions League history trashing Bangor City 13-0 on aggregate in the second round of the competition. Both the second leg 10-0 victory at home and aggregate result are the biggest goal-fests ever celebrated in the Champions League. The result is a remarkable achievement in its own right, especially by a team from Finland, [...]
Continue reading...8. July 2011
HJK entertain Inter tonight in one of the most highly anticipated matches of the current campaign. Inter, second in the table, chase the hosts by seven points with a game in hand, so if the Turku team manage a victory in Helsinki all the talk of handing the Veikkausliiga trophy to HJK may just turn [...]
Continue reading...29. May 2011
The surprise Veikkausliiga leaders from Jyväskylä take on the reigning champions at the Sonera Stadium at 6:30pm tonight. JJK remain unbeaten with sixteen points after six matches while HJK sit third with twelve points. Therefore, even with a limited grasp of arithmetic, the hosts are in for a match they need to win.
Continue reading...19. May 2011
HJK host Jaro at the Sonera Stadium tonight at 6:30pm. The home side have recorded three straight victories (KuPS (H), Inter (H), VPS (A)) after the opening day defeat against TPS in Turku and sit second in the table, a point behind JJK. Jaro have also recovered from their dodgy start to the season, that [...]
Continue reading...7. May 2011
Did you miss NFN’s three-part Veikkausliiga preview? Don’t worry, you can find it here, just click on the linka. Part I -Part II - Part III. Nordic Football News has once again brought you the most definitive Veikkausliiga preview concievable. Now for the final part, our standings prediction. After much debate and wrangling, NFN Editor Egan Richardson [...]
Continue reading...6. May 2011
And so we move to the not-so-business end of the table, the rear. It promises to be quite a battle, since so many clubs have been forced to cut costs amid financial turmoil.
Continue reading...6. May 2011
The mid-table more than any other part of the league is defined by the financial nuclear winter and different ways to approach it. Let the carnage ensue!
Continue reading...6. May 2011
It’s time for the annual NFN Veikkausliiga preview. As with last year, a three part preview, starting with the title contenders. Want to guess who we think will win?
Continue reading...30. March 2011
Let’s not get carried away by the shock of the match-fixing scandal. A cap on foreign players in Veikkausliiga isn’t the answer.
Continue reading...12. January 2011
When you go for a Sunday stroll around the Finnish transfer circus at this time of the year, in this bleak financial and meteorological climate, you would expect to see a sad merry-go-round sitting stranded in the cold, transfer ponies buried under five feet of snow, emptiness echoing in the absence of laughter, shrieks of [...]
Continue reading...24. September 2010
Every spare moment I’ve had in between work I’ve been thinking about the Finnish Cup final. Not the game itself, but the event. I kept running into the same problem. Yes, it has history and tradition. And yes, football is football and that should suffice. But every time I thought of these things I felt [...]
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17. May 2012
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