Regular updates from a big day for Finnish football.
Ok, jam-packed day of football for Finnish fans, we’ve got a Veikkausliiga round, a play-off final an international match and if you’re up till 4am (we’re not these days) an MLS-6-pointer.
21:20 – Well, a disjointed performance with defensive mistakes and offensive uncertainty. Finland didn’t trouble Sweden, you have to look hard for the positives. 1) Soiri and Kauko showed why they’re mainstays of the squad. 2) Uronen, Jensen and Sparv got much needed minutes. 3) Onni Valakari showed he has to go to the Euros, Roope Riski showed he can work hard and press, even alone, up top. The negatives, so many players didn’t rise to the opportunity and we looked really fragile. Stronger players will join the squad next week, but Kanerva doesn’t really have any selection headaches based on tonight display.
18:53 – Ok. That’s it before we move over to Twitter, SJK took out Honka, Haka surprised KuPS, Inter won at HIFK and Marcus Forss will be a Premier League player next season with Brentford. Now over to Rive’s fringe players to prove themselves, we’re predicting a low scoring game against the Swedes.
18:21 – here’s the line up for Finland Sweden, three at the back, with 4/5 hoping to make it to the Euros.
18:09 – As it stands Marcus Forss is heading to the premier league. Brentford 2-0 up at Swansea. In the Veikkausliiga it’s half time at a couple of games. Inter Turku are 2-1 up in Helsinki against HIFK, KuPS are trailing 1-0 at home to Haka.
16:57 – FT Honka 0-1 SJK. The match was decided by a fine solo goal by Emanuel Ledesma in the 90th minute. He won the ball inside his own half, robbing the Honka defender, before running unchallenged to the edge of the box and slotting it calmly past the Honka ‘keeper, Murphy. Overall, a game that lacked real quality in the final third (at both ends) saw dram at the end with a red card for Honka’s Alegria for a, ahem, ‘savage head butt’ on Cristhian Valencia.
15:53 – HT Honka 0-0 SJK. Decent first half that has not been spoiled by an awful playing surface and goal nets that are full of holes. I mean, rips in the net that needed to be fixed before kick off. Regarding the game, SJK have had most of the play, but both have had chance to score. Better quality around the box is needed if a winner is to be found.
15:32 – Half an hour gone in Tapiola and the most interesting development so far has been a hole in the nets. Honka 0-0 SJK.
14:34 – we are also only a couple of hours away from the English Championship Play-off Final between Brentford and Swansea. The Bees are the favorites after Marcus Forss’s winning goal in the semis. There’s a decent preview on Sports. Mole, which you can find here:
14:24 – for the younger / cooler readers of FFS here’s our tiktok of the Sweden’ game:
https://vm.tiktok.com/ZMecGjmHT/
13:54 – While we don’t know much about the this evening, we do know that it won’t be shown on ViaFree. To watch fans will need to sign up to Elisa Viihde ViaPlay.
13:30 – both Honka and SJK will be looking to find some form today, both have only won once. Honka, who’ve had a tough opening run of fixtures are currently 2nd bottom.
11:17 – Today’s Veikkauslioga fixtures:
15:00 – Honka – SJK (Mark W in attendance)
17:00 – KuPS – Haka
17:00 – HIFK – Inter Turku
11:01 – We are expecting Markku Kanerva to experiment today. Likely the Väisänen brothers will get a look in, and with mild injuries for Pukki and Pohjanpalo and Rasse Karjalainen already ruled out, many fans (ahem) are hoping to see Roope Riski today, the Veikkausliiga golden boot winner with an outside chance of getting on the plane to the Euros.
10:51 – ok, so let’s start of with a recap. It looks like Niki Mäenpää will be a Serie A player next season after his play-off promotion, and the extended squads (that are still somehow not yet complete) for both Finland and Sweden makes this evening’s friendly difficult to predict. We discuss it with YLE’s Ronan Browne in our latest Podcast which you can fine here.
The Finnish Football Show 