Tag: HJK Helsinki

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[Podcast] Finnish Football Show: Veikkausliiga Finale, Helmarit Squad, Tuija Hyyrynen Retires, HJK in Europe, Finns Overseas

Mark Wiltshear

Rich, Keke and Ally reconvened to tie up the 2022 Veikkausliiga season in a bow. Looking at the final games and the play offs, they celebrate the winners, commiserate with the losers and deride Lahti, again.

Next, they turn their attention to the Helmarit squad selection for the upcoming friendly against Wales and give props to retiring Helmari, Tuija Hyyrynen. They discuss VAR sabotaging David Browne’s wonder goal, a highlight of HJK’s European campaign even though it was disallowed, and finish with a look at Finns in action overseas.

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[Podcast] Finnish Football Show: Veikkausliiga Run-in, Euro 2024 Draw, Essi Sainio Retires from Helmarit, Finns Overseas

Mark Wiltshear

Rich & Keke (enhanced by Producer Mark in post-production) discuss the upcoming Veikkausliiga play offs, as 5 teams enter an 8-match bun fight for the final Europa Conference place. They look again at the restructuring of the Finnish league in 2024, as a few more details are released and make everything clearer (erm!)

The chaps also pay a tribute to Essi Sainio, who retires from football with over 50 Helmarit caps to her name. They look at a favourable Euro 2024 qualifying draw for the Huuhkajat and start booking their flights to the qualifiers all across Europe, before finishing up with a look at recent events for Finnish players overseas.

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[Podcast] Finnish Football Show: Nations League Preview, Veikkausliiga, Suomen Cup Final, HJK and KuPS Women in Europe

Mark Wiltshear

They say size doesn’t matter, but 1 hour 18 minutes of FFS action may just change your mind!

Mark W, Rich, Keke & Ally get together to preview the autumn 2023 Nations League games for Finland against Romania and Montenegro. They also look at teh situation in the Veikkausliiga, now it has split into the Mestaruussarja and the Haastajasarja for the final five rounds of matches.

Ally then talks through the Suomen Cup final (KuPS 1-0 Inter) and HJK Helsinki’s first two Europa League performances against Real Betis and Roma. Finally, Rich looks forward to KuPS Women who have two games against St Pölten of Austria, in order to qualify for the Champions leagus group stage.

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[Podcast] Finnish Football Show: Finnish Teams in Europe, Veikkausliiga Update, Helmarit WC Qualifiers, Suomen Cup Semis & Finnish League Restructure

Mark Wiltshear

Mark W, Keke and Rich bring you a selection of recent news from the world of Finnish football including a proposed restructuring of the Finnish league in 2024, the Womens World Cup qualifying campaign and the Suomen Cup semi-finals played this week.

We also talk in more detail about the current state of play in the Veikkausliiga, with 20 games played and ‘the split’ (into the Champions Series and the Challenger Series) about to take place. We look back at the Europa Conference campaigns of SJK, Inter and KuPS, as well as HJK’s progression (Backward progressions? Downwards qualification?) from Champions League qualifiers into the Europa League group stage.

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[Podcast] Veikkausliiga Update, Women’s Euro 2022 Preview, Suomen Cup Quarter Finals.

Mark Wiltshear

The summer of Finnish football continues apace, so Mark W, Rich & Keke got together to bring you an update on the Veikkausliiga season, now at the halfway stage. We also previewed the Women’s Euro 2022 competition, as Finland prepares to take on Spain, Denmark and Germany.

The Suomen Cup is now at the quarter final stage, so we look back at the 6th round and preview the quarter finals – the results are in the blog post, so you can see how accurate we were! Finally, we look forward to next week’s UEFA club competitons, which see HJK, KuPS, Inter and SJK in actionnns overseas, many successes and just a few disappointments.

Continue reading “[Podcast] Veikkausliiga Update, Women’s Euro 2022 Preview, Suomen Cup Quarter Finals.”
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[Podcast] Veikkausliiga Update, Huuhkajat Nations League Preview, Suomen Cup Thrills, Lina Lehtovaara at #UWCL & What Next For Teemu?

Mark Wiltshear

The FFS team was at full-strength again for this episode, which is handy as Mark W, Rich, Keke & Mark H had a very full agenda to get through – and that was before Keke invented the new ‘extra time’ segment 🤦🏻‍♂️

Once again, we have a broad update from across various aspects of football, Finland-style: we start with a Veikkausliiga update and further discussion of SJK Seinäjoki’s woes. We look a few weeks ahead to the four upcoming Nations League games and herald the Finn who’s participating in the Champions League Final.

There’s also a Suomen Cup update, pausing to laugh at Ilves losing to their reserves and to celebrate the smaller sides still in the fifth round. And we finish up by looking at the achievements of the Finns overseas, many successes and just a few disappointments.

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[Podcast] Veikkausliiga After 4 Games, Helmarit Match Reports, Suomen Cup Progress & Mixu’s Back!

Mark Wiltshear

The FFS team was selected from a full squad for this episode as Mark W, Rich, Keke & Mark H reconvene to bring you an update across the world of football in Finland. We start by looking at the current state of play in Veikkausliiga 2022, where all the teams have played four games.

We also discuss Helsinki IFK’s tough start to the season, their new manager (already!) Mixu Paatelainen and the upcoming ‘Stadin Derby’ between HIFK and HJK. We look back at the recent World Cup qualifiers for the women’s national team, the Helmarit, and results & upcoming fixtures in the Suomen Cup.

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[Podcast] In Conversation with… Rasmus Schüller

Mark Wiltshear

In this episode, Keke, Mark H and Mark W are joined by another Huuhkajat star, Rasmus Schüller, who has over 50 Finland caps to his name. A serial winner, who has five Veikkausliiga titles, including three League & Cup doubles 🙌🏼 Rasmus is tough tackling, smooth passing, no nonsense, central midfielder currently with Djurgårdens IF in Stockholm.

Rade tells us how it felt to start in the Veikkausliiga, for Honka at the age of 18, the challenge of making the step-up to HJK Helsinki, his MLS adventure in Minnesota. He also shares some VERY interesting insights into the ill-fated Hans Backe era of the Finland national team and why Markku Kanerva has enjoyed such success in the Nations League and Euro 2020.

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[Podcast] Finnish Football Show: Xmas Live Show

Mark Wiltshear

For our final show of 2021, we decided to broadcast it as a Facebook Live video and publish the results as a series of podcasts over the Christmas holiday. This was recorded on Monday 20.12.2021.

We discussed the news that Tim Sparv has retired, the confirmed Nations League fixtures for the Huuhkajat, considered who should be our ‘Finnish Player of the Year’ and launched our 2022 merchandise range.

We were joined by Boris Wistuba-Marino (Kitman at HJK Helsinki) and by FFS fan Erno who ‘knows Keke really well’ – whatever that means!

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[Podcast] Finnish Football Show: Veikkausliiga 2021 Review – HJK Helsinki Crowned Champions 🏆🏅

Mark Wiltshear

The final weekend of the Veikkausliiga 2021 season was full of drama. First played second, as KuPS hosted HJK in a battle for the title. While third played fourth, as Inter hosted SJK in the bronze medal match… and what accommodating hosts they were too! This game also turned into a shoot-out for the top scorer prize, with Benjamin Källman and Ariel ‘Tuco’ Ngueukam going toe-to-toe in this game, and both finishing on 14 goals for the season.

Mark H, Rich, Keke and Mark W get together to review the final weekend’s action and let’s just say, there were mixed emotions for the FFS team! We also look at the action in the Veikkausliiga/Ykkönen play-off between AC Oulu & RoPS.

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