PK-35 vs HIFK

PK-35 welcome visitors from Töölö for this Suomen Cup quarter-finals match at MagneCit-Areena in Pihlajamäki. This is a battle between two teams from Helsinki, the capital of my home country Finland. PK-35 play in Ykkönen, the second tier whereas HIFK play at the highest level, Veikkausliiga. The difference between these two leagues is substantial and bookies seem to underestimate the difference in raw class here! Both teams are highly motivated here as the prize money – even if not very high as such – would mean a lot for both teams. Neither team also have any other way to earn a place in UEFA Conference League for next season, and it is of course not probable that any of these two teams would actually win Suomen Cup. The home advantage is very small here as PK-35 does not have a big fan-base - HIFK, on the other hand,does! They have perhaps the highest number of really enthusiastic fans of all the Finnish clubs! A considerable number of HIFK supporters and most importantly “ultras” known as “Stadin Kingit” (Kings of Stadi in English – Stadi is the slang word for Helsinki) will take travel to Pihlajamäki today! I will be at the arena myself as well. The grim financial situation the team is in has earned a lot of sympathy in Finland and HIFK have received wide support from other clubs’’ supporters and they also had a quite good number of fans at home Bolt Arena in their latest home match – they lost 1-5 to AC Oulu though but the match was more balanced on the pitch than the final score would suggest..

HIFK are in huge danger to be relegated at the end of the season as they are currently the rock-bottom team in Veikkausliiga. The media keeps writing negative things about them and this does seem to affect the odds offered on them. Moreover, they are indeed in financial crisis and have publicly announced that they still need some 200 000 euros very fast - otherwise they might go bankrupt and have to quite playing in the middle of the season.. They have performed pretty well in Suomen Cup so far – clearly better than in Veikkausliiga. They defeated IFK Mariehamn in the last round in Åland – never on easy place to play at. Indeed, the best Finnish club HJK Helsinki for example lost there 2-1 a week ago – bringing my fans and me an easy winner! Overall, they have improved their performances lately under the new coach Mixu Paatelainen, a former Finnish national team player and coach. Personally, I do not rate him too high as a coach, especially in terms of tactical skills, but he has clearly been able to create a better than before atmosphere within the team and slightly improve offensive creativity as well. Under him HIFK play pretty simple - even “ugly” - straightforward football.

HIFK fight very hard and clearly want the team to survive! This could be easily seen in their most recent match in Tampere against Ilves – a mediocre team. HIFK took their first win (1-0) of the Veikkausliiga season through a late and somewhat lucky goal by Jusif Ali. No, HIFK were not the better team in this match, but it was still more balanced than expected.. Ilves had 53% ball possession and both teams recorded just one shot on target. HIFK have, in fact, defended pretty well in many Veikkausliiga matches - offense had been the problem but today they should find the net – hopefully multiple times! The match against Ilves had a dramatic ending as the hosts were given a penalty at the dying minutes of the match. HIFK’s experienced Portuguese goalkeeper Beto, who has even played for FC Porto(!) saved it and wild celebration erupted! There was, however, still a little time on the clock after the penalty but HIFK hold their ground and met some 70-80 Stadin Kingit off the pitch for an emotional celebration! A huge relief and boost for HIFK!

PK-35, in the other hand, have had an abysmal season so far! As a result, I have significantly lowered their power rating that illustrates the teams’ pure class. They are currently in the second-last place in Ykkönen despite having one of the biggest players’ salary budgets.. There have been pretty rumors that the team spirit is bad and based on my inside sources and observations at MagneCit-Areena a few weeks ago - when they faced JäPS and wasted a solid 2-0 lead allowing the visitors to make it 2-2 - there is some truth to the rumors! It is hard the write anything positive about them at the moment.. They do have some potential but rapid improvement is very improbable. In their most recent match, my fans and I easily won a pick on KTP when PK-35 lost 0-4 in Kotka. KTP are a good team in Ykkönen, but still PK-35 were lame and many players looked lazy and unmotivated. In Suomen Cup they faced SalPa from Salo in the previous round and took a narrow 1-0. It was not a good performance at all. Let’s remember that SalPa play in Kakkonen, the third tier, where hardly any player is really a professional footballer, and some do not get paid at all! HIFK are 63% favorites to win and bring my fans yet another winner betting on Finnish football! I also want to mentioned that there are several former HIFK players, for example Esa Terävä, Matias Hänninen and Pauli Kuusijärvi, playing for PK-35, mostly because they were not good enough to play for HIFK and in the Veikkausliiga.

PK-35 欢迎来自 Töölö 的游客参加在 Pihlajamäki 的 MagneCit-Areena 举行的芬兰堡杯四分之一决赛。这是来自我祖国芬兰首都赫尔辛基的两支球队之间的战斗。 PK-35 在第二层 Ykkönen 玩，而 HIFK 在最高级别 Veikkausliiga 玩。这两个联赛之间的差异很大，博彩公司似乎低估了这里原始等级的差异！两支球队在这里都非常积极，因为奖金——即使不是很高——对两支球队来说都意义重大。两支球队也没有任何其他途径可以在下赛季的欧洲联盟联赛中获得一席之地，当然这两支球队中的任何一支都不太可能真正赢得芬兰堡杯。这里的主场优势非常小，因为 PK-35 没有大的粉丝群 - 另一方面，HIFK 有！在所有芬兰俱乐部中，他们可能拥有最多的真正热情的球迷！相当多的 HIFK 支持者，最重要的是“超级”被称为“Stadin Kingit”（Kings of Stadi 在英语中 – Stadi 是赫尔辛基的俚语）今天将前往 Pihlajamäki！我自己也将出现在赛场上。球队的财务状况严峻，在芬兰赢得了很多同情，HIFK也得到了其他俱乐部支持者的广泛支持，在最近的主场比赛中，他们在主场博尔特球场也有相当多的球迷——他们输了1-5 AC Oulu，但比赛在球场上比最终比分所暗示的更加平衡。

HIFK在赛季末降级的风险很大，因为他们目前是Veikkausliiga的垫底球队。媒体一直在写关于他们的负面报道，这似乎确实影响了他们的赔率。而且，他们确实陷入了金融危机，并且已经公开宣布他们还需要一些20万欧元的速度非常快——否则他们可能会破产，并且在赛季中期不得不打得相当好。他们在芬兰杯上的表现相当不错，所以远——明显比在 Veikkausliiga 好。他们在奥兰的最后一轮比赛中击败了 IFK Mariehamn——从来都不是一个容易上手的地方。事实上，最好的芬兰俱乐部 HJK 赫尔辛基一周前就以 2-1 输掉了比赛——这让我和我的球迷轻松获胜！总体而言，他们最近在前芬兰国家队球员和教练的新教练米苏·帕特莱宁的带领下提高了自己的表现。就个人而言，我对他作为教练的评价并不高，尤其是在战术技巧方面，但他有显然能够在团队内部营造出比以前更好的氛围，并且也略微提高了进攻创造力。在他的带领下，HIFK 踢得非常简单——甚至是“丑陋”——直截了当的足球。

HIFK打得很拼，显然是想让队伍活下来！这在他们最近在坦佩雷对阵伊尔维斯的比赛中很容易看出——一支平庸的球队。 HIFK 凭借 Jusif Ali 的一个较晚且有点幸运的进球取得了 Veikkausliiga 赛季的首场胜利（1-0）。不，HIFK 在这场比赛中并不是更好的球队，但它仍然比预期的更平衡。伊尔维斯拥有 53% 的控球率，两支球队都只有一次射门得分。事实上，HIFK 在许多 Veikkausliiga 比赛中的防守都非常出色 - 进攻一直是问题所在，但今天他们应该找到球网 - 希望能多次进球！与伊尔维斯的比赛以戏剧性的结局收场，主队在比赛的最后时刻被罚点球。 HIFK 经验丰富的葡萄牙门将贝托，甚至曾效力于波尔图 (!) 将球救下，并爆发了疯狂的庆祝活动！然而，在罚球后还有一点时间，但 HIFK 坚守阵地，在球场外以 70-80 的比分遇到了 Stadin Kingit情感庆典！对 HIFK 来说是一个巨大的解脱和推动！

另一方面，到目前为止，PK-35 度过了一个糟糕的赛季！结果，我显着降低了他们的功率等级，这说明了团队的纯洁等级。尽管他们拥有最大的球员薪水预算之一，但他们目前在 Ykkönen 排名倒数第二。根据我几周前在 MagneCit-Areena 的内部消息和观察，有很多传言说团队精神很差- 当他们面对 JäPS 并浪费了稳固的 2-0 领先优势，让客队以 2-2 领先时 - 谣言有些真实！目前很难写出任何关于他们的正面信息。他们确实有一些潜力，但快速改进是非常不可能的。在他们最近的比赛中，当 PK-35 在 Kotka 以 0-4 输掉比赛时，我和我的粉丝轻松赢得了 KTP 的选秀权。 KTP 在 Ykkönen 是一支不错的队伍，但 PK-35 仍然很蹩脚，许多玩家看起来很懒惰，没有动力。芬兰堡杯上轮面对萨罗的萨尔帕，1-0险胜。这不是一个好的表现全部。让我们记住，萨尔帕在第三层卡科宁踢球，几乎没有球员是真正的职业足球运动员，有些人根本没有得到报酬！ HIFK 是 63% 的热门获胜者，并为我的粉丝带来了另一个投注芬兰足球的赢家！我还想提一下，有几位前 HIFK 球员，例如 Esa Terävä、Matias Hänninen 和 Pauli Kuusijärvi，为 PK-35 效力，主要是因为他们还不足以为 HIFK 和 Veikkausliiga 效力。