Weekend sees climax to Veikkaus League season

Honka's title hopes hanging by a slim thread

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This Sunday sees not only the climax of the municipal election campaign, but also the final round of matches in Finland's premier football competition, the Veikkaus League.
      The title race is between FC Inter of Turku and FC Honka of Espoo, with the Turku side holding a sizeable advantage in the final straight.
      Inter host middle-of-the-table FF Jaro, while Honka have to travel to Åland to play IFK Mariehamn.
     
Before these matches kick off, Inter (51 points) enjoy a one-point lead and have a considerably better goal difference than their nearest rivals, but will be rueing the fact that they could only draw their previous game against Myllykoski (MyPa), which ended goalless.
      Victory in that match would have effectively settled matters and not obliged them to win their last encounter.
      They will feel doubly silly if Honka do sneak past with a win at Mariehamn while they only draw or lose at home to Jaro, since the Espoo side did their level best to gift the trophy to Inter last Saturday, when they lost 3-4 at home to last season's champions Tampere United.
     
The battle for third place will also go down to the wire, as the two contenders HJK Helsinki and FC Lahti meet in Helsinki. HJK have 47 points to Lahti's 45, so the visitors will have to win to secure anything.
      It is still mathematically possible for HJK to overhaul Honka, but would require a thumping defeat for the Espoo team and a win for HJK.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Inter and Honka goalless in the rain: Finnish title goes down to final two rounds (6.10.2008)

Helsingin Sanomat