Football – Finland – Veikkausliiga
Sunday 13th July 2014 – Kickoff: 1730hrs
After their tough respective Europa League fixtures in midweek, Vaasan Palloseura (VPS) and FC Honka face each other on the domestic front in the Finnish Veikkausliiga on Sunday evening and the hosts could leapfrog KuPS into fourth place with a win here.
VPS had to travel to Sweden to face Brommapojkarna of the Allsvenskan league on Thursday night but they lost the tie 0-2 and indeed lost 2-3 on aggregate to go crashing out of the Europa League. However, they can bounce back this evening very quickly as they seek another Europa League berth for next season, as they currently occupy 5th place going into tonight’s encounter.
Despite recent defeats at home to KuPS and Seinaejoen JK, they thrashed MYPA 4-0 last time out on home turf and they’ve registered back-to-back wins with another win over Jaro 2-1 away last Sunday. Their overall home record stands at 4-1-3 11/7, but it should be noted that their record at home over bottom half opposition stands at an impressive 4-0-0 10/0.
The visitors, FC Honka have dropped steadily down the Veikkausliiga and find themselves fourth from bottom of the division which is thanks largely to a poor record on the road so far this season. Despite possessing a reasonably strong record at home where they’ve lost just twice, FC Honka have struggled away from home and they’ve lost their last four on the trot.
Defeats at KuPS, a previous loss at VPS, KuPS again and Seinaejoen (three of these to nil also), their away record currently stands at 1-2-5 7/15. In addition, they’ve failed to score on four occasions and they’ve kept just two clean sheets.
Honka’s record on the road away at top half teams also makes for sorry reading with a record of 0-2-4 3/11 and they could be in for further punishment here tonight. And although they eventually won their Europa League tie against Estonia’s Sillamae Kalev 3-2, they had to go to extra time to do so, and they may run out of legs in the second half tonight as a result.
VPS have performed well against lower half teams so far and I’ll back them to do so again tonight, perhaps winning this one 2-1.
Pick: VPS straight win @ 1.80 Bwin
