Tomorrow it finally begins. The winter is over, and though the grass isn’t green quite yet, the plastic turfs have thawed a long time ago. It’s about time to play competitive football again!

The first match of the season is a bit of a special one. Tomorrow morning we will travel about 180 km (110 miles) north to play a Finnish Regions’ Cup fixture against Sisu-Pallo. Our hosts are based in Seinäjoki, and share some characteristics with us. They too play in Nelonen (fifth tier) in their region this season, and last year we both made it to the fifth round of the cup. All indicators point towards an evenly fought match.

According to the official match preview here at tamu-k.com, we will travel with a full 18-man squad that includes almost all expected starters except for goalie Ilkka Innola. However, his backup Kalle Heltonen has been in such a great form throughout the winter that it is not a big concern. Offensively our options look delicious. The trio of Milanti-Vadén-Riikonen are all in the lineup, and everybody would be astounded if they did not start. On top of the trio the choice must be Jacin Dakkaki, who has been on fire in recent matches. This leaves a couple of big guns in the form of Mika Kytöviita and Eero Sointu on the bench.

The defensive line and the midfield duo are pretty easy to figure out too, but I’ll leave that up to the reader. Of course, the fact that Joonas Kupiainen makes a return to the lineup offers new possibilities, but it would be quite surprising to see him start after an absence of several weeks.

The supporters and the team will travel on the same bus for this match. It is a little bit similar to our last Regions’ Cup fixture in Vaasa: a longer bus trip and a chance for some great bonding. Our club is a special one in the sense that supporters, players and even board members interact with each other on a daily basis, but it gets even better when you are stuck on a bus for a few hours. The ride back from Vaasa is one of my fondest football memories: and that is saying a lot, especially given that some details are a bit blurry, for some reason. And yes, that is even though we lost that match. Read my report form back then, and you’ll understand why.

It is too bad that the match won’t be streamed online. I think our friends in Seattle would have enjoyed watching it, as there will American football lines on the field. Back in 2005 Tampere United played on the same field, a Finnish Cup 7th round fixture against TP-Seinäjoki at that time. The match was played at 3 pm on a Wednesday, and it’s needless to say I was one of the very few who made the trip. The result was a 0-1 victory with a nice goal from distance by my old favorite Jussi Kujala. It was a less than enjoyable performance for sure back then, but I was happy with any kind of a victory, and the same is true this time as well. Besides, tomorrow we will have many, many more supporters there than nine years ago.