Today was full of excitement for me. The whole day I was looking forward to the evening, and had a hard time being productive at work. After more than five weeks of withdrawals I was going to see TamU-K play a competitive match. However, that was not to be.

The city bus to Ikuri was full of excitement. I was not the only one who had missed last week’s match against TaPa, and everybody was really anxious to see the new signings that we had made. However, as we finally arrived at Ikuri, everybody noted that there were surprisingly few cars at the parking lot. And as we finally saw the field, to our shock there were only two players in white jerseys in there. Even as the time went well past the 8 pm kick off time, there were only six PiPo-79 players present. The Laws of the Game say that you cannot start a match with fewer than seven players, and so at twenty minutes past eight the referee decided that he wanted to go home. TamU-K earned the all important three points by forfeit and a 0-3 scoreline, but there wasn’t anybody who would not have rather played the match as scheduled.

What PiPo-79 did today is simply inexcusable. It is one thing to not be able to get enough players to play a scheduled match, but quite another to not be able to let the other team know that in advance. As it happened, TamU-K had more than the 18 players that were named in the match day roster present at the match. Moreover, more than 30 supporters had arrived ready to support the team. But all that we got to do was sing one song while we were still hoping that a seventh player would arrive for PiPo-79. For what is worth, the players and especially manager Antti Pettinen seemed to enjoy that moment, but that was nevertheless slim consolation in the face of not being able to play a scheduled match.

In the end it was decided that a training match between TamU-K’s starters and a team consisting of PiPo players and TamU-K’s bench players would be played instead. I’m not sure what the scoreline of that match was, but I think it might have been 7-0. Tomi Lahtinen scored the 1-0 goal and went on to score three more. The new signing Sami Kriikkula also scored one goal, as well as Lauri Heittola and Matias Palo. However, none of that really mattered. Still, the class that Kriikkula brings into the team was evident. And even more importantly, our new goalie Ilkka Innola was an absolute pleasure. He did not have to make any tough saves, but the way he lead the defense was fun to watch.

In the end the team was probably more disappointed than the supporters. The players and the coaching staff had paid a lot of effort in preparing for this match and were confident of victory. For them having to settle for a scrimmage did not satisfy their appetite for destroying a team. For the supporters it was a big disappointment as well, but for me at least watching a few nice goals, drinking beer, and chatting casually with friends was not such a bad way of spending a Friday night. Of course nothing is better than a competitive match, but this was the next best thing.

Still: shame on PiPo-79. The rules in Kutonen say that you are disqualified only after forfeiting two matches, so all that PiPo suffer from this is a fine. Personally, I hate the fact that Kutonen is only semi-competitive, and some teams do not take it seriously. That alone is reason enough to really want to get promoted at the end of this season.