I will say it like it is: I want to finally win a match against this lot. FC Melody had the better of us in the divisional title match at the end of last season, and at the beginning of this season the result was a dissatisfying 2-2 draw. You see, they are a team that does not do any training together, and overall you could say they do not take the whole being-a-footballer thing too seriously. As an example, their official Facebook account often talks about players missing matches or playing badly because they are drunk (I have witnessed the former first hand), and indeed they also said that they traveled to their last match in Sastamala by public long distance bus because nobody was sober to drive. Yet the quality of a bunch of their players is high enough that even with this approach they are sixth on the table only six points behind TamU-K.

Talking about the table, our position changed Friday night, as Ilves 2 beat NePa 2-1. The winning goal was scored on the 88th minute, and put Ilves one point ahead of us. NePa remains four points behind, and TP-49 is just above them three points behind us. It is becoming very clear that we cannot drop many points in the second half of the season. Thankfully we still have a home match against Ilves 2 left, so we definitely control our own fate at this point.

The thing that worries me is all the injuries. Just a few weeks ago, our midfield trio was just clicking. Now injuries have taken out Niko Saarinen and Eero Riponiemi, and it looks like they will be out for the rest of the season. Put simply, we will have to find something new that works, and that may require shuffling some players around. For tomorrow specifically, we have additional short-term absences that result in an extremely thin bench. Head coach Mika Suonsyrjä has reacted to the situation by bringing up Jyri Helenius from the second team and signing Henri Joki who has been training with the first team for several weeks. Presumably neither will have to start, but there won’t be many other options on the bench. Many supporters had wondered whether Andrei Haritonov from the second team might be called up for this match – he was but could not make it.

On the positive side, FC Melody does not seem to have a lot of substitutes for this match either. It will be a battle of the starting lineups for the most part. It also looks like Melody’s first choice goalie Marko Virtanen is unavailable for this match. I don’t think I ever saw their second goalie play before, but my uneducated guess would be that this might be a weak point.

The battle for the points will be a fierce one. For both teams the points are important with regard to their position on the Nelonen table, but there is more at stake here than just the points. Our players just need to keep their cool and not lose focus from what is important. We have a good starting eleven, and our substitutes can fill roles as needed. Getting a good result is only up to us.

The match kicks off at Kaukajärvi at 4 pm sharp. It is our only home match on that field – a place where so many important things happened in the past two seasons. It is our second home, our suburban refuge if you will. Jose Chemlal’s incredible match winning goal against Pelikassit in 2012 happened here, from the half way line to the top corner. And so did Vesa Suonsyrjä’s improbable strike from 20 meters out to the top corner of the goal in the 2-0 win over ViiPV last year. Let’s create some magic at Kaukajärvi once more.