It has been a good week for a Tampere United supporter, and today it is going to get even better as we hop on a bus for an away trip longer than

25 km (15 miles) for the first time since the League Cup final in Espoo in April 2011. Obviously a lot has happened to and around our club since then, but I wont go back to that stuff here. Today is a day of celebration when we get aboard our bus at 5:30 pm and kick off against HIFK/2 at about 9 pm in the full size indoors field in Tali, Helsinki. More than 30 supporters will be on the bus, and as an appropriate embodiment of how we are more United than ever, all the players will be on the bus too. I just cannot wait till the evening.

In other news this week, another pre-season training match was announced. This one will also be away, in Pori against the local Porin Palloilijat or PoPa for short. The decision to go to another away trip in the preseason is no doubt affected by the hopelessness of getting any time on the indoors fields in Tampere, but it is of course a great thing for supporters too. The match will be played on Sunday, February 10.

The thing that makes this match a much awaited affair is the fact that PoPa shares a similar story as Tampere United. In Pori too supporters were robbed off their beloved club, but they too refused to accept the situation, and restarted from the bottom division last year. Their 2012 season was not as glorious as ours was, but nevertheless they seem to be working hard to get promoted in the upcoming season. And personally I hope they do, and perhaps we can meet in competitive matches in Kolmonen (fourth tier) sometime along the line, as that is the level where the Tampere and Satakunta districts have the first joint division. Either way, on Sunday just over two weeks from now two clubs who have gone through rough times and whose supporters share a lot of the same ideals shall meet. Should be a lot of fun!

As expected, TamU-K also announced that the two defenders from TPV/2, Otto Pitkänen and Timo Kauppinen, have been officially signed. This is great news firstly because these are very, very good players for this level, but also because this possibly opens up new options in our roster, as we seem to be stacked in central defense. In addition to the new duo, Sami Kriikkula, Juha Kumara, both of the Suonsyrjä twins, and even Ahmed Lakra can play this position. Of course both Suonsyrjäs are more likely to play in defensive midfield and Lakra seems to have found his home as the left back, but still, there is a lot of possibilities here.

Additionally there was a bit of sponsorship news as one of the club’s sponsors, SNT-Group Oy, was announced to be in partnership with TamU-K next season too. More announcements like this can be expected in the next few weeks, and rumor is that a few new partners have expressed interest too.