I was planning to write a match preview for the second round Finnish Cup fixture against Valkeakosken Koskenpojat (VaKP), but never had the time to finish it in time. I only had the first paragraph ready before kickoff so I never published it. What I had written was that TamU-K was in for one of its biggest tests yet, and that it was clear that in order to even stand a chance against VaKP we were going to need a much better performance than the one against Ikurin Vire a week earlier in the first round match.

A much improved performance is exactly what the team put in last night, but even that wasn’t enough this time around. The 0-1 (0-0) loss was extremely disappointing given the good performance of the team. It is now about 18 hours since the match ended. and I still have such an empty feeling. This one was up for the taking, but it just wasn’t to be.

VaKP was clearly a much better team than Ikurin Vire or Porin Palloilijat. Still, we were the team that dominated the beginning of the match. It seemed that for the first 15 minutes VaKP had trouble getting the ball out of their own half in a controlled manner. We had a few chances, but obviously no goal. As the half went on, things evened out a little bit, but we did not have any real worries. In other words, VaKP turned out to be a team we would be able to beat if things go right.

Then at the very end of the first half something inexplicable happened. Our forward Mika Kytöviita, who had played a very promising first half, was fouled and he retaliated by pushing the VaKP player down. The result: straight red. Mika knows that this cannot happen, and I’ll leave it at that here too.

The second half performance by TamU-K is something I can be very proud of. At times you couldn’t tell that we were playing a man down as we were chasing the goal. And this despite the fact that VaKP plays one division higher than us, and was one of the better teams there last season. However, the only goal was scored by VaKP 13 minutes into the second half. It was one of their very few organized efforts on our goal. In contrast, TamU-K had several chances. Adnan Omerovic had the best one with a good shot from close range, but the save by VaKP goalie Jari Nieminen was even better, putting the ball out for a corner. From that corner Timo Kauppinen had a great chance too, but his shot missed the target.

As the final whistle got closer, we took all of our chances, including sending our goalie Ilkka Innola to the opponents box for one of our corners. Many also saw that VaKP had a clear hand ball inside the box in one of our corners, but I didn’t see it. When the final whistle blew, some of our players collapsed to the ground.

The atmosphere at the match was absolutely fantastic throughout. From the beginning, the intensity in the Sinikaarti section was extremely high. Everybody wanted to win this match so bad, and when the early pressure indicated we had a good chance of doing that, everybody got really into the match. And we were loud. Very loud. It was reminiscent of the promotion final last fall, and that is saying a lot.

Towards the end when we were pressing for the equalizer nobody lost faith in the section. It was absolutely fantastic. We sang a lot and we sang loudly. We wanted to believe. And we believed. The urgency of the situation increased with each passing minute, and so did the decibel level coming from Sinikaarti. And when the final whistle went and it was time to be disappointed, nobody left the section and we sang even louder. The team came over to us, clearly disappointed, but we went to greet them as our heroes. Which they truly are. And despite the loss, this match showed that the team is on the right track in preparation for the more important matches coming later this season. The promise of a great 2013 season has been given.

Now it is time to start focusing on the more important competitions that will start later in the year. The Finnish Cup is over for us, but there are three other competitions that we will participate in. Of course the most important one is the league, Vitonen, which will be where we fight for promotion. And I would rate Finnish Cup as our least important competition. We obviously had no realistic chance of winning it, because soon top division teams will enter into it, and winning a match against one of them would require a true miracle. Our Finnish Cup run was going to end well before the final rounds anyway, and if you look at the big picture, it doesn’t make much of a difference that it happened today rather than a few rounds later. It sure would have been nice to play a few more matches, but this was not what was going to make or break our season, so let’s just move on and start focusing on the good stuff that lies ahead.

This was the first loss for TamU-K this winter. In fact, this was the first loss for the club since June 26, 2012 when we lost against Ikurin Vire in Kaukajärvi. Now the team again knows what losing a match feels like, and that might pay dividends when we return to competitive matches in April.

Scoring:
0-1 Masi Rekomaa, 53 min

Discipline:
40 min, Vesa Suonsyrjä, TamU-K (booking)
40 min, Mika Kytöviita, TamU-K (ejection)

Attendance:
132