Today the wait is finally over. It has been more than six months since we sang ”TamUn kanssa me mennään Vitoseen” in celebration of promotion at Pyynikki, and tonight we will finally witness our first kick in the sixth tier of Finnish football. It is quite fitting that the venue will again be the beautiful Pyynikki Stadium. The match against Lammin Veto kicks off at 4:00 pm.

The probable starting lineup has already been published by the club. The story of the off-season is summarized by the fact that only three of the eleven starters were in the team last season: Ilkka Innola, Ahmed Lakra, and Lauri Heittola. The bench has four more: Alaa Adeeb, Mohammed El-Harrak, Adnan Omerovic, and Nawar Karikuss.

Only three players are unavailable: Mika Kytöviita is suspended due to the red card he obtain in the Finnish Cup match against VaKP in February, Kemal Dedic is still suffering a knee injury, and Sami Kriikkula is unable to get time off work for this match.

This still leaves us with an excellent starting eleven: Ilkka Innola will be in goal and that needs no comment. The defensive line has Pitkänen-Kauppinen-Kumara-Lakra, perhaps the best we have available based on the off-season. I’m particularly pleased to see Lakra start, because last weekend in the Regions’ Cup match against ViiPV his absence in the first half weakened our offense considerably.

In the midfield the new signing Jesse Kupiainen seems to be in a playmaking role, while his older brother Joona Kupiainen and Lauri Heittola form the midfield pair. Up top Jacin Dakkaki will play central forward, while Vesa Suonsyrjä and Petri Vadén take the wings. Seeing Suonsyrjä on the wing is a surprise to me, but that is how the club’s announcement has to be interpreted.

Regardless of the formation, we have a lot of quality on the field, and the bench has a lot of quality too. Adnan Omerovic and Mohammed El-Harrak are both players who have shown they can be game changers off the bench, as they indeed showed even in the promotion final in October. I would expect to see El-Harrak take Suonsyrjä’s spot on the wing at some point, in which case Omerovic is most likely to play striker.

Anssi Saiha makes a return to the lineup after a two-month absence cause by a persistent knee injury – let’s all hope that things are getting better for him. His natural position would be to replace Jesse Kupiainen in the middle. Additionally we have the winning-goal hero Nawar Karikuss available, as well as full backs Antti Eijamo and Alaa Adeeb. And of course Kalle Heltonen is ready too as the backup goalie. The rules allow unlimited substitutions and player can be subbed back in after being subbed out. It will be interesting to see how much this is taken advantage of, because to me it seems we do not really need to, since the replacements coming off the bench are very high quality.

Counting the numbers, we have a full eighteen man lineup, and a few additional players who were ready to play but did not get the nod this time. This is obviously great to see. The players surely know what is at stake here, and the numbers needed to reflect that. Not only is the season opener very important as such, but it is also of note that the opponent Lammin Veto (LaVe) is expected to be one of the top teams and a candidate for promotion. We simply cannot afford to lose these matches.

Last year Lammin Veto was actually one of the teams that got relegated from Nelonen after having earned only 14 points in 22 matches. They have not had as long a preseason as TamU-K due to not having local fields available in the winter and spring, and they even have some injury troubles. However, they should not be underestimated at all, since they are a team that has been together longer than ours has, and have played at a higher level as well.

The circumstances around the match should be the best in a while. I hear that our partner Ravintola 4 Vuodenaikaa will have their french style hot dogs available at their grill about half an hour before the 4 pm kickoff, so people should plan to come early to get a taste of some of the best food in town.

The supporters are ready too, and will be doing their part to make sure that the 90 km (55 mile) trip back to Lammi will not be a pleasant one for the visitors.