It could not have been much better: all the elements of the Finnish summer from hale and snow to the warmth of the sun, delicious French hot dogs, nearly 200 people in

attendance, an impressive choreo by Sinikaarti, and a comfortable 3-0 (1-0) victory on the field. The season has started and TamU-K is at top of the table.

Photo: Mikko Jokela

Besides the match itself, the match event was absolutely perfect. Sinikaarti was in an exceptional form, just like the occasion called for, but I was equally pleased with seeing more than a hundred other friends of Tampere United in attendance. I was especially happy to see many of them wear Tampere United colors, TamU-K scarfs in particular. They were everywhere.

Lammin Veto (LaVe) showed that they will be one of our main competitors for promotion, and therefore this win was a very crucial one. The first half was quite evenly fought, and from about 25 min to 40 min we were in fact in some real trouble as LaVe pressed on. The very end of the half was ours though, and culminated in the goal that I wish could have been credited to Juha Kumara, but was rightly given to Jacin Dakkaki who tapped the ball as it was about to go into the goal from Kumara’s header. The fact that Dakkaki was clearly in an offside position was luckily missed by the assistant referee.

Photo: Tomi Lahtinen

The match was effectively decided on the 59th minute when Mohammed El-Harrak scored the 2-0 goal. It came from a scramble started by free kick from 35 meters given by Joonas Kupiainen. Petri Vadén had the first chance to shoot, but his attempt at a shot failed. However, El-Harrak showed his trademark calmness and class, and put the ball in the net. He did exactly what I predicted in the match preview: came off the bench to do something important.

At this point LaVe started to look tired, and TamU-K were moving the ball around the field with ease. The playmaker Anssi Saiha was in a great form, and seemed to always find teammates with his passes. The climax was his pass to Nawar Karikuss on the 90th minute. Rarely do you see such a perfect through ball, and when Karikuss gets a chance like that, it is nearly always a goal. This time was no exception.

Photo: Tomi Lahtinen

Saiha’s return seems to come at a fortunate time, since Jesse Kupiainen injured his ankle, and is expected to be out for a few weeks. We can only hope that Anssi’s knee will allow him to play good minutes. The fact that he was able to play 70 minutes on Sunday is encouraging. According to head coach Mika Suonsyrjä, without Jesse’s injury they had planned for just 20 minutes at the end.

The story of our season seems to be that it will be very difficult to score on us. However, without creative players like Saiha and the younger Kupiainen, scoring is not that easy for us either. Of course the return of striker Mika Kytöviita next weekend should be a factor helping us in that regard, as he is a player who can make goals out of half chances as well.

Photo: Tomi Lahtinen

The great thing about this team though is that there is so much quality that a few absences wont cause too much disruption. This is especially true in the defensive line. We have three excellent choices for center back in Kumara, Pitkänen, and Kauppinen (four if Kriikkula plays again) and five excellent choices for full back in Pitkänen, Kauppinen, Lakra, Eijamo and Adeeb. You can take even a few of these out, and we still have an elite defensive line for this level. And even if you take more of them out, we have serviceable choices beyond these, such as Omerovic for full back and Oksanen or either of the Suonsyrjä twins for any defensive position. Okay, against the best teams in Vitonen these ”sixth” choices may not be something we want to see out there, but if necessary, they will do just fine against many of the weaker teams.

Things are looking very good for Tampere United right now. The season has started very positively. The future has us playing a match almost every weekend until the end of September, so the season is coming to us like a train. However, I think both the team and the supporters are well prepared.

TamU-K – LaVe 3-0 (1-0)
44 min 1-0 Jacin Dakkaki
59 min 2-0 Mohammed El Harrak
90 min 3-0 Nawar Karikuss

Discipline:
68 min, Eero Salmio, LaVe (booking)