Final preparations for Monday’s Finnish Cup second round fixture against LeKi-futis are going on, and as an important piece of the puzzle, the club announced six player contracts today. The team now has two goalies, seven defenders, seven midfielders, and six forwards. I imagine that not many additions will be made to this group of 22 players during the spring, as it seems like any new addition would have to be a profile player that goes straight into the starting eleven.

Only one of the six new signings is a player from last year. Not surprisingly, after a couple of successful training matches, Otto Pitkänen was re-signed for another year. This fills a gap in the full back department now that Antti Eijamo has left the team. One of the new players, Riku Jussila is another option for this position.

The four other signees are forwards Eero Sointu and Jan Riikonen and midfielders Risto Niskanen and Joona Kapanen. They have all done well in pre-season matches, but Jan Riikonen is probably the one that will get most attention. He comes to us from FC Lahti Akatemia, a team that finished fourth in the eastern division of Kakkonen (third tier) last season. He has only played one training match for TamU-K, but the performance in that match against FC Jazz/2 gives reason to anticipate good thing from him as a winger.

On the departure side, Mohammed El-Harrak and Alaa Adeeb are no longer training with the first team by the decision of the coaches. It is sad to see them go, but hopefully we’ll see them in the second team. This leaves Lauri Heittola as the only player that remains from the group that started in Kutonen two seasons ago. This is of course a necessity caused by the promotions gained and the ones we are still aiming for, but it is nonetheless a startling realization.

As an additional boost of motivation, the draw for the third round of the cup was made yesterday, and it turns out that our third round opponent would be Janakkalan Pallo. They were one of the best teams in Vitonen last year, but still getting a team from a lower division is a good draw at this point. On the next round the sky is the limit in terms of who can be draw as four first tier teams join the competition at that point. Our players need to take the competition one match at a time of course, and the first challenge against LeKi-futis will not be an easy one, even if I consider us to be the slight favorites in that match. For the supporters though, dreaming big is what we do.