Today the club released a new page where becoming a member of the club is easier than ever. You just need to fill out a simple web form and deposit the 25 € membership fee to the club’s bank account. The page is in Finnish, but there is no reason why our international friends couldn’t become members as well. To that end, the Google translated version of the membership page is surprisingly readable, so it should be easy to figure out all the relevant details from it.

The friendly against the second team of HIFK turned out to be just as great a test for TamU-K as was expected. It was clear that HIFK/2 had been training well over the winter, and that it is a very competitive team. The final result in the match played in the Tali Football Hall was 1-1, and reflects the events on the field very well. There were not many chances to score goals for either team, but TamU-K held its own in the midfield battle against a team that should have been clearly superior.

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.

This week the club has been very active in reporting news from the team. First on Monday it was announced that goalie Ilkka Innola will be the team captain in 2013, assisted by the back-line big man Sami Kriikkula and newcomer Joonas Kupiainen. All are excellent choices. Innola and Kriikkula showed exceptional leadership even last season without the need for the captain’s armband, and Kupiainen seems to fit in that mold too.

Winter training officially started last week. Of course there has been training sessions throughout the off-season, but now the team has a weekly training sessions in the air dome in Hervanta. Unfortunately winter football facilities are so limited in Tampere that just one weekly session is all we can get at the moment, and getting promoted a few times seems to be the easiest way for us to improve the situation. In fact, as of now we should be happy that we have a chance to train indoors in the winter at all.

Yesterday the mailman brought a box of hand-knit beanies in Tampere United colors. These were kindly donated to TamU-K by an Emerald City Supporter from Seattle. Expect to see these for sale in upcoming TamU-K home matches, but if you want yours, you need to be quick as the quantity is extremely limited.

Tampere United supporters got a nice belated Christmas present today as the club announced that a friendly against the second team of HIFK has been arranged. It will be played away in Helsinki on January 25th, and the supporters will of course ride a bus to the match. As of right now, about 20 people have already signed up for the trip. The match will be played late in the evening on a Friday night, which seems quite ideal for supporters who’ll want to make the most out of the trip. Even better, the home team expects that their supporter group Stadin Kingit will be there in numbers too. Should be a great night!

Two of the latest signings add 14 goals from the 2012 season to the roster. The Bosnian pair of Adnan Omerovic and Kemal Dedic are both great additions to the team.

The draw for the first two rounds of the Finnish Cup is in, and TamU-K will host the first round match against Ikurin Vire. The draw is done regionally in the first rounds, but it is still quite a coincidence that we should face one of our main competitors from last season. Vire of course played in the same subdivision with us, and were very disappointed to not get promoted. A bit of history is starting to develop between the two clubs, which adds a certain vibe to the upcoming Finnish Cup fixture. Right now it looks like the match will be played indoors in Pirkkahalli sometime in January.

Just over a week ago TamU-K was still training outdoors at Pyynikki, but as the pictures taken Sunday afternoon tell you, that’s no longer possible. Winter arrived to Tampere in one fell swoop over the weekend, and it probably means the end of training on a full-sized field for several weeks. Shamefully, Tampere has no heated outdoors pitches that could be used through the winter, and even indoors facilities are very limited in comparison to the number of teams that would like to use them. The forecast has temperatures below -10 C (or below 15 F) for the next few days, and subzero temperatures are likely to continue for quite a bit longer. Pyynikki and many other outdoors fields are being converted for ice skaters and hockey players