TamU-K will play the biggest match of its short history Sunday night at Pyynikki Stadium. The promotion semifinal against Parkanon Ponteva (FC PaPo) will be a defining moment for us. It may seem unfair that we have everything to lose in this match and not much to win yet, but on the other hand this is football at its best. We have had our backs against the wall for almost the entire season, and now this situation repeats in a situation where we can almost taste promotion. If we win this match, we are one win away from the goal that we set for ourselves at the beginning of the season. If we lose, all the success this season will mean very little.

The news came out earlier today that TamU-K will play the promotion semifinal match against FC PaPo at Pyynikki Stadium. This is a dream come true for the supporters, because this is the best venue for our club at the moment. It has a great wooden stand for a few hundred people, one that maximizes the volume of the supporters’ collective voice. I also think besides the singing supporters in Sinikaarti’s section, there will be a very significant number of other friends of Tampere United present at the match.

The pictures below show a few Emerald City Supporters getting together in Seattle to wish TamU-K luck in the promotion playoffs. Thank you guys! It is nice to know that even 5000 miles away from Tampere people are following our stepwise journey back to the top of Finnish football.

Saturday’s match against Ikurin Vire turned out to be a great event despite the fact that it was competitively meaningless. The result was 2-5 (1-3) to TamU-K after a convincing performance. This was the sixth match I’ve seen from Vire this season, and this was the first time their play maker Samuli Salminen did not dominate the match. Well done by the boys in blue.

As I’m sure everybody knows, the last match of the regular season against Ikurin Vire has been rendered competitively meaningless. TamU-K will go to promotion playoffs regardless of the result, and Vire will be stuck at the painful third position that gets them nowhere. It is indeed a weird feeling going into this match. We have had our back against the wall the whole season, and now for just one match we do not.

It is fair to say that not everybody believed in TamU-K when they first heard that we were going to participate in Kutonen this season. Probably even fewer did a year earlier when we announced that we were going to keep Tampere United alive and play recreational football in Tukifutis in the absence of an ability to do anything else due to the short notice that we had ahead of that season. Yet, here we are preparing for promotion playoffs. We no longer have to answer questions about whether we are serious or not. Everybody has seen that we are.

As most readers will have heard by now, TamU-K secured a berth in the promotion playoffs over the weekend. This happened as Pelikassit won Ikurin Vire 3-2 by two late goals on Saturday, leaving Vire five points behind TamU-K with just one match left to play. Unfortunately that result also means that Pelikassit are beyond our reach, so direct promotion is not possible anymore. Indeed, congratulations to Pelikassit on their promotion to Vitonen. It was well deserved.

Today’s match against YlöR/2 was practically over in 10 minutes. By that time TamU-K had scored twice and had won at least half a dozen corners, while the opponent had controlled the ball in TamU-K’s half of the field only a handful of times. The rest of the match was really just a formality, even if no more goals were seen in the first half. The second half provided three more, and the final scoreline was a comfortable 5-0.

On Monday TamU-K will have a home match away from home at Ikuri against the second team of Ylöjärven Ryhti (YlöR/2). Strictly speaking this is not a must win match, but it would be naive to think that winning this match is not important. First and foremost, if we win on Monday and Vire loses or draws against Pelikassit on the following Saturday, we will have clinched the second spot before even having played the last regular season match against Vire. This follows from the fact that we are now two points ahead of Vire and both teams have two matches remaining. Secondly, even if Vire manages three points against Pelikassit, a win puts us in a better position in our last match against Vire, as then even just a draw would be enough for us. And obviously it is much better to go into that match after a good performance than after a bad one.

It was a tough fight against AC Darra, but TamU-K emerged with a 0-1 victory by a coolly finished goal by Mohammed El Harrak deep into the second half. Indeed, a bit of negativity had slowly started to take over among the supporters as the goal seemed elusive and a 0-0 result loomed in the horizon. In the end we got the three points that we needed, and not a lot else mattered.