When you sell 200 hot dogs at a football match that is attended by 224 people, those were probably some pretty darn good hot dogs. The match itself was a success for us too as we emerged victorious with a second half goal by Jouko Turunen. It was probably the most tactical match that TamU-K has ever played. Granted, it was not the best football either team has played, but it was a hard fought match and emerging victorious felt great. Now we have shown that we can win tight matches against some of the best teams in Nelonen.

Our previous seasons have had very simple themes. In 2012 in Kutonen we dropped a few points early on, and from then on we had to win all our remaining matches in order to secure promotion. The recurring theme in this blog was that we always were in the position where we would get promoted if we won all our remaining matches. In Vitonen last year it was even simpler: deep into the second half of the season the question was if we were going to drop any points, and promotion was never in any sort of real doubt.

This past weekend was filled with events: TamU-K Support Night at Klubi on Friday, the first team’s home opener against Urjalan Palloseura (UrPS) at Pyynikki Stadium on Saturday, and the second team’s season opener at Kaukajärvi on Sunday. Quite frankly I was a little nervous coming into all this. Would the Support Night be a success? Would the first team get the three points that we needed in order to have a positive start to the season? Would we be able to pull off our choreo in Sinikaarti’s section successfully? Would the second team show that they can play competitively in Kutonen? The answers were, yes and yes and yes and yes. We’re here, and we’re bigger than we ever were.

When TamU-K entered the bottom division Kutonen two years ago, I knew very little about lower division football. Back then I would have been able to name a few clubs like Soho SS and LaPro based on friends playing for those teams, but not much else. However, Urjalan Palloseura (UrPS) was one that I could name outside of Tampere, based on seeing pictures of their supporters on the internet. Tomorrow we finally get to play against them, and rumour is that they might bring a group of more than 20 traveling supporters. This will be the first time we’ll have any sort of respectable opposition in the stands. I hardly even remember what that is like, but I know it is going to make for a very special night of football.

It has been a few days since our season opener, and I still have some mixed feelings about it. During the first 20 minutes we were definitely in trouble with the very skilful midfield trio that FC Melody was able to put out for this match, and we were lucky to not get scored on. In the end we went to the half up 1-2, and I was quite confident about our eventual victory. However, FC Melody equalised early in the second half, and we never recovered from that. Even after Jouko Turunen was sent off via two yellow cards, we were still able to control the match and create more chances to score, but ultimately we failed to do so. Perhaps then the 2-2 (1-2) tie was a fair result. I’m happy that we were able to fend off the initial pressure from Melody, but having done so, I feel like we should have won.

Today is the day I’ve been waiting for since we started our campaign in the bottom division Kutonen two years ago. Back then playing in Nelonen seemed just like a distant dream. Even if it looked like getting two promotions in a row might be possible, I frankly only had a very vague idea what it would take and what the steps between then and now would be. Indeed, I do not think there were many in the club who quite understood the journey we were embarking on. Yet here we are two years later mere hours away from starting our first match in Nelonen.

There was a time three years ago when I thought I would never experience days like yesterday. Yes, we lost the Finnish Regions’ Cup second round fixture against Sisu-Pallo, but regardless yesterday was a classic away day with tremendous feelings of unity and pride. After all that we’ve been through, the days when my team plays are even more special than they used to be, and yesterday I felt it more than on an average match day.

Tomorrow it finally begins. The winter is over, and though the grass isn’t green quite yet, the plastic turfs have thawed a long time ago. It’s about time to play competitive football again!

Spring is the best time of the year for Finnish football supporters. First the long-awaited schedules come out, and then the real matches finally begin. This year we had to wait for an unusually long time until we knew when our matches would be played, but when things started happening, they happened fast. See the full schedules at tamu-k.com/english/fixtures.

Today is an important day in the off-season: the first team plays the last training match. The opponent is a team built from a core of their U21 team reinforced with several adult players. It should be a much better opponent for us than the pitiful Ilves team that we beat a week ago. You may be able to check it out for yourself as the club is attempting to stream it live at tamu-k.com/live. It is an equipment test really, but if all goes well, you may be able to watch the whole match.