Just as I was preparing to write this match preview, I realized that we have not played a match in Kaukajärvi for more than a month. That is a long time away from home, even if it is your second one. On Monday night we will face FC Rellu, and it will in fact be our last home match in Kaukajärvi. A positive, in a sense, is that we will return for three more away matches.

Our previous match against FC Rellu was not an easy one. The 0-2 (0-1) win in Pyynikki was mainly won defensively. Indeed, as I recall, the ball was almost constantly in our possession, and Rellu did not have any real chances to score. However, in the small field in Pyynikki our scoring was very difficult too. Quite frankly, in the second league match of the season, our offense was still finding their form. Combine that with the fact that the larger field in Kaukajärvi should be an advantage for us, and I’m very confident ahead of this match.

FC Rellu has been rack up a surprising number of points though. They have won 5, drawn 3, and lost 4 matches for a total of 18 points. This puts them sixth on the table, just three points behind the third place team OldSchool. In their previous match Rellu took all three points back to Tampere from Janakkala, and before that they played a 1-1 draw against the second place ViiPV home in Ikuri. Clearly they can play football at this level.

As for our team, it looks like we will have the full 18 players in the lineup for the first since who knows when. It looks like a very balanced team as well, with plenty of options in defense, midfield, and up top. This should be the norm, but right now it seems like a luxury.

For me the first three players I always check first are the center backs Kauppinen and Kumara, and Joonas Kupiainen above them. Looks like they will all be in the lineup, so the fundamentals are there. Innola will be in goal, and the rest is harder to predict. I in fact had a chance to talk with the coach a little bit the other day, and he mentioned that it is a bit of a

dilemma to find sufficient playing time for the trio Heittola-Vesa Suonsyrjä-Harju, who all deserve a lot based on last Thursday’s performance. Surely we wont see them all in the midfield together, and playing Suonsyrjä as a full back seems like a difficult choice to make when you have available many players whose natural position it is. It will be interesting to see what choices the coaches will make.

Finally, those who know me probably already guessed that I did check when was the last time we had 18 players in the lineup, and that was the Finnish Regions’ Cup match in Lamminpää on June 11. That is seriously a long time ago. There were a couple in between with 17 players, but nevertheless this simple fact illustrates very well what the team has gone through during the summer. To emerge from that without having dropped any points is testament to the quality and fighting spirit of this team. Now they need to keep showing that for ten more league matches. The first chance kicks off on Monday night at 8 pm sharp in Kaukajärvi.