Ask a football supporter what they think about the current state of the Finnish Cup, and the most likely answer is that it’s a disgrace. Starting the competition in the dead of winter has made many teams in lower divisions decide to not participate at all, making it hard to describe it as a competition for all Finnish clubs anymore. You can read more about this in the blog post that I wrote last year, where the only thing that needs to be added is that only 152 teams participate in Finnish Cup this year. That is only one fewer than last year, but far less than half of what we used to get just five years ago.

I have to admit that looking at the situation from a pure TamU-K perspective makes things seem much better. It’s been a few months since our last competitive match, and again the wintry Finnish Cup matches seems to energize the whole club, whether it’s players, supporters or anybody else. You can feel the excitement. Also, the fact that fewer teams participate these days only means that it is a little bit easier to reach the rounds where the big teams from the top three divisions join in. And even if the Monday 10.30 pm kick-off time is not ideal, many supporters remember last year’s late-night cup matches fondly. The attendance was around 100 people for both of them, and the atmosphere was intense. I suppose the novelty of an oddly late starting time is part of what makes these matches special. I do feel for the players though, especially those who have to work early the next morning.

TamU-K was drawn straight to the second round of the competition, and our first opponent in the cup is again a team that we know fairly well. Last year we in fact played two matches against LeKi-futis. First a spring training match in Valkeakoski and then later in May a Finnish Regions’ Cup match. We lost the training match 1-2 but won the cup match 1-0. I would not be surprised if the score was equally tight tonight as well.

I have to admit that I know very little about what LeKi-futis have done this winter. Apparently they train in Valkeakoski, where the outdoors heated field opened for training in February, so apparently their first event on a full-size field was the first round Finnish Cup match against Parolan Visa on January 19. LeKi-futis ended up winning that match 1-0, and reports from those who attended that match say that they did not look very good at all, but of course that is ancient history by now.

For TamU-K the challenge is that there are a lot of new players on the team, and this early in the winter it is bound to have a huge impact on team play. On an individual basis our team has improved from last season, but these individuals are not yet likely to play the best football that TamU-K has played. Leading players have to step up, and make the plays that separate a victory from a loss. Another small concern is that we seem to have only 15 players available for this match. Ideally that won’t be any kind of a factor, but you never know what will happen during the course of a match. In any case, LeKi-futis might be able to take advantage of the fact that seven substitutions are allowed, assuming they have a full eighteen-man roster available.

As said, kick-off tonight is at 10.30 pm at TESC (Pirkkahalli). Almost exactly a year ago 132 people attended our second round Finnish Cup fixture against VaKP. Let’s beat that record tonight and sing even louder than we did that day!