Our next match is a rematch of our promotion final last fall. The opponent Tahmelan Vesa (TahVe) obviously did not initially get promoted, but as usually happens, a few other teams folded, and thereby a spot in Vitonen opened up for them as well. They have started their season with a victory over JanPa and losses against FC Rellu and ViiPV. If they had promotion in their hopes coming into the season, it looks like they have been given a harsh reality check on just how tough of a league Vitonen is these days.

Regardless, the rematch will be interesting in terms of seeing how different the match is after all the new players that have beend added to TamU-K. That is of course assuming that TahVe is able to field a competitive team. Word on the street is that TahVe made a request

to move this match to a later date, due to their difficulties in getting a team together. I have no idea if this has anything to do with Finland playing a semi final match against Sweden in the IIHF Hockey World Championship at the time of this match, but that is not really relevant. TahVe had had plenty of opportunities to move this match to another date well before this week, but they did not. If they have a problem with the date, they have only themselves to blame.

I’m in fact rather proud of my club for giving a no nonsense response to a team trying to move a match last minute. If we had agreed, we would have faced fixture congestion down the line during the summer, especially considering that apparently there is a good possibility that we have to move some of our other fixtures in order to find a field for our upcoming Regions’ Cup fixtures. TahVe may have a problem with this, but it is not our job to solve their problems by creating problems for ourselves.

TamU-K goes into the match with a redesigned defensive line. Otto Pitkänen has finally undergone his scheduled knee surgery and will be unavailable for a while, whereas Timo Kauppinen is out due to a work-related reason. Ahmed Lakra is still out with his hamstring, so it looks likely that we will see Juha Kumara and the new signing Osku Airesto in the center, while Alaa Adeeb and Antti Eijamo take the full back slots.

In the middle both Anssi Saiha and Jesse Kupiainen are doubtful, and if both are absent, there will be a creative hole in the middle, as indeed the early part of our previous match against OldSchool showed. Luckily there are no other absences, so our quality should still be enough to score enough goals to take care of this match.

The match will be our farewell to Pyynikki until the beginning of August, when we return for four more home matches after a spell of summer matches at our second home Kaukajärvi. Personally, I plan to make the most of it. Kick off is set at 4 pm sharp. Be there!