The long-awaited match against TahVe finally takes place today. Ever since our schedule was published, I have been thinking this meeting is the only one that has some extra emotion built into it, as TahVe is the only team we play against this year that we have played against in a competitive match before. And that match was no ordinary match, as it was the emotional promotion final last fall. This alone would be quite enough, but of course everybody remembers what happened earlier on this season. This first meeting since that promotion match was supposed to happen

much earlier, but it never really did.

I still think what TahVe did in our spring meeting was disgraceful. To have the other team prepare for a match (not to mention the supporters) and then just abandon the match before it really even starts – who does that? The honorable thing to do would have been to play the match, even if they could not get eleven players. Finding a loophole to avoid disqualification from the league even when you do not play disrespected everybody, not least their own club.

For me personally, TahVe has very quickly turned from a sympathetic club to quite the opposite. When other clubs folded and they ended up getting promoted despite losing the promotion final, I was happy for them. In the promotion final they had a team that played well and fair, and even had some organized fan support. A club founded almost 100 years ago trying to make some kind of a comeback and even finding local support – what’s not to like. And then all that was tainted by their shenanigans in the spring, and also, I must admit, to some extent by the fact that based on what I’ve seen both online and actually seeing a couple of their matches, nobody seems to care about their club after all.

So needless to say, I want these three points even more than we need them. This is probably a very common sentiment among TamU-K supporters, and I bet the team too has extra motivation for this match. I hear that we again have a full 18 for this match, and that Jesse Kupiainen is going to make a return. The official TamU-K match preview indicated that we will return to our usual 4-3-3, and with Jesse in the middle that makes a lot of sense. The preview also indicated that Juha Kumara is likely to play in the midfield instead of his usual center back position, so it will be interesting to see who takes what position if both of these players are on the field together. I assume the midfield trio will be filled by either Vesa Suonsyrjä or Lauri Heittola.

Otherwise our lineup is expected to be usual stuff. Innola will start in goal, and based on who is available, the defensive line has got to be Eijamo-Pitkänen-Kauppinen-Airesto, assuming that Kumara indeed plays in the midfield. Up top we have the usual suspects Kytöviita, Dakkaki, Vadén, and Irjala available, and now also Mohammed El-Harrak is back too. Presumably he starts on the bench, and I suppose most would guess that is the case for Irjala as well. On the other hand, these two are very good substitutes for us to have, as both bring elements that the likely starting trio does not have. This, in fact, has been one of our problems lately: not enough changes available from the bench for the forward trio. Suffice to say, I’m now more optimistic about our offensive play than I have been for a while.

But maybe the greatest thing about the match today is that we finally return to Pyynikki. This is the stadium we want to make our own, and now we get to play our remaining four home matches there. I do expect our record crowd for the season today, and so does the club it seems, as Restaurant 4 Vuodenaikaa is back with their gourmet hot dogs. The grill will be hot well before the match kicks-off at 8 pm. Be there!