Our competitive season begins just about four months after the end of last season, which is much sooner than many might have thought. The 2013 season marks the fourth time that the Finnish Cup begins in the dead of the winter for lower league clubs. Starting the national cup competition this time of the year seems very weird, but at the same time getting back to competitive matches is very exciting of course.

The opponent in Tuesday’s first round Finnish Cup fixture is Ikurin Vire, a team that TamU-K is very familiar with based on two competitive meetings and two preseason friendlies last year. Vire too had hoped to get promoted last year, but in the end they remained eight points below us in the table, and had their season end in bitter disappointment.

Of course Tuesday too is going to end in disappointment for one of the teams. Due to the weird schedule of the Finnish Cup, this match will be an isolated competitive fixture for the losing team, because other competititions wont start until sometime in April. Wouldn’t it be weird to play just one competitive match after a four-month break, and then not have more matches for another two to three months? I really hope we can avoid that, and keep playing Finnish Cup matches in preparation to our most important matches in Vitonen.

The venue for the match is the best indoors arena in town, now officially known as TESC but still referred to as Pirkkahalli by many. The field is of course full size and the roof is high, so it is just fine for football. The only problem is the late kick off time at 10:30 pm. Unfortunately the only available times for Finnish Cup matches are weekdays after the regular training time slots have ended at TESC. The late kick-off is not nice for anybody, especially those players who have to work early the next morning, and will have trouble falling asleep after an intense football match.

The late kick-off time and unavailability of public transportation after the match also means that the crowd will not be as large as it would be at a more favorable hour. This is a real pity. It is a pity for TamU-K of course, but it is also a pity for the Finnish Cup. Just like in many other countries, the profile of the national cup competition is not very high in Finland, and a crowd of 200-300 at a first round match would be a great promotion for the whole competition. As it is, I would expect only about 50-100 people at the match. That is still a good crowd considering all the circumstances of the match, but when you know it could be much better, you cannot help but feel let down.

Because of the timing of the match deep in the training season, it is difficult to estimate the strengths of the two teams. TamU-K has 20 eligible players on the roster, and word is that Vire has a 17 man roster. This means that both teams have many fewer players available than they had last season. The big difference is that TamU-K has acquired many new players, whereas Vire is playing with mostly the same players as last season. This early on in the season it is of course difficult to say for sure whose advantage this is, but the new acquisitions for TamU-K should be quality enough to hold the advantage here. It can be expected that about half of our starting line up consists of players that did not play for us last season, and it will be interesting how things start working out in the first competitive match. Any of players like Petri Vadén, Juha Kumara, Vesa Suonsyrjä, Jacin Dakkaki, Joonas Kupiainen, and Otto Pitkänen could be included in the starting lineup, and personally I expect a lot from all of them.

The rules in the Finnish Cup allow making seven substitutions, which might be a slight advantage for us, especially if not all of the 17 Vire players show up for the match. Notably, unlike in Kutonen last season and Vitonen this season, once you are subbed out you can no longer re-enter. Also, the playing time is an unusual 2×40 minutes, presumably to enable playing the matches within a 90 minute field reservation. If the score is tied after regulation, the match goes straight to penalties without any extra time.

For TamU-K’s out-of-town and overseas fans there is good news since the match will be streamed live on TamU-K’s Ustream channel. Everybody else should of course see the match in person at TESC (Pirkkahalli). As already mentioned, the match kicks off tomorrow at 10:30 pm local time. Our friends in Seattle are already talking about a long lunch break for Tuesday as the kick-off is 12:30 pm in the afternoon their time. Tomorrow you will hear us sing!