Rarely have my match predictions been as accurate as for this one. In the match preview I wrote that we’d be in good shape if we organized our defense well. And that we did despite the crucial absences. And as I wrote it came down to our finishing. We had good opportunities for 4-5 goals, but did not score, in part due to excellent goal keeping, which I also noted in my preview. Then when we were down by a couple goals and some of the players started to lose their faith in our ability to come back, Vire’s strong midfield made life very difficult for us. All of this were the ingredients for a bitter 1-3 loss against Ikurin Vire.

Despite the loss, the match definitely showed that our goal of earning promotion at the end of the season is alive and well. Even if it is fair to say that the better team won, the match was evenly fought and with a little bit of luck the match could have been ours. I was especially happy that, unlike some other matches, we came into the match very strong. We definitely dominated the first 20 minutes, and if we had scored from the chances that we created, the match could have been very different. Moreover, our defense was very organized, and indeed the match went to half time at 0-0. Even in the second half none of the three goals that Vire scored was a result of organizational problems in defense. And at 0-1 and 0-2 we had our chances to score and come back to the match.

One positive from the match was that the supporters’ favorite Matias Palo finally got to score a goal. It was a nice one too. Oscar Al-Shemari played the ball to Adnan Omerovic on the left, he then put a nice cross to Palo on the right hand side, where he put a nice header over the keeper to the left corner of the goal. And who knows, since the tie-breaker is head-to-head matches, this goal might turn out to be an important one when we meet Vire in the last match of the season. If we were to be three points behind them before that match, Palo’s goal would mean we need one goal less in that match. For this match it was not a lot of consolation as it came on the 90th minute and the final whistle blew as the match was restarted.

The result puts us third in the table one point behind Vire. Pelikassit are now five points ahead with a match in hand. This means that we will be chasing these two teams when matches resume after the one-month break, with a couple teams behind us also capable of entering the race for the top two spots. In a sense this is a good place to be as it makes sure that nobody will think we can sit back and relax, and the team should be highly motivated when our next match kicks off on July 27.

As an event the match was very nice. There are two small stands for spectators in Kaukajärvi, and both of them looked full (not packed though) and there were more people standing on the sidelines. I don’t know if anybody counted what the attendance was exactly, but it was definitely more than 50 and almost as certainly did not reach 100. Not too shabby for bottom division football.

Scoring:
0-1 Mikael Ermala, 48 min
0-2 Rami Svärd, 55 min
0-3 Jussi Näppilä, 67 min
1-3 Matias Palo, 90 min

Discipline:
Jukka Järvinen, 58 min, Ikurin Vire (caution)
Lauri Heittola, 60 min, TamU-K (caution)