The match against Pelikassit turned out to be just as difficult as I expected, and we ended up suffering a disappointing 2-0 (1-0) loss. Pelikassit are a physical team that seems to never get tired chasing the ball. They came into the match very strongly in a way that seemed to intimidate many of our players. That is not to dismiss the talent in the Pelikassit team, a good example of which was Tommi Merto’s 1-0 goal on the 16th minute.

But most importantly, Pelikassit played as a team, not as a group of individuals. This aspect was almost completely lacking from our side, which was very disappointing to witness. There also seemed to be a severe lack of leadership in the midfield, and to me this was where the match was lost. This is in part explained by Mika Suonsyrjä’s absence from this match (due to illness), and things were made even worse with Joonas Niemelä’s early ankle injury that kept him away. On the other hand, we cannot be dependent on a few individuals, so these absences are really no excuse.

Our chances came almost exclusively from set plays. Tomi Lahtinen hit the cross bar twice from free kicks, and Adnan Omerovic had a great shot from a free kick that Antti Savolainen did very well to get to. Even Nawar Karikuss and Matias Palo had their chances from corner kicks, but no dice. Not that we deserved more than we got from this match. Even getting a point would have been a steal.

The result does not mean the end of the world quite yet, but the lack of team play worries me. If we get that fixed, I’m confident that reaching the top two spots in our subdivision is still in our own hands. There is definitely enough skill in this team, and more importantly, there are 4-5 good teams in our subdivision, so everybody is going to drop points at some point. However, we are making this tougher than it needs to be, and it is not getting any easier, because our next match is against NePa Talent, which is one of those good teams that have their eyes set on promotion. The good thing is that we have two weeks until that match, so the manager has time to do something about our problems, and hopefully we will also get some important reinforcements back from injury.

Other than the actual match, this was a nice event for a supporter. The rumors about 150 home fans turned out not to be much of an exaggeration, which made it seem even more important to support the team than usual. There was even some simple chanting from their fan section. Not a group I would be proud of, but to each their own I suppose. Our day started two hours before kick-off with a short charter bus ride to Ylöjärvi, where we invaded the terrace of a local bar. At the match our spot was up above the field on a ridge, which provided a nice vantage point even if it kept us kind of separated from the team. I thought we set the right tone at kick off, but unfortunately the team was not able to build on that.

Scoring:
1-0 Tommi Merto, 16 min
2-0 Mikko Jaakkola, 70 min

Discipline:
Hans Mäenalanen, Pelikassit (caution)
Alaa Adeeb, TamU-K (caution)
Mikko Jaakkola, Pelikassit (caution)
Ilari Salo, Pelikassit (caution)
Ahmed Lakra, TamU-K (caution)
Nawar Karikuss, TamU-K (caution)