It was a great day at Pyynikki Stadium until the 68th minute. The 115 people in attendance were treated to a hard fought match that had a bit of a derby feeling to it. Sinikaarti was singing loud, and the wooden roof projected the sound straight onto the field. At the half a line formed to the sausage stand. Many people also picked up a TamU-K scarf.

TamU-K was not playing that well, but it looked like we would nonetheless squeeze a victory from FC Tribe, a team that was unable to build an organized offensive effort but was fairly well organized in defense. The victory was going to be the first one in a match where the opponent wouldn’t allow the goal margin to grow, and where we’d have to fight until the very end. However, that was not to be. The opponent’s only chances seemed to come from set plays, and then it happened again on the 68th minute. A free kick from long range, a wishful ball into the box, our defense in utter shambles, and suddenly it was 2-2. We were able to fight back after that and even had a few good efforts from free kicks, but the one Jose Chemlal’s put onto the crossbar from about 20 meters out was as close as we would get.

The penalties are always a world of their own, and perhaps TamU-K felt more pressure going into them than FC Tribe did. The first shooters from both teams put theirs in, but then TamU-K’s second shooter Adnan Omerovic shot his penalty way wide. The next six shots were all put in, and it all came down to the fifth shooter for FC Tribe. A glimmer of hope was restored when the shot was picked up from the low right corner by Mika Suonsyrjä, who had subbed into goal for the penalties. However, the very next shot by Antti Kääriäinen had a similar fate, and we were in a sudden death situation again. Marko Soini made no mistake with his shot, and FC Tribe started their celebrations while everybody else was wondering how we could have let this happen.

It is clear that the team still has a lot of work to do. This match highlighted the problems in organizing the defense, in particular in set plays. It seems right now that any cross into the box causes a bit of a panic where nobody is clear about what they are supposed to do. This is definitely a coachable issue, and I know that this is something the team will work on before our next matches. Another issue that needs to be stressed again is that the team needs to open their mouths on the field, and help each other make the right choices. At times our play again looked like a bunch of skilled individuals banging their head on the wall instead of playing as a team.

It is a good thing we are learning these lessons in a cup match. Our Kutonen campaign is still looking good, or at least it was unaffected by this result. The team has a chance to redeem themselves on Sunday in the home match against AC Darra at Kaukajärvi, kickoff at 7:15 pm.

Scoring:
1-0 Heikki Wilen, 11 min
1-1 Marko Soini, 30 min
1-2 Youcef Chemlal, 57 min
2-2 Jarno Ojala, 68 min

Discipline:
Heikki Wilen, TamU-K, 30 min (caution)
Youcef Chemlal, TamU-K, 53 min (caution)
Marko Soini, FC Tribe, 63 min (caution)
Mika Suonsyrjä, TamU-K, 68 min (caution)
Matti-Pekka Mäkelä, FC Tribe, 68 min (caution)
Kemal Dedic, TamU-K, 72 min (caution)
Ville Kosonen, FC Tribe, 85 min (ejection)
Alaa Adeeb, TamU-K, 88 min (caution)

Penalties:
Kääriäinen, 1-0
Soini, 1-1
Omerovic, no goal
Mäkelä, 1-2
Chemlal, 2-2
Kähkönen, 2-3
Wilen, 3-3
Hursti, 3-4
Helenius, 4-4
Laakso, no goal
Kääriäinen, no goal
Soini, 4-5