Now that was more like it! A 5-2 win over FC KaVo in a training match on Saturday afternoon at our home field Kaukajärvi was just what the team and the whole club needed. Finally we played well and scored a bunch of goals. And finally we get to play training matches in Tampere, even if Kaukajärvi is still the only field that is open here.

It has to be said though that the first 15-20 minutes was tentative at best. Passes did not find teammates and it seemed that the defense and the midfield were totally disconnected from each other. KaVo was in control and created a few dangerous goal scoring opportunities. Luckily we have Ilkka Innola in goal, because this was not the first time we can thank him for saving his team from big trouble.

One of the huge positives in this match was that Jacin Dakkaki, who played on the right wing, finally scored his first goals for TamU-K. He had had a few excellent chances in previous matches too, but now the finishing in the 1-0 and 2-0 goals was confident. Hopefully this opens the ketchup bottle. He scored 12 goals for his team Vierasjoukkue in Kutonen last season, and a similar number is entirely possible this season too.

Mika Kytöviita also scored a brace. The first goal was a no-nonsense type powerful shot from short range for 3-0. The play actually started from a long range shot by Lauri Heittola. The goalie barely made the save, and everybody thought the ball was going out for a corner. However, our left winger Mohammed El-Harrak had other ideas, and ran up to pick up the ball from the byline. He played the ball into the box, and ultimately the ball was played to Kytöviita for the goal.

Kytöviita’s second goal for 4-1 was a show of speed and power in a counter attack. A KaVo defender was well-positioned to stop Kytöviita from advancing to a good position for a shot on goal, but the forward powered through and made a great shot out of it to beat the goalie. Kytöviita now has seven goals in seven matches for us. No need for further comments. Keep this up and you will be loved.

The fifth goal was scored by Lauri Heittola. El-Harrak played the ball to the wing to Timo Kauppinen, who found Heittola inside the box close to the 18 yard line. Easy stuff for Lauri. This was the second goal where Mohammed El-Harrak was involved, and he needs to be praised separately for this match. Once again an excellent performance from a player who easily gets the ”most improved from last season” title.

A huge reason why this was a good match for us is that for the first time in a while we were able to field a lineup that closely resembles our best eleven. The biggest exception to this was that Adnan Omerovic played as right back. However, he had an excellent match defensively. Sometimes you’d hope he would choose the easy pass, but I suppose he wouldn’t be himself if his first instinct wasn’t to use maximum power in all that he does.

Another positive was that we saw Sami Kriikkula play

football for the first time since February 5th when he played as a striker in the Finnish Cup match against Ikurin Vire. The long break definitely showed in his performance as he made mistakes that lead to the two goals that we conceded. However, I’m sure this wont be a problem in future matches. It will be interesting to see what position or positions he will play this season. Yesterday he played as a center back like he did last season, but I’m sure that playing as a forward is not off the table either.

This match was played almost exactly one year from our previous meeting with KaVo. That time we were playing our first ever competitive match, and realistically we had no chance in that match. An immense fighting spirit made the match an even battle that time, but ultimately we lost 3-0 and nobody could have questioned who were the better team that day, even if we had a few chances to score goals that might have changed the turn of events. It was good to see that now the match was completely different, just like it was supposed to be.

Next up we have a training match against Pelikassit on Sunday a week from now. This match will be played in Kaukajärvi, the venue of our memorable meeting last season, a 2-0 win for us. This is an interesting match-up, not least because we are two teams that got promoted from the same subdivision. We are now definitely a much stronger team than we were then, and we’ll see if this means that we will now dominate the match. Take that with a grain of salt though, because admittedly I have no idea what Pelikassit have done in the off-season. Regardless, this match might be a good simulation of what we will be facing early on in the competitive season, which starts in 2-3 weeks depending on scheduling.

TamU-K – FC KaVo 5-2 (2-0)
1-0 Jacin Dakkaki, 25 min
2-0 Jacin Dakkaki, 30 min
3-0 Mika Kytöviita, 56 min
3-1 KaVo, 60 min
4-1 Mika Kytöviita, 71 min
5-1 Lauri Heittola, 75 min
5-2 KaVo, 90 min

Discipline
63 min, Antti Luode, KaVo (ejection)