Simply put, that was the best TamU we have seen this year. Especially the first half-hour where we scored three goals was deadly. Indeed, when Mika Kytöviita scored the 2-0 goal, I was 100 % sure we would win. The saying goes that 2-0 is the most dangerous lead in football, but I laughed when I thought of that. Everything was just clicking on the field, and there was nothing that could change the result. When Andrea Milanti scored the 3-0 confirmation by a beautiful strike from a free-kick, the evening was truly done. The only thing that could have changed at that point was the number of goal we’d score, but in the end 3-0 was the final score as well.

The first two goals resulted from our pressure deep in the TP-49 half causing their defence to crumble. You could say that we got those goals cheap – indeed I think I did say that at the match – but these goals resulted from our hard work. Great finishing as well, especially on the first goal by Jan Riikonen, where Mika Kytöviita found him wide open in front of goal. Riikonen had time to take one extra touch and then slot the ball safely past the keeper into the net.

I was also happy to see Andrea Milanti score. He was constantly dangerous in the middle of the field, but the goal came from a set play from about 20 yards out. A near perfect shot, and well-deserved celebrations in front of the supporters. Milanti seems to be a player who lives off of goals, and it was important for him to finally get one.

Our top goal-scorers right now are Riikonen and Kytöviita. Right now this honor is earned with only three goals, but especially with Kytöviita, “only” is hardly a fair qualifier. Namely, Kytöviita has only accumulated 146 minutes of playing time this season, yet he even has two assists on goals by others on top of the three goals of his own. Even putting aside these statistics, he is currently our hottest central striker – by far. He is the only one that has looked constantly dangerous. The only downside has been wasting a quite a few chances, but this has mainly happened in matches that we were already leading and ended up winning anyway. This was the case yesterday too: I can remember at least two opportunities that should have been a goal but weren’t. Luckily we could afford that.

Head coach Mika Suonsyrjä mentioned to me after our previous match that our club is always on a huge high or a deep low, that there never seems to be an intermediate between the two. This followed my blog post where I described the result then as a disappointing draw, and made me think about a lot of things, including the pressure under which the team is. How are they able to handle it, I wondered, seeing as it is that almost none of them have played for as big a club as ours before. Well, today I can say that they handled the pressure in the best possible way. Winning this match was very important, because the mental gap to the top of the table would have become huge otherwise. And they did so with a superb performance, giving the supporters another huge high.

Pyynikki Stadium remains a fort for us. We have played four home matches there, and we’ve won them all with a combined scoreline of 11-0. We’ve also had an average of nearly 200 people in attendance in these matches, and I’m starting to believe that this is a permanent shift from the 100-150 figure that was typical last season. Depending on the view point, these numbers are not a lot at all, or they are huge. I obviously have the latter point of view. We are building a foundation here – a foundation that won’t depend on whether we play in Nelonen or in a higher division.

TamU-K – TP-49 3-0 (3-0)
6 min Jan Riikonen 1-0
23 min Mika Kytöviita 2-0
29 min Andrea Milanti 3-0

Discipline:
24 min Jesse Järvi, TP-49 (caution)