It is interesting how unpredictable the makings of an exceptional night of football can be. Evicted in Kauppi on a Thursday night and playing against a bottom-of-the-table TaPa did not seem like it would produce anything special. However, for me at least it was. The 5-1 victory was our largest the whole season (including preseason training matches) and as such felt great. It was particularly nice to see the team having fun playing football again, after a series of very difficult matches earlier in July. And even though I do not like Kauppi, admittedly standing right on the sideline at a small field added a very intimate feel to the match, and I quite enjoyed it.

However, perhaps the biggest factor was seeing the club’s new barbecue in action. It may sound like a small thing, but for our young club it was a great leap forward to have the smell of sausages in the air. It is something that fundamentally belongs to a Finnish sports event, and now we have it. And they were good sausages too, not the cheap ones that have more flour than meat in them. Our club is growing bit by bit, and it is great to be a part of it.

And perhaps it was indeed the much pre-hyped barbecue that ensured that even in Kauppi the match had 115 people in attendance. That is a little below our average, but not our worst number either. I feared that many would skip a match in Kauppi, but those fears were unfounded. In fact, there were many people with old Tampere United scarfs in attendance, and to me it seemed many of them have not been regulars this season. I really hope they’ll be back.

As for the match itself, it was always in our control, but as usual, we had a difficult statt, and even managed to give the lead to the opponent at first, after just over ten minutes of play. However, the equalizer came less than five minutes later, so we did not have to worry for too long. The ultimate game-changer happened a few minutes after the half-hour mark, when a shot by Nawar Karikuss was blocked by the arm of a TaPa defender. There is rarely a clearer case for a penalty kick and a red card. Joonas Kupiainen scored from the penalty, and after that I never worried about the result.

There were many players who had a great match individually. Lauri Heittola must of course be mentioned first as he scored a hat trick. The first was a volley directly from a corner by Joonas Kupiainen (1-1), the second was a reaction to a ball saved by the TaPa goalie off a powerful shot by Mika Kytöviita (4-1), and the third was a long distance shot directly from a sideways pass from Petri Vadén (5-1). This should do wonders for Lauri’s confidence, and maybe we’ll see more goals from him in the next matches. He has a great shot from distance, but has not been using it a lot this season.

Jesse Kupiainen scored the 3-1 goal, and that was his first goal for TamU-K. Always a great landmark. We now have 15 players who have scored this season, and nobody really stands out with a lot of goals. This is unusual in this level, and it would be fair to say that this team lacks the traditional number nine goal-scorer type. On the other hand, the fact that scoring is distributed evenly among many players makes it harder for opponents to shut us down. I would even argue that in the modern game this is how it should be.

The list could go on and on, but Retu Harju, Vesa Suonsyrjä and Petri Vadén are three others that I want to single out. For Harju this was his first league match this season, and he was immediately sharp and ”in” the game, and brought the kind of movement into our midfield that we need. Suonsyrjä played as a right back, an unusual position for him, and surprised everybody. He of course has the fitness to run up and down the sideline like nobody else, but he also played very smart. Vadén was his usual self once again. He passed two of the goals and was constantly dangerous on his left wing.

Next up we have FC Rellu in Kaukajärvi on Monday night at 8 pm. The second team will also restart their season next week, with a match on Wednesday against Melodyn Mustat Pekat, a 5.30 pm kick-off in Kalkku. Personally I plan to see both matches. You should too.

TamU-K – TaPa 5-1 (2-1)
12 min 0-1 Murtaza Salehi
16 min 1-1 Lauri Heittola
34 min 2-1 Joonas Kupiainen (pk)
50 min 3-1 Jesse Kupiainen
73 min 4-1 Lauri Heittola
85 min 5-1 Lauri Heittola

Discipline:
33 min Pekka Stenman, TaPa (ejection)