A disallowed goal, a missed penalty, a Geoff Hurst style ball bouncing from the underside of the cross bar to the goal line and out, questionable calls from the referee, and a dominating second half show by Anssi Saiha in the middle. Those are some of the elements of the football drama that we go to experience on Saturday night in the TamU-K match against OldSchool, ending in a 4-1 victory for the boys in blue.

The first half performance left a lot to hope for. Our creative play in the upper midfield was non-existent, and we did not create significant goal scoring opportunities. Then at the 40th minute OldSchool scored from an errand pass by Lauri Heittola that lead to a breakaway. With only goalie Ilkka Innola to beat, the OldSchool forward Kari Suutari did not fail to put the ball in the net, and the anxiousness felt within the crowd started to turn into a more serious concern.

At this point I was certain that we would go to the half with a deficit. Indeed, I already told a friend standing next to me that an entirely different TamU would re-emerge from the dressing room for the second half. However, Petri Vadén had other ideas, and put the ball in goal twice within just one minute. However, the half time score was just 1-1, because the referee inexplicably disallowed the first one of the two goals. The ruling was that Vadén had played the ball with a high foot studs up, but how this was a foul is difficult to understand considering that there was no contact with him and an opponent, and the goalie who was nearest did not really even attempt to challenge for the ball. Luckily the ball was again in the net just a minute later from the next opportunity, and this time the goal stood.

The second half performance was entirely different from the first half, as the scoreline alone would tell you. Passes started finding teammates, and when Saiha moved to the middle, magic started happening. The main individual beneficiary was Jacin Dakkaki, who scored two goals from passes by Saiha, just about two minutes apart at the 70th and 72nd minutes. When the 3-1 goal went in, I knew that we had won the match. With about twenty more minutes to go OldSchool was already looking tired, and certainly did not have any goals left in them.

It could have been very different though. Early on in the half, in the midst of TamU-K pressure, OldSchool had that shot on the underside of the crossbar. Many said they thought the ball had gone in, but luckily the referee did not see it that way. Later just a couple minutes before the Dakkaki brace there was an even bigger scare when a penalty was awarded against TamU-K from a questionable challenge between Juha Kumara and an OldSchool forward. Luckily our goalie Ilkka Innola was able to use his jedi skills to make the ball go wide. A goal from either of these, and who knows what would have happened.

In the end we could have even scored a few more goals. For example, Adnan Omerovic had three must-score chances, but put the ball in just once. He is a man of big matches though, and I’m sure his concentration and determination was affected by the fact that, for all intents and purposes, the match was already done. Still of course a one-on-one with the keeper should be a goal every time. Ultimately it did not matter of course, and a comfortable 4-1 (1-1) victory meant that everybody was leaving the stadium happy.

It has become a bit of a pattern for TamU-K that the first half performance leaves a lot to hope for, but a good second half effort is still enough for victory. Clearly this is something that is not sustainable in the long run. In other words, if this goes on, eventually we will be in a situation where the opponent either puts bigger numbers on the board when our effort is lacking, or does not allow us to score the goals needed when we improve for the second half. Even yesterday we got a little help from lady luck in a couple of OldSchool scoring opportunities in the second half, and it has to be admitted that we got very close to having a much more difficult match.

Next up for the first team we have an away match against TahVe in Pyynikki on Saturday at 4:00 pm. This is the team that we beat in the promotion final last fall, but because of other teams calling it quits, they were nevertheless offered a spot in Vitonen. It will be our last match in Pyynikki in a while, as our home and away matches played in Tampere will be at Kaukajärvi until August.

Before that the second team TamU-K /2 has a match tomorrow (Tuesday) at 7:50 pm at the legendary Stade de Peltolammi. This is the field where TamU-K played most of their matches in 2011, and I definitely plan to make a return. The opponent is FC PirTu, an opponent I bitterly remember from 2011, as it was our first ever loss and a match we should have won. Join me and a bunch of others who will definitely be there.

TamU-K – OldSchool 4-1 (1-1)
40 min 0-1 Kari Suutari
42 min 1-1 Petri Vadén
68 min Pekka Toppila missed penalty
70 min 2-1 Jacin Dakkaki
72 min 3-1 Jacin Dakkaki
85 min 4-1 Adnan Omerovic

Discipline::
9 min Kari Suutari, OldSchool (caution)
35 min Vesa Suonsyrjä, TamU-K (caution)
42 min Mikko Keskinen, OldSchool (caution)
58 min Anssi Saiha, TamU-K (caution)
71 min Iiro Leino, OldSchool (caution)
85 min Adnan Omerovic, TamU-K (caution)