Full disclosure first: I was worried. Very worried indeed. LeKi had had the better of us in the winter, and had looked quite dangerous against FC Melody early this spring, a match that they won 0-2 away at Kauppi. Additionally, the whole club seemed to be unusually quiet ahead of this match. The typical huzzle and buzzle that we typically have on the week of the match – or on match day at the very latest – seemed to be gone. But boy was I wrong: the team came onto the field ready to kill and the supporters showed up in large numbers.

The result was a very comfortable 1-3 (0-1) victory away at LeKi-futis. During the first half and the half-time break I heard grumblings about the need to score a second goal, and I might even have even responded in agreement. However, even before our goal I felt it was certain that we were going to win. Such was the determination on the field. And that’s not to mention the determination in the stands. The Finnish summer showed its best with a temperature approaching the freezing point and rain coming sideways on the supporters in the windy midsummer evening. There was some cursing in the stands of course, but nobody seemed to really care. We knew what we needed to do, and that we did. And you know what, I do believe a 100 % that the boys on the pitch had the exact same feeling, and that we fed off of each other. There was so much fight on the field that you just had to give your all in the stands as well.

One of the moments that stuck with me was when Jacin Dakkaki stepped on the ball and fell (as I recall) in the midfield during the second half, and there were a few funny comments from the stands. He was just all smiles and showed a thumbs-up to the supporters. As I said to my neighbor then, you could tell that he knew that he had played well. And that was one of the huge positives I took from this match. Dakkaki had not played in the last three matches, and came back with an excellent performance. He is such a pest for the opponent’s defence, and plays a lot with his back to the goal. As a striker he is almost the complete opposite to Mika Kytöviita, who is much more direct striker-type.

It was indeed Dakkaki’s pest-like effort against a LeKi center back that lead to our first goal. It seemed like the center back should have had all the time in the world to clear the ball in the box, but instead Dakkaki spurted in and passed the ball wide to Jan Riikonen on the left wing. His perfect cross found our right-winger Risto Niskanen at the far post. A diving header past the keeper: 0-1 on the board and the match essentially done.

In the second half our two additional goals were scored in rapid succession after about one hour of play. The first one came from a perfect pass slotted through the defence by Jonne Keränen. The recipient Niko Saarinen scored an easy goal, his third in three matches. Just a couple minutes later it was Jonne Keränen who got the last touch. Among supporters he seemed to be the unanimous choice for the man of the match, but yesterday we were a team full of players that had a good match. In addition to the players already mentioned, all of our defensive line played a near-perfect match, and made our goalie Kalle Heltonen feel very, very cold for long stretches of the match.

Our next match is a home match at Pyynikki Stadium, our first match there for over a month. Our stretch of three away matches produced nine points, and overall we are on a four-match winning streak. Through this we have climbed onto the top of the table, and have 23 points after ten matches. We have played one match fewer than our opponents in the promotion race, but are still two points ahead of Ilves 2, five points ahead of NePa, and six points ahead of TP-49 and VaKP.

Our next match against Tervakosken Pato is our last match in the first round of matches. In other words, after that match we will have faced each of our opponents once, and the rest of the season consists of meeting each of them once more, now with home and away designations reversed. Arguably the second half of the season will be the tougher half since we will have tougher away trips than we have had so far. Still, knowing that we are on top when everybody has played against everybody feels pretty good. Next weekend the aim is to stretch that gap to five points.

LeKi-futis – TamU-K 1-3 (0-1)
15 min Risto Niskanen 0-1
60 min Niko Saarinen 0-2
62 min Jonne Keränen 0-3
73 min Juuso Ojala 1-3

Discipline:
53 min Sampo Clewer, Leki-futis (caution)
86 min Lassi Lehtonen, LeKi-futis (caution)