This was the first and hopefully the last match that I did not get to watch live, so I had to settle for the next best thing: following on Twitter. I do have to say this is an excellent way of following the matches. It is in Finnish so it may not be an option for all my readers, but those who know enough Finnish should follow it when they cannot make it to the match. You do not need to have a Twitter account to do it, just follow the link above for the TamU-K Twitter feed.

Following the Twitter updates was a pleasure also because they were constantly talking about TamU-K creating goal-scoring opportunities. The 1-0 and 2-0 goals by Chemlal and Lahtinen came quite early too, and I was confident about the victory the whole time. In the end the result was 3-0 after a late goal scored by Pelttari, who reportedly did great in his first match coming back from an injury that had kept him out for most of the season. Another player getting praise was Alaa Adeeb, who might very well be the best full back in Kutonen.

The reports that started coming in from the match after the final whistle painted a similar picture of confidence on and off the field. From what I can gather, our back line and defensive midfielders played a near-perfect match, no doubt helped by the new goalie Ilkka Innola, who reportedly lets the defenders hear it immediately if they have positioned themselves incorrectly. This is excellent news, because in the first half of the season our biggest problem was letting in way too many goals (18 goals in 8 matches in Kutonen). Indeed, until this match TamU-K had had a bad four-goal rule: in every match we had won we had scored at least four goals, and also every match we lost or tied could have been won by scoring at least four goals. Now this rule is finally broken, and we got a clean 3-0 victory.

Some TamU-K supporters have been saying that this was our first match where we did not have a period of panic where the victory was in question for awhile. Similarly, Manager Antti Pettinen remarked after the match that this was our first solid 90 minute performance. Of course he also said we need to still improve, but that is of course always what the supporters think as well. If you are not improving, you are getting worse. And of course there are still obvious areas where the team can improve.

The mission for the eight Kutonen matches in the fall season is now 3/24 done. On Friday we continue with a match against PiPo-79, which is another match where we will be the clear favorites. As long as the team remembers that we still need to put in work to get the results that we need, I have no doubt we will emerge victorious. And then about a week later we have the crucial match against Pelikassit. Notably, each of the top three teams won their matches this weekend, and the race for promotion remains the same.

Scoring:
1-0 Youcef Chemlal, 12 min
2-0 Tomi Lahtinen, 28 min
3-0 Martti Pelttari 80 min

Discipline
Valtteri Kannisto, 58 min, TaPa/2 (caution)
Isaac Gbehan, 64 min, TamU-K (caution)
Miikka Korpela, 72 min, TaPa/2 (caution)
Mika Suonsyrjä, 85 min, TamU-K (caution)