Thursday’s away trip to Sääksmäki gave us what we needed: three points and a confident feeling going into the final stretch of the season. Mika Kytöviita scored our first two goals in the 3-1 (1-1) victory, and Lauri Heittola got the third one from a free kick almost 25 meters out. The conditions were much better than feared: the field was small, but the stories about its bumpiness were highly exaggerated. Not surprisingly there were no spectator stands, but the rural landscapes on both sides of the field were pretty in the evening sun.

Victory did not come easy though. TamU-K controlled the match from the very beginning, but somehow we let Sopu take the 1-0 lead just before the half-hour mark. Indeed, letting the opponent take the lead first has become a habit that we need to drop. The statistics on this are kind of crazy: we have let the opponent score in nine of our eighteen matches in Vitonen this season, and in every one of those matches the opponent scored the 1-0 goal. Early on this season we rarely let the opponent score at all, but lately we have conceded more often than not. The crazy statistic goes like this: the opponent scored first in seven of our last nine matches.

On the other hand, the team has shown their character in that they have won almost all of the matches where we went down first. In fact, there are only two exceptions to this, and the record shows 7-1-1 for those matches. That is truly remarkable. In addition, when we have taken the lead, we have always held onto that lead and won the match, and that actually includes all competitions.

Going back to Thursday’s match, it seemed to me that a lot of the spirit in the opposing team was killed by our quick 1-1 equalizer scored just three minutes after Sopu had taken the lead. Indeed, the score in the end could have and should have been much higher then the 3-1. It was great to see Kytöviita score a couple goals, but on the other hand many of our other attacking players wasted chance after chance. Jan Irjala in particular seemed to completely lack the killer instinct in goalmouth situations.

But of course we win and lose as a team, and the three points were all that really mattered in the end. The next day we got even more good news when we learned that ViiPV had had to settle for a 1-1 draw against bottom-of-the-table TaPa. This means that promotion will be on the line for us in the away match in Viiala in two weeks. The only way that does not happen is if ViiPV lose their home match against Sopu on Wednesday, in which case we can earn direct promotion in our home match against VesVi on Sunday a few days later.

Regardless, these are exciting times for us, and the next two fixtures are the big ones this season:

Sunday September 8 at 6:15 pm TamU-K – VesVi at Pyynikin urheilukenttä
Friday September 13 at 6:00 pm ViiPV – TamU-K at Viialan urheilukenttä

The supporters plan to take the local train to Viiala, and the earlier you buy your ticket, the cheaper it will be. The schedules will make it almost a full day for us, hopefully one of intense celebration. The train leaves Tampere at 3:37 pm and arrives in Viiala at 3:55 pm. After the match we’ll take the 9:01 pm train back to Tampere. The stadium in Viiala is less than one kilometer from the railway station, a perfectly walkable distance. Everybody should join this trip!

Sopu – TamU-K 1-3 (1-1)
27 min 1-0 Jukka Virta
30 min 1-1 Mika Kytöviita
58 min 1-2 Mika Kytöviita
74 min 1-3 Lauri Heittola

Discipline:
21 min Antti Eijamo, TamU-K (caution)
48 min Kristian Perttunen, Sopu (caution)
85 min Vesa Suonsyrjä, TamU-K (caution)