The match against NePa Talent was different from our last match against Pelikassit in all possible ways except that we won both matches. This time the score was 4-1. Sami Kriikkula scored his first goal for Tampere United from a penalty to make it 1-0, Youcef Chemlal scored twice, and Adnan Omerovic once. And by the way, Kriikkula was the 17th player to score for TamU-K in competitive matches this season. That is an impressive statistic that tells a lot about our team.

The first half an hour of the match was somewhat frustrating to watch as NePa bunkered in and TamU-K seemed content to play at the slow pace dictated by NePa. Things were similarly slow off the field too, as this was by far our lowest attended match at Kaukajärvi both with respect to the numbers in Sinikaarti’s section and the number of other fans who showed up. Chanting was infrequent and the atmosphere was a little bit sleepy.

This all made me realize how special the Pelikassit match was. In that match the team came onto the field with a fighting spirit that you associate with a derby, and the same applied to the supporters off the field. The fact that tens of other spectators showed up was just icing on the cake. Comparison with the NePa match is like night and day, but that is not to say the NePa match was entirely bad. It’s just that there are big matches and euphoric victories, and then there are routine victories.

Back to the match, the deadlock was finally broken at about the half-hour mark. Nawar Karikuss earned a penalty when he was fouled in an obvious goal-scoring opportunity in the middle of the penalty box. The laws of the game of course would have required that a red card be shown to the NePa defender, but in Kutonen you rarely see that happen, and we didn’t even protest beyond a few sarcastic remarks from the stands. A penalty was of course given, and Kriikkula put it in with confidence.

But maybe the biggest individual story of the day was, again, Youcef Chemlal. It was known that he would not be able to make it to the match at kick-off time, and during the frustrating first half hour everybody was anxiously waiting for his arrival. When somebody finally spotted him coming to the bench, there was palpable excitement in Sinikaarti’s section. When he was put in after Kriikkula’s 1-0 penalty kick, it was clap-clap-BOOM, and the ball was in the net with a nice shot from 25 meters or so. The claps represent his first two touches on the ball, and the BOOM is the third touch that sent the ball into the net. The score was 2-0, and the match was done with almost 60 minutes left on the clock.

And of course Chemlal was a match changer in other ways too. There is nobody else in our team and probably all of Kutonen that can move the ball around the midfield with such ease, finding open players and dictating pace. It was again so much fun to watch!

The goals of course changed the atmosphere in the stands too. It had been positive and optimistic the whole time, but the boost of enthusiasm provided by the goals made it much more fun. Some new songs were heard too, and perhaps my favorite one was the one that roughly translates like this:

We came down from the top, ole ole
Now owned by the supporters, ole ole
With money from Singapore, we will go back up in a flash
TamU-K, the pride of Tampere

The tune is the American Civil War song When Johnny Comes Marching Home. The translation above is of course not meant to fit the tune, but you get the idea. Many people will recognize this as the tune of Liverpool supporters’ song to Fernando Torres, but of course dozens if not hundreds of different versions are being sung by supporters of different teams around the world.

After the match players and supporters met on the terrace of a local bar in Kaukajärvi. And by ”met” I mean ”took over”. We have had similar occasions after a few other matches, but this time more players and supporters were able to show up than ever before. It was great times, and a lot of great discussions were had. The fan-meets-idol aspect that you almost inevitably have at a higher level of football was completely absent. Players and supporters met as equals, which is of course only natural when many are friends outside of football too. Some go way back, some have become friends during the season. And this all amounts to the club being more United than it has ever been.

Many of the players also mentioned that they liked our new songs and chants. However, Mika Suonsyrjä told us that the Singapore chant was a little problematic, because he was not able to play while he was laughing. That was obviously great to hear. And some people think supporters and their songs cannot have an impact on events on the field. What nonsense!

Many settled just for a beer or two, but for some of us the night continued into the small hours. The last bar I visited was London Pub downtown, and the grainy photo below shows the pleasant surprise I found at the cloakroom when I was leaving my jacket. Respect for not pulling it down despite the changed circumstances of the club!

Oh, and if you want to know what those banners in the photos at the top of this post say, this is a translation:

Match + Sausage 2 €
Supporters celebrating 140 €
The FA’s idea about football: worthless

I suppose this needs no further explanation. The supporters put up the banners up on the fence before kickoff, and the banners remained there throughout the match.

Scoring:
0-1 Sami Kriikkula, 32 min (pk)
0-2 Youcef Chemlal, 33 min
0-3 Youcef Chemlal, 42 min
0-4 Adnan Omerovic, 61 min
1-4 Teemu Salo, 81 min

Discipline:
Kemal Dedic, 79 min, TamU-K (caution)