A victory has rarely felt as good or as important as it did on Friday. The comfortable 7-2 over NePa Talent keeps us on track with regard to chasing the top teams in the table, but perhaps even more importantly, builds confidence within the club both on and off the field. This was definitely the best performance in a competitive match in TamU-K’s short history.

And make no mistake about it, the team that we defeated is a good team. From what I understood, they fielded a few players who have been getting a lot of playing time in NePa’s first team that plays two divisions above us. And even without them, NePa Talent has enough quality to get a result against anybody in our subdivision on a good day. We did not win this match due to just the individual skill of our players that was enough in the PiPo match earlier. This was much more clearly a team effort. Props to everybody involved in making this happen. After the disaster in Ylöjärvi two weeks ago against Pelikassit a change of course was absolutely necessary.

We did not have a particularly good star to the match, and indeed the first goal went to the visitors. NePa’s right wing was able to put a good cross in between our goalie and the defenders who were mostly running down facing the goal, with three NePa players also rushing to the ball. Heikki Wilen was unfortunate enough to make the touch that put the ball in our own goal. I suppose NePa’s Sampsa Helminen was somewhere close enough that the referee (who was otherwise excellent by the way) gave the goal to him.

Our response came just a few minutes later. Twice. First Lauri Heittola scored on a nice shot from about 15 meters to the top right corner of the goal. Then from the following kick-off NePa played the ball all the way down to their goalie. Adnan Omerovic put pressure on the goalie who literally collapsed. Well, after Ado had put the ball in the net anyway.

At this point I was strangely confident that we were going to win the match. I don’t want to toot my own horn too much, but I’ve found that when I get confident like that, I rarely get disappointed. I guess it is a combination of being an eternal pessimist and having some understanding about football or at least team psychology. After Heittola scored his second goal on another wonder strike, this time doubling the distance to about 30 meters, I think almost everybody knew that we were going to win. We just weren’t going to give up a 3-1 lead. Even when Tomi Lahtinen shot a penalty sky high, frustration or worry did not take over. I believe I said jokingly that this is good too in terms of wasting some time, but the NePa goalie actually did a remarkably good job at finding the ball from the woods without much delay.

At the half I went to buy a couple sausages (thank you NePa for organizing this!) and ended up chatting by the grill with Chairman of the club Ville Halmes even after the match restarted. I would never be able to stay out of the supporters section if I was at all nervous about the match. While I was standing there, some guy who reportedly supported NePa ran naked onto the field. A streaker in a match pretty much means your club is world class. Right?

Ten minutes into the second half Youcef Chemlal marked his return with his first goal for TamU-K. This was from a free kick 20 meters out. Just a minute later there was a brief moment of doubt when NePa scored their second goal. However, they never really threatened to come any closer. Two goals by Mohammed El Harrak and Heittola’s third goal sealed the deal.

After the match the celebration between supporters and the team was by far the most intense so far this season. Everybody understood the magnitude of the result, and it really showed. I think it was the first time I’ve seen several players in my team join the supporters in a little bit of song and dance.

On Sunday we continue our campaign away at Siuro against Nokian Palloseura’s third team. They have dropped the ”Fatboys” moniker, but based on their results this season it may still be accurate. They have lost all of their five matches with 9-25 overall goal differential. That said, if the team is not prepared to work as hard as they did on Friday, we’ll set ourselves up for a huge disappointment that could haunt us the rest of the season. It can be expected that NoPS will park the bus. We definitely have the skill to get through it, so it is going to be a test of discipline, patience, and work ethic. If we fail that, there is always a chance NoPS will score on us on a counter. Indeed, they have scored at least one goal in all their matches, and some of those were against some of the best teams in our subdivision. We cannot take them lightly even if we are very clear favorites going into this match.

Scoring:
0-1 Sampsa Helminen, 10 min
1-1 Lauri Heittola, 13 min
2-1 Adnan Omerovic, 14 min
3-1 Lauri Heittola, 32 min
4-1 Youcef Chemlal, 55 min
4-2 Teemu Salo, 56 min
5-2 Mohammed El Harrak, 65 min
6-2 Lauri Heittola, 67 min
7-2 Mohammed El Harrak, 68 min

Discipline:
Mika Suonsyrjä, TamU-K, 44 min (caution)