What a disappointing night. Rain, lackluster support, and a bad performance on the field, leading to the first loss in a league match since June 26th last year. FC Rellu were undeniably the better team yesterday, and deserved their 0-1 (0-1) win. They took away all our space in the midfield, whereas our team had a serious lack of sharpness and calm. Always in a hurry, rarely making the right choice, and often ending plays in a bad pass or a bad receiving touch. Add the inability to get shots on goal from goalmouth scrambles, and the zero in our side of the (imaginary) scoreboard was exactly what we deserved.

All credit must be given to FC Rellu though. They had a game plan. They defended well as a team, players supporting each other well, and never getting tired. That is in fact the first time that happened, as usually we have been able to rely on our better fitness, and turning the match in our favor during the last half hour, if not earlier. On the other hand, we forgot to let the ball do the work, and Rellu was never really chasing the ball, something that has worked in our favor in many matches this season.

Very few of our players had a good match yesterday, but the forwards in particular lacked sharpness. Jan Irjala, Mika Kytöviita, and Jacin Dakkaki all need to improve and start scoring goals again. Even Petri Vadén was less than his usual self. Nawar Karikuss was the sharpest of our attacking players, but even he did not get much done. In my mind we lacked options from the bench, and I could not help but think that the calmness and ball control of Mohammed El-Harrak and the typically forceful play of Adnan Omerovic could have turned this match, like it has in the past both this season and last season. However, neither of them were available for the match, so all speculation is purely academic.

It is clear that the team needs to improve if we are to return to winning ways. The next match against OldSchool takes place on Saturday, and yesterday’s performance level wont be enough for victory. It seems to me that going Back to the basics is what is needed. Easy choices, better passing, and turning the play quicker when we get the ball. And yes, a bit of sharpness in goal-scoring opportunities. Yesterday there were too many where we did not even force a save from the keeper.

As a reminder, only finishing first on the table guarantees promotion, whereas the second place team has to play a promotion match against the second place team from the other subdivision. We still have a seven point cushion to the second place team ViiPV, but such a cushion can disappear very quickly. ViiPV will play most of their remaining matches home, where they are much stronger than away. Our next two matches, on the other hand, are against couple of the better teams in our group. Both OldSchool and TahVe are at 21 points, sharing the third place on the table. There is probably little risk of either of them catching us, but by winning us in our next match and also winning their game in hand, OldSchool could be just nine points behind us, and at the same time ViiPV could reach a four-point striking distance behind us. These facts underline the importance of the OldSchool match.

This year’s team is now in a must-win situation for the first time. I am very curious to see how they will respond to the pressure.

TamU-K – FC Rellu 0-1 (0-1)
18 min 0-1 Mikko Santala

Discipline:
54 min Lauri Heittola, TamU-K (caution)
65 min Jari Kurki, FC Rellu (caution)
85 min Jari Kurki, FC Rellu (caution)
85 min Jari Kurki, FC Rellu (ejection)
90 min Petri Vadén, TamU-K (caution)