A lot has happened since the last time I wrote in this blog: two important signings were announced, a match was played in Pori against FC Jazz/2, the team captains for 2014 were chosen, and perhaps most importantly, the date of our first Finnish Cup fixture was finally announced.

First things first, our competitive season will start on Monday February 10th with the second round Finnish Cup match against LeKi-futis. The match will finish on the following Tuesday, because the only available times in the TESC indoors facility are after the regular training times have ended, and so kick-off is set at 10:30 pm. This is the same situation that we had last year, and even if this is far from an ideal kick-off time, I’m sure that we will again make the most of it. Last year 132 people attended the second round match against VaKP, and hopefully we can break that record.

I suppose the approaching Finnish Cup fixture is what prompted the announcement about team captains. As everybody expected, Ilkka Innola will continue as the team captain. Joonas Kupiainen remains an alternate captain, and Timo Kauppinen will be the only new name in the trio.

The two new signings are Jan Irjala and Niko Saarinen. Irjala played as a forward last year, but has now moved to the center back position, where he has exceeded all expectations in the three training matches that have been played so far. For me it was a real no-brainer to sign him, as this gives us more options with the likes of Juha Kumara and Timo Kauppinen, who can be very effective in the midfield in addition to the center back position, where they both played most of their matches last season.

Niko Saarinen seems to be a nice addition to the midfield. I have not been able to attend the last couple training matches, but reports from other supporters have been very positive. If I have understood correctly, he can play the role that was reserved to Joonas Kupiainen last season, a role where we really did not have a second option. Additionally, a new trialist by the name of Jan Riikonen played as a right winger in the latest training match in Pori, and it seems he will definitely be offered a contract.

That training match against the second team of FC Jazz ended up being a 3-1 loss despite Andrea Milanti scoring the 0-1 very early on. Nevertheless, it was our best match this offseason so far, and the coaching staff seemed to be happy with the information that they got out of this match. Everybody whose comments I’ve heard seemed to agree that it was an evenly fought match that was decided by Jazz/2 being further along with team-play than we are. This is not at all surprising, seeing as we have again had a high turnover in the off-season. For example, in this match the starting lineup had six players who were not in the team last year, and I suppose you could almost add Jan Irjala in his new center back role as the seventh one.

So things are looking pretty good right now. On Sunday we will play another training match, this time in the neighboring town of Valkeakoski against TP-49, a team from Toijala, Akaa. They will play with us in Nelonen this season, so it is a nice test for us at this point. Interestingly, the same also applies to our Finnish Cup opponent LeKi-futis. With them we even have a bit of history from last year: we played a training match with them in late March and ended up losing 1-2, but two months later we beat them in the Finnish Regions’ Cup 1-0 with a headed goal by Timo Kauppinen. Hopefully we’ll again win them when it counts.