Finnish winters are long, and for football supporters they are especially excruciating. Couple weeks ago the lead-up to the Finnish Cup match gave us a little glimpse of what is coming ahead. However, with the early exit from the cup we still have two long months until

competitive matches resume.

Everybody seems to be expecting the most exciting season in the TamU-K era. Last year was fun, but let’s face it, we were a bit too far above anybody else in our division to make the season very interesting. The 2012 season in Kutonen was much tighter for us, but still in most matches the opponent was far inferior. In contrast, this year the overall quality of the football should be pretty high across all teams in Nelonen. Hopefully this means a lot of evenly fought matches where the opponent comes out to play rather than just defend.

The exact date of our first match is yet unknown, but Nelonen will probably start close to the end of April. We will also participate in the Finnish Regions’ Cup again, where the draw put us straight to the second round against Sisu-Pallo away at Seinäjoki. Competitively speaking this is not a very good draw for us as Sisu-Pallo is a team in Nelonen (in the Vaasa district) that made it to the fifth round of the cup last year, just like we did. However, from a supporter point of view it could not have been much better. Seinäjoki is about two and a half hours away from Tampere, a long enough distance for a true away-day. The match needs to be played by May 4, so it could be the first match of the season for us.

The one date we do know is April 25. That is when we have our Support Night at Klubi. It’s a great lineup for a very reasonable price. Asa & Polarsoul is the headliner, supported by Nyrkkitappelu, Vala and Polartones as well as Gruppo Erotico DJs. The proceeds of course go to TamU-K.

Before all this, more offseason training and matches is what the team needs. We also need to get more players back from injuries, so that we will actually have a bench in upcoming matches. Otherwise playing these matches is not very helpful. For example, the poor performance against PP-70 last weekend was not very surprising when so many players were absent, others played out of their normal position, and there were even two players in our lineup that are not in consideration for a contract this season. The first half was decent, but it all fell apart during the second half, and PP-70 definitely deserved their 0-1 (0-0) victory.

Our next match takes place tomorrow, when we face Tampereen Pelitoverit (TP-T) in a Sunday evening match at Pirkkahalli. The 4:30 pm kick-off time is a nice departure from the recent 10:30 pm and 8 am starts. The opponent is a local team in Kolmonen, and it might very well be the toughest team TamU-K has faced in an off-season match. There is plenty of experience from higher divisions in this team, and the most familiar name is the Tampere United icon Jussi Kuoppala, who has played for TP-T for several years after his retirement from the top-division.

A week later we will have the longest off-season trip yet, as we play Palokan Riento away at Jyväskylä. This trip is almost as long as the Seinäjoki trip, but offseason is offseason, so the number of away supporters surely will not be as high. Personally it’s my first away of the winter. Cannot wait.

It will be interesting to see how the team will proceed with adding new players. We now have only 22 players under contract, so it is clear that we will have a few additional signings. From what I have heard, we will continue to have trialists training and playing offseason matches with the team, but any new players will really have to impress. No need to sign third choices at this point. There is still a lot of time, and we might very well sign players very close to the start of the season or even after the season has already started, like we did last year. The fact that we have a second team playing in the bottom division Kutonen this year means that we have a large pool of players to draw from in an emergency situation. In our dreams we will sign another play-maker for central midfield as well as a proven goal-scorer from whom we can expect 15-20 goals. Anybody know any who are available?

And by the way, talking about additional teams, it is now official that we’ll have at least two youth teams in the summer. In addition to our F9 boys we will have a U17 team playing in the regional fourth tier, as confirmed by this page. So proud of all this.