retired_milla0225

WooHoo 100 posts. Thanks to Loeffle, Flying Fin and everyone else who has contributed to making this story as enjoyable to write as it has been for me.

Thinking caps on lads.

The problems we so apparently had in the centre of defence were beginning to worry me greatly. So I called a meeting of all the coaches in my office to try and work out a solution. First I asked them who they thought were the pair that they would pick at the back. Then I asked them if they thought we needed strengthening in this position.

Assistant Manager Miikka Murmi said that he preferred Timo Valkeapaa and surprisingly Matti Uoti, he said he’d go for further strength at the back. Coach Erkki Nieminen went with Uoti and Roger Nielsen. For Fitness coach Topi Priha it was Uoti and Nielsen as well. Per Arne Gjerdalen thought the same despite being in line for one of those starting spots himself. Modesty forbade perhaps? Jonas Klippvik went with the popular pair too and goalkeeping coach Bobby Gedddes thought along the same lines as the Assistant and went with Uoti and Valkeapaa

So Matti Uoti was a unanimous choice. This surprised me as Matti had been one of the least confident performers in the pre-season so far. But I would give the lad another chance, alongside either Nielsen or Valkeapaa. Personally though it would still surprise me if in the remaining pre-season Uoti did enough to grab a first team spot for himself. And I would get out there and look for some more defensive cover straight away.

kamini20

Nice, I have enjoyed this story from start till now very much.... hopefully you will reach the top. :thup:

retired_milla0225

Let’s have the first contestants please.

In the beauty contest that will decide who will be in the starting line up in the centre of defence for the first league game. Today’s pair Uoti and Valkeapaa, the game a home friendly against the Icelandic team UMFN the play at the equivalent level to us in the Icelandic league set up so we should see some level of challenge here today. With only five friendlies (only 5! seems like we’ve been at these for ever) I’m looking now to put out my strongest line up and fine tune it for the start of the season proper. Of course, it would be nice to be more settled in defence, but we are where we are and there are other questions I’d like an answer to, like who plays at Left back, I’ve gone with Riihimaki today but Etelamaki also has a very good shout for the spot. Who’s going to play on the right side of midfield, I have a number of candidates, Laitinen gets the nod today.

In the game itself we started brightly and were not flattered to take a tenth minute lead a deep cross from Pasanen at right back was expertly controlled in the box by Mikkola who took the ball past one man in the act of controlling it and then slotted it past the keeper from the angle for a very well taken goal. The game was nip and tuck after that, but we always had the upper hand. UMFN were reduced to 10 men when their clodding great centre half hauled back Eranan on the edge of the box, he was the last man, and had to go. Unfortunately, Riihimaki blazed the free kick well wide.

So half time and 1-0 up and I tell the lads to not get complacent I then pop back into the dugout for the second half. We applied some pressure but our shooting boots don’t appear to have arrived yet and we failed to get a single second half shot on target. The game, predictably, given those facts finished 1-0 to us and jolly comfortable it was too. The lads performed well and Uoti and Valkeapaa worked very well together. Uoti made 5 interceptions but only made one tackle whilst Valkeapaa made 4 challenges, one of them key. Both were impeccable in the air. A bery promising performance. Of the other questions Riihimaki acquitted himself well at left back but Laitinen was a little anonymous on the right.

Final Score PP-70 1 – 0 UMFN
A solid win and a good performance, Maybe I’m misjudging Matti Uoti ?

retired_milla0225

News from home

A contact from my footballing days in England rang me to say that the manager’s position was vacant at Wolves and if I didn’t fancy that then Hartlepool were also looking. I thanked him for the info, but I told him I still thought I had a job to do here, so I wouldn’t be applying

retired_milla0225

Next up, another friendly !

Premier Division side AC Alliansi were the visitors. I put Nielsen in in place of Valkeapaa and put Karhu on the right wing, otherwise we were unchanged. Alliansi dominated the first half but only really created half chances. Uoti relishing the chance he’d been given was excellent, Nielsen less so, shame I had thought a lot of the boy. Up front we were only capable of a few, mainly wayward, shots but we all came in at the half time break level at nil all.

I told the lads to play a bit more defensively as we weren’t getting too much of the ball and were giving the team from the higher division a lot of space to play in. I resisted the temptation to change the team as it’s more about finding out what these lads can do, isn’t it ?

We were a bit more competitive in the second period but AC Alliansi were also more on their game, they scored on 56 minutes when Nielsen’s attempted tackle didn’t prevent Vajanne from scoring. We changed things about a bit on 75, bringing some players on and going for the equaliser a bit more, but though we figured more as a force in the game it was no surprise when Alliansi got another at the death, Parikka capitalising on indecision between Uoti and Nielsen, got between them and beat Peltonen from close range.

So the game finished 0-2. Of the players I was interested in Uoti did well, Nielsen didn’t. Riihimaki struggled and [b]Karhu{/b] and Lehtonen were also brought off midway through the second period. Some answers as to selection are forming in my head right now. Let’s see where they go after the next match.

Final Score : PP-70 0 -2 AC Alliansi
We tested ourselves against a better team and did not so bad, in places.

retired_milla0225

Let’s try another combination

Next up was a trip to non-league KKV, from Kokovaki. They’re not a bad side at all, and one we can’t take lightly. Just for completeness’s sake I paired Nielsen and Valkeapaa at the back for this one, put Arjais on the right and gave Lahtinen a go in the middle of midfield and rested Eranen in order to give Panchenko a game.

The game started cagily with neither side making much headway in the middle of the park initially. As the game wore on we began to get an upper hand and scored on 19 minutes after a brilliant individual run by Olikainen into the box was foiled by a reflex save by their keeper only for the ball to drop to Sergiey Panchenko, and the Ukrainian slammed the ball home. Panchenko was denied a second by a brilliant save a minute later and we were made to pay for that miss five minutes later as KKV scored an equaliser with a screaming 30 yard volley. Their first sniff of a chance and it had gone straight in, not a chance for Peltonen or anyone in the defence. The parity didn’t last however and we were back in front on 32 minutes. Nielsen controlling a goal kick in the centre circle unchallenged was allowed time to pick out a superb defence splitting ball that put Mikkola one on one with the keeper. He made no mistake from 16 yards.

That was how the score stayed until half time. I made no changes at the interval and sent the boys out with some words of encouragement. KKV were predictably lively at the start of the second period but it was us who scored next, just after the hour mark when Valkeapaa slotted home a penalty after Panchenko had been shoved in the back in a very unthreatening situation.

The game finished as a 3-1 win to ourselves and a very controlled performance it was too. There were some high spots Valkeapaa was excellent as was Lahtinen. Etelemaki looks to have secured left back and Panchenko was great, making a nuisance of himself very well. Arjais on the other hand was o.k., but not great, quite anonymous. Still a problem.

Final Score KKV 1-3 PP-70
I think the defensive pairing has just sorted itself out, don’t you ?

retired_milla0225

A game against Premiership opposition

And one for which I intended to start with as close to my final starting line up as I could manage. For the game against FF Jaro at the Tammelan Stadion Uoti and Valkeapaa played at the centre of defence and my experimentation was limited to playing Kotilahti on the right and Eranen in midfield. I was planning a small tactical adjustment where I ask one of the central midfielders to push on, and one to drop back, and Eranen is an Attacking Midfielder as well as a forward, and could be very useful in that role.

Jaro scored within two minutes, the left winger getting inside Pasanen and scoring with a rasping drive. On 12 minutes they raced clear again, and scored with undesirable ease. We came back into the match after that, and had the best of the rest of the half, without really troubling the Jaro keeper. I was pleased with our attitude if not the application. Anyway 0-2 at half time and I told the guys to buck their ideas up, and quickly.

Into the second half we went, with our tails up, and I was proud to see us put Jaro under some pressure. And we got a goal back on the hour, Panchenko latching onto a deep Pasanen cross and turning it past the oncoming keeper from 8 yards out. And what’s even better from my point of view we kept it up thereafter and forced an equaliser five minutes from the end Lahtinen fed Eranen who, in his best act of the day in the midfield, played Panchenko in behind the defence to score from 12 yards out. 2-2 the final score, a result we, at the very least, deserved. In fact we probably did enough for a win, but given the number of chances we wasted as a team maybe a draw was the best result.

Still, a very pleasing game from many aspects. Two down after 12 as we got used to the new system perhaps? was then followed by long periods of the game where we dominated, and we deservedly got back to level terms by dint of our hard efforts. A good performance. On an individual level I reckon Kotilahti did enough today to get into my starting midfield. Uoti and Valkeapaa look the part at the back, Lahtinen excelled in the withdrawn midfield role, but Eranen need another game in that position to bed in. He’ll get his chance.

Final Score PP-70 2-2 FF Jaro
We played against the ‘better’ team and more than held our own

retired_milla0225

Taking my eye off the ball ?

The preperations for the new season were in full swing and taking up all of the time in which I wasn't working at the 'day job'. It left little time to contemplate where my personal life had gone, and more importantly how to get it back. I think anyone on the outside would have been able to tell me at that time that I was throwing myself into it just a bit too hard, but I couldn't see it.

And to be honest what else was there for me to do ? I was, after all, a foreigner in this town. Made extremly welcome by one and all, yes. But it wasn't my home town and I knew nobody really well now that Hanna had gone, so what was I going to do other than work at Nokia and work at PP-70 ? Getting drunk wasn't really my style, and certainly not at these prices ! and whilst cross country skiing was certainly good for me, I still wasn't very good at it.

So I must have looked quite miserable as I sat, toying with my now empty coffee cup, in the breakout area at the Nokia office in Tampere. I was pondering if I'd make any changes for the next friendly, and at the same time where I would eat tonight. I quite fancied a pizza at Napoli, but I probably wouldn't want to go on my own which meant I'd have to pop into the supermarket at some point. Talk about more questions than answers !

So deep in thought I sat, when a voice snapped me out of my revelry.

"Do you mind if I sit down ?"

retired_milla0225

It was Kaija, one of the 'code monkeys' that worked downstairs on the software that drives the phones. She passed off the usual 'woman in technical job dominated by men' sartorial get up of the 'kookie chick'. Bunched hair with ribbons in it, a loud, primary coloured t-shirt and a ra-ra skirt. Strangely enough she didn't strike me as being my type.

Kaija Salonen (KS): "You're Tristan Langley the PP-70 manager aren't you ?"
Tristan Langley (TL): "I am indeed. How is life down in 'Code Monkey' land ?"
KS: "Fine, I'm a big fan of the team, how's the new season coming along ?"
TL: "Pretty good, I'm just finalising the starting line up now, how do you think we'll do this year ?"
KS: "Isn't that you're job ? Seriously I liked the way we finished last year and if we can keep that momentum up we stand a great chance."
TL: "Well, don't tell anyone but I share your confidence."
KS: "So, is playing Eranen in midfield going to be a permenant thing?, I liked it when he played up front."
TL: "It's an option I'd like to explore, Kaija, I think he'll do well for us in whichever role I pick him in to be honest. Anyway I must go back to work, we must talk more. Actually would you like to come to the next friendly as my guest ?"
KS "I'd like that very much Tristan, thanks."

And so a beautiful friendship was born.

retired_milla0225

Oh dear

Honestly, it hadn’t even entered my head that the next friendly was at FC Kontu, a non-league side in Helsinki, and that possibly that wouldn’t be the best place to go in the company of a new ‘lady’ friend. Not that I saw Kaija in that light at all, not at this stage anyway, but I knew who would, Hanna.

So it was with a slight sense of foreboding that I picked Kaija up. I had thought of putting her off, but our friendship was already well established, just after a few chats at work, and I didn’t want to jeopardise that. And you have to say that she scrubbed up nicely. Gone was the work ‘uniform’ of kookiness and in it’s place was an attractive, well turned out young woman. It worried me she was only 24 but what the hey, we’re only friends, right ?

We got to the ground in good time, and after a quick look round I made my excuses to Kaija and went to give the pre-match team talk. She made her way up into the stands where I also saw the familiar, beautiful, figure of Hanna. She looked at me quizzically, then smiled. I gave a quick wave back and hurried off to the dressing room. This was going to be a difficult night.

In the dressing room I gave some final words of encouragement to the team. Per Arne Gjerdalen was in for Matti Uoti who had picked up a knock in training and was rested as a result of it, no point in risking his fitness, was there ? Otherwise we went with the same team and formation as last time.

The first half was an even affair with few chances, but we managed to take one of ours in the 40th minute Ollikainen moving well down the left and playing in Mikkola who scored from the angle. 1-0 up at half time and we’re doing well so I made no changes for the second half.

On 55 minutes the game burst into life as Ollikainen again found space and put in Mikkola beyond the last man, who then pulled ’Mik’ back just as he was about to shoot. A red card for the offender was followed by a superb free kick, curled into the top left hand corner, over the heads of the wall, by Lahtinen We’re 2-0 up and FC Kontu is down to 10 men. We had a third goal chalked off for offside late on but even at 2-0 this was a comfortable win. Gjerdalen acquitted himself well but both Eranen and Panchenko were disappointingly quiet.

I had a quick word with Hanna after the game. It was good to see her, but I think both our lives have moved on. She’s really happy doing the weather on national telly and it’s only a matter of time until her career sky rockets. She said some complementary things about the team and we left it at that. But I caught her looking as I showed Kaija back to the car.

Kaija had the common decency not to ask me about Hanna in the car on the way home. It was common knowledge that we were together when we were both back in Tampere but it wasn’t really something I wanted to discuss right now. Instead we talked about the game on the way home, and I have to confess she may be right about Eranen, he may well play better up front. But if I don’t play him in the attacking midfield role who do I play there ?

Final Score FC Kontu 0 – 2 PP-70
I don’t think I’ve heard the last of this.