One official game, one win.
We played a Finnish Cup 4th Round game last night
against the local Division 2 team, IFK Vasa (or maybe they’re called Vasa
IFK). We won 2-0 with goals either side
of halftime from Jarno and Patu. Of course
I don’t really do in-depth game recaps, but I will make a few points about the
match before inevitably talking about myself since, hey, it’s my blog.
Now on to the game.
First of all, Vasa IFK Vasa (I’ll just call them that or VIFK so that I
get the name at least half right) is a really good team. I didn’t have any familiarity with the level
of teams in Division 2, but from the looks of it it must be a decent
league. That’s surprising to me, since I
trained for a day with a Division 3 team last February right after I was
released by MYPA to stay fit for my trial with ESK in Sweden. That Division 3 team was terrible and
resembled a youth club. Vasa IFK Vasa on
the other hand had a bunch of players that honestly wouldn’t look out of place
in Veikkausliiga. I don’t know how it
looked from the outside, but on the pitch it felt like we were just chasing
shadows while Vasa IFK Vasa calmly moved the ball around for the first 15
minutes or so. We were making all the
chances, but it seemed like we were just getting counterattacks and not controlling
anything. Even though Jarno scored in
about the 40th minute, I felt like the game was very even going into
halftime.
This was my first halftime with VPS, since I didn’t start
the previous game and was warming up during that time. It’s always interesting to see what teams do
during the interval. I won’t get into
tactics and stuff since that stuff’s not important to this blog. Instead I’ll talk a bit about a few of the
things that go on during a professional soccer halftime. While you guys are out getting hot dogs or
whatever food they sell at Finnish sports events, we’re underneath the stands
doing the most random things ever. I
think that people believe that halftime consists of a 15-minute team talk from
the coach. In reality it’s more like a
church, with 75% of the time spent on personal reflection and 25% spent by
tactical/motivational discussion. Most
of the guys took their jerseys off because honestly those things are like
straight jackets. When I saw that VPS
had long sleeve jerseys last year I thought it was so cool. But then again it was -3 degrees and the
field was frozen. It’s a totally
different story when you’re playing in a climate controlled hall. I didn’t take my jersey off, mostly because
the previous #19 for VPS had a medium jersey meaning that I have the same and I
simply couldn’t easily take the jersey off.
I guess it’s all those big muscles I have!
Aside from stripping, there are other things going on. A couple of guys were doing sit ups and/or
push ups, something I would never dream of during halftime. I think I even saw a player get a coffee
which is crazy to me. Personally, I just
sat in my spot in the locker room on the floor so my legs could stay
extended. I was quite tired at halftime
as this was only my second competitive game since last October. Anyway, after the 15 minutes were up and Oka
(the coach) had given his speech we headed out for the second half.
In my opinion (I shouldn’t use that phrase. It’s obviously my opinion since I’m writing
it, but I can’t really think of a better way to start this sentence right now.)
the second half was much better than the first from our point of view. We did a better job of controlling the pace
of the game and didn’t give up any chances that I can think of. We also created a bunch of chances of our
own. While I didn’t really have any
chances, I did help create some things and opened up the field with my
pace. Great for the team, terrible for
my lungs and legs. By the 60th
minute I was just about completely gassed.
Luckily for me and the team, Patrick Lomski scored in the 72nd
minute or so and from there it was a stroll.
Vasa IFK Vasa had to change their formation and it allowed us to dictate
the rest of the game. 2-0 to the good
guys!
I guess I did end up doing a sort of recap of the match. I’ll finish up by just mentioning a few
things that I took from this match.
First, I feel very confident that I can help solve the striker problem
at this club. I know I didn’t score any
goals and honestly did pretty poorly with the few chances I received/created. That said, I have all the tools to be a good
Veikkausliiga striker. Given some time I
think that I could make that position mine.
Of course I’m prepared to play anywhere.
I’ve spoken to Oka a few times about this and he knows that I’m a
willing to play anywhere for the team.
Let’s just hope that nothing happens that forces Oka to have to put me
at center back or something! I’ll do it,
but I can pretty much guarantee that we’d lose that game and that Henri (our
goalie) will want to kill me afterward.
Second, I’m really excited about this team this year. We played a game without a signed striker and
with a handful of important players missing, but still managed to get a comfortable
win against a team that I would guess could easily play in Division 1. And while they had their moments, I think a
neutral fan would admit that we could have won by 3-0 or 4-0 with a bit of
luck.
Ok enough about the game.
The team has four days off in lieu of the Easter holiday. I find it kind of ironic that all of Finland
shuts down for good Friday despite the fact that I’ve seen two churches the
entire time I’ve been here. In America,
there’s a church on every corner and we swear we’re the most religious people
ever, but on Good Friday you take your ass to work. Same with the day after Easter. Anyway, I’ll be here in Vaasa training and
getting my fitness up since I’m a model professional. Haha clearly that’s not the case, I just
don’t have enough money to travel anywhere.
I wasn’t lying about getting my fitness up though. If you see me walking in Vaasa (I’m not hard
to miss around here) offer to drive me to the gym! It’s like a 40 minute walk from my house and
I’m afraid to jog there because there’s still quite a bit of ice outside.
That’s all. Sorry
again for no pictures. I’ve been doing a
really bad job at that but it’ll get better I promise. I might look around and see if there’s any
pictures on the newspaper websites or elsewhere and post them.
The meme. It's explains my writing style perfectly:
Barbecue sausage with mustard is what happens on the stands during matches.
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