Matchday 7-9: So many games

It’s been quite a long time since I posted here, and boy has a lot happened.  Now if you’ve been wondering why I’ve written so little this month there is a simple answer: life just hasn’t been that interesting.  We’ve had games twice a week for the last month and we’re continuing on the same pattern.  That pretty much means that I have no life.  I can’t go out to bars or even the beach because I have to constantly recover from the previous game and prepare for the next one.  I could write about what’s been going on in the games, but honestly I think people have their own opinions and don’t much care about how I feel.  Besides, when you’re in the game it’s a bit difficult to be objective about the performance.  I’ve talked a lot about our games in my recent posts and will do some more again today, but in the future I’ll go away from that.  Anyway that’s the recap as to why I’ve been away.  I’ll try and post more frequently in the future!

Sonera Stadium

 

I think the last time I posted was after our loss to KuPS a few weeks back.  Since then we’ve played a Finnish Cup game against JJK (loss), away to Inter (draw), away to HJK (win) and away to MYPA (loss).  Now I know people are most interested in hearing about the HJK game, so I’ll spend the most time on that, but first I’ll go over the other three games briefly.  I’ll be mostly referring to my individual performances because it’s my blog and I feel like talking about myself.

 

The Finnish Cup quarterfinal against JJK was an absolute disaster.  I thought that we were totally dominated for most of the game and my performance was the worst of the season thus far.  I can’t explain why, but I just couldn’t get a foothold in the game at all.  My passes weren’t crisp, I gave a lot of balls away and generally just didn’t help VPS to win in any way.  I worked reasonably hard and had a handful of good moments, but that’s not good enough in a cup match with everything on the line.

 

Later that week we traveled to Turku to play Inter.  In contrast to JJK, I thought this was my best performance of the season.  Not to toot my own horn (which means I’m going to toot my own horn), but I felt like I was the most dynamic player on the field.  I say dynamic and not best player because even on my best day I’m never the most skillful player on the game.  My influence comes from being active and dangerous, which I was against Inter.  If you watch the highlight video you will see that 4-5 straight clips are my contributions.  In other words, for about a 30 minute span in the second half I did everything exciting.  It didn’t lead to anything so that’s a concern, but I was quite pleased with that game.

 

The biggest game so far in our season though was clearly our win in Helsinki against HJK.  They are the perennial power in the league and have an outstanding home record, even though they lost their previous home match to TPS.  We came in as big underdogs, but I wasn’t sure why.  We clearly have a good team capable of winning any game in this league and we have the league’s best backline and goalkeeper.  Add Anthony in with that group and I think our defensive-thinking players stack up with any group in the league.  When you have that sort of defense you are capable of having great success no matter what league you play in.  We started the game poorly though, and after nine minutes we were losing 1-0.  Things only got worse from there and we were lucky to get through the first 25 minutes without giving up more goals.  From about 30 minutes on though, the game was very competitive.  We made a few half chances for ourselves in the last ten minutes of the half and went into halftime with a bit of confidence despite being down a goal.

 

Jyrki before the HJK game.

The second half was much better for us, with our ball possession getting better and the game being played more and more in HJK’s defensive half.  I was told at halftime that I’d be coming on early in the second half for Tomi Ameobi and I was to play as the striker.  I thought that this was a great idea since HJK had substituted one of their stoppers and put in a guy who looked like he was 45-years-old.  There was no chance in hell that guy could do anything to stop me running for breakaway after breakaway.  However, Tomi’s play at the end of the first half and first few minutes of the second half earned himself more time and I came on instead for Jesper as the left winger.  The move turned out to be correct, as while we were changing the sub card Tomi scored the equalizing goal.  I like to think that, much like Lionel Messi, the mere suggestion of my substitution motivated the team to play better, but I don’t think I can take any credit for the first goal.  It was a good move to get the ball wide and crossed in, and then good composure by Tomi to settle himself and hit a good shot.  We were lucky to get a deflection for the goal, but who’s to say that Tomi’s initial shot wouldn’t have gone in anyway?

 

After our equalizer I was really proud of how we played.  Instead of going into a shell and just hoping to get a draw, we played even more aggressively and put pressure on the HJK players.  Ironically, the same external pressure that I complained about in my last post came on the HJK players in that game.  The crowd, instead of spurring their players on, starting to boo and hiss at them anytime something went wrong.  You could just look at some of the players and know that they were more worried about making a mistake than actually making a big play.  We VPS players on the other hand fed off that energy and forced HJK into mistake after mistake.  Finally, in a play that really sums up how good our team can possibly be, we scored a goal.  The play started with me, Antti and Anthony on the left side of the pitch.  HJK had the ball and was trying to go down their right side.  Antti stepped up to pressure the ball and I did the hard running to cover him in case he didn’t get the ball.  Then Anthony ran over and made a great tackle to win the ball and start us going up field.  Antti picked up the ball and ran 60 yards with it, drawing three HJK defenders.  Instead of working together and doing a bit extra work, all three of the HJK guys just kind of jogged alongside Antti assuming that one of their teammates would make a play.  Instead, Antii found a gap and slipped the ball to Jarno, who unselfishly played the ball over to Sebastian (who had sprinted 70 yards to get there, by the way) and “Seba-star” scored his first goal of the season.  It was a great counterattacking move that was worthy of winning a game like that.  When the final whistle came, I learned that this was VPS’s first victory away to HJK in 51 years.  I was surprised by that, but then again Sonera Stadium is not an easy place to win games.

Going for a run the day after HJK.

 

Heading to MYPA.

Three days later, we played MYPA and got killed 3-0.  There’s a lot of things you can say about that game, but I’ll only mention a couple.  First, MYPA is a really good team, much better than I thought they were.  They were fresh after a 9 day break between matches and we were playing our 4^th game in like 11 days or something.  Second, I think that the HJK win meant so much to some of the players and staff that we could never get ourselves mentally ready for the challenge that MYPA posed just a few days later.  While beating HJK wasn’t a big deal to me (I’ve played them twice now without losing), it was a very big deal to a lot of guys in this club.  It was the kind of win that you need to have a week to refocus, but we only had three days.  Hence we didn’t even start playing against MYPA until the second half.  By then, it was 2-0 and there wasn’t much that we could do.

 

The brofriends on the bus.  There were plenty of open seats but they sat together.

Tomorrow we play our hated rivals Jaro.  I don’t really have any ill will toward them, but if VPS hates them then I guess I gotta hate them, at least tomorrow.  I’ll be interested to see how physical or nasty this game gets.  Maybe a physical game will suit me since I seem to be the dirtiest player in the league at the moment.  I get called for two or three fouls every single game despite not playing any differently than I did when I was in America.  I think I was called for maybe 10 fouls in the entire three years I played in the US.  Meanwhile apparently nothing that happens to me is a foul anymore.  Against MYPA I got crushed three times and only once was anything called.  One of the three times I got elbowed in the eye and the foul was called on me.  Maybe tomorrow’s game will be one of the few that my normal playing style isn’t considered rough.  I hope so.

 

The meme and GIF:

 

 

 

4 Wins

It’s been quite a week.  Since the last time I left you we’ve won two games and I’ve been generally active out and around town.  I’ll start with the stuff you care about.

 

Last Saturday, we opened our league season in just about the toughest fashion possible, away to TPS.  The highlights are on Youtube for those who care to watch.  TPS finished 2^nd or 3^rd last year and are heavy favorites to finish 2^nd this year behind HJK.  The generally consensus seems to be that HJK is head and shoulders above everyone else, and TPS is at a level below HJK but above the rest of the league.  Perhaps we challenged that notion a bit, because we came out and dominated the first 25 minutes of that match.  To be fair, we did have a strong wind at our backs in the first half, but that cannot fully mitigate how well we played.  In that early period we created 3-4 good chances, even though the TPS highlight package only shows two of them.  I had a great chance to score, but slammed my shot a few feet wide.  I should have done better and you can see in my face after the shot that I knew it.  The second half didn’t go our way so much, but we held strong and Jarno scored right at the very end to get us a 1-0 win.  It was a great way to start the league and has surely put other teams on notice.  We intend to be a top team in this league, and now everyone knows we mean business.

 



The mud pit between Kemi's locker room and turf pitch.

Last night we won another Finnish Cup match, this time against 2^nd division PS Kemi Kings.  They had at least two Americans, though I didn’t know either of them nor did I speak to them after the game.  Anyway, the game was pretty under control and boring to be honest.  Kemi had some early counterattacks that were dangerous and put the ball in the net, though it clearly was never going to count since they fouled Henri well before taking the shot.  We were 0-0 at halftime, but scored within two minutes of the second half starting and pretty much cruised from there.  I played the last 15 minutes as a winger and pretty much just ran around not doing anything.  We scored 2-0 immediately before I came in so at that point the game was effectively over.  Long story short: No one got hurt and now we’re in the last 8.

 

Backtracking a bit, I was relatively busy in the days between games.  I say relatively because I’m never actually busy in the way normal people are.  Instead, my definition of busy is having more than 1-2 things to do in a day.  On Sunday, I went to a IFK Vasa game against some terrible division 2 team.  VIFK won 3-0 and that was flattering to the other team.  The game easily could have been 8-0.  During halftime of the game I went into Botniahalli to see the flea market they were having inside.  Unfortunately, everything was closing down and people were just staring at me like I was a crazy person for walking around a closing flea market.  My enormous coat surely didn’t help me look inconspicuous.

 

Tuesday I went with a couple of the guys to do a little presentation at a school not far from VPS’s home stadium.  I’ve done about a dozen of these things in the past, so I knew what to expect and had a good time with it.  Kids always love a) seeing big, tall professional athletes and b) getting out of class to go to anything happening in the gym.  There’s not much more to say about the event other than that a few of the kids pulled tricks that I can’t even do, so it’s probably good that I wasn’t asked to show my best skills haha!  Also, Jarno shaved and got a haircut so he looked like he went to the school rather than being a guest.  Call it a gift or a curse, but Jarno can shave and look like he’s literally half his age.  If he told you he was 15 you wouldn’t even question it!  Maybe if the police ever need someone to go undercover at a high school they’ll call him.

 

 

The last thing I’ll note is something of pretty big importance I think.  The win of Kemi Kings was my 4^th in official competitions this year.  We’ve won every official game that we’ve played thus far which is quite an achievement in itself.  The reason that fourth win is so important to me is because I was only on the winning side of official matches three times all last year.  That may sound impossible, but out of 28 official games I played between Enkoping SK and FC Haka I only was a winner in three games.  And two of those were the last two games I played lol.  Looking from that glass-half-full perspective, I’m riding a six game winning streak!  Hopefully we can make it seven in the home opener on Sunday.

 

The meme:

Preseason Matchday #2: Finnish Cup 4th Round

One official game, one win.

 

We played a Finnish Cup 4^th 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 40^th 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 60^th minute I was just about completely gassed.  Luckily for me and the team, Patrick Lomski scored in the 72^nd 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: