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:

 

 

 

Matchday 26: Finally Something Good To Say

Today we played IFK Marieheim and tied 1-1.  I played about 25 minutes and had the worst game of my time in Europe, which is saying something.  I’ll start with my performance, then talk about the game more generally.
 

I don’t know why, but I could not do anything right tonight.  I felt ok all week in training and was even doing extra work outside of training to prepare myself for the match.  I think I may have overdone the physical work because I was very tired during the match.  I only made two or three runs before I felt fatigued.  As a result, I didn’t do what I was put into the game to do which was to stretch the opposition defense and maybe even get a breakaway.  Instead, I spent most of my time receiving balls to my feet and with my back to goal; not exactly my strongest skills.  Even when I made runs behind, they were so uncommon that the player with the ball was surprised I made it and didn’t pass the ball before I was offsides.  To compound my misery, I accidentally blocked a goalbound flick from Kris that may have been the winning goal and I dribbled the ball out of bounds when I thought I was going to get hit but didn’t.  It was just a bad day for me overall.  There was a lone positive about my performance though.  I made a good 60 yard run and got my head on a cross, but the goalkeeper made a great save and I was denied the winning goal.

 

I don’t think I mentioned this before, but we have a new coach.  Not Asko, but a completely new guy whose come in and made a big difference.  You would think that on a blog where I constantly talk about how nothing happens I would have mentioned that, but I guess I didn’t.  Oops.  Anyway, the new coach (Juha is his name.  I don’t even know his last name.) spent the majority of the time I was in the game yelling at me to do what he instructed me to do.  It made me feel really bad about myself, but not because I thought he was wrong or picking on me, but because I knew that he was 100% right.  In Sweden I used to get really pissed when the coach there, Siggi, would scream at me.  But that was because Siggi had crazy energy for the games and would go crazy because he was confined to that little coaches box.  So he would expend energy by screaming whatever popped in his head to everyone one field.  I understood him, but I still hated it.  With Juha he only screams when you’re clearly doing something wrong so naturally you do what he says.  When you can’t do what he says, you feel really badly like I did tonight.  It’s kind of like when you do something wrong and your parents catch you.  What can you say, that they’re wrong?  No you just have to accept whatever is said and improve yourself.  I’ll be working to improve myself so that another performance like tonight is impossible.

 

As for the team, tonight was the best we’ve played since I got here.  We played together and worked for each other and scored a pretty nice goal.  The goalscorer, Claudio Matrone, played really well and deserved to score.  It’s even more impressive when you consider he wasn’t even in the team as of yesterday.  He replaced Jonne Hjelm on the wing and couldn’t have had more than a few hours to mentally prepare to start the game.  The rest of the players were similar with no one playing poorly aside from me.  If we continue to play like we did tonight we will surely avoid relegation.  The only negative I can really think of is that we didn’t go ahead and get the winner.  We had the better of the game and in the situation we’re in, there’s a massive difference between 1 point and 3 points.  Our next game is against FF Jaro and that’s by far the biggest game we’ve had since I arrived.  A win by either team could be devastating to the other.  Knowing a little bit about Jaro from my time there in February, they will come to win the game and it should be wide open since obviously we’ll be playing to win the game as well.  Neither team is interested in a draw I think.  Should be nervy, but fun.

 

That’s all for now.  We will keep working to improve as a team and then go put on a show in our next game.  Only 7 games left and it’s time to see how we perform under pressure!

 

The meme:

No Jaro Contract

February 19:

Bad news today as I found out that I won’t get a contract from Jaro.  I am not totally surprised, since I played very poorly in my first test match.  When I saw that I was not starting the second match, I got the feeling that my chances weren’t so good.  Even then, I played well in the second match against VPS and my confidence is pretty high considering I’ve got no club and as of this very second no trials either.  I know I can play in Europe.  I’ve seen the players who have contracts and I’ve done well against them.  I’ve been in the trainings and matches and had success.  Sometimes it’s difficult though to be a trialist.  You have to be amazing just to be considered.

On that note, I have to say that as time goes on I find being a trialist gets easier mentally.  Years ago, a trial would make me freak out and I could hardly play.  I never took any time to enjoy Denver when I was drafted to the Rapids nor did I take much time to enjoy some other places I’ve been.  Now, I just play relaxed and let my talent show.  If it doesn’t work, it doesn’t work.  There’s no reason for me to dwell on it and I understand that.  That doesn’t mean that I don’t worry sometimes about my future, but in the grand scheme of things it could be worse.  I’m in Europe chasing a dream.  More accurately I should say I’m in Europe chasing the first step of my dream.  Right now I’m a bit stressed because I honestly don’t know where I’ll be tomorrow.  I won’t mention the clubs that I am talking to now but they are my only hints as to where I could potentially spend the next few years of my life.  And if something can’t be arranged with those clubs who knows?  Sometimes it’s fun to not know what’s coming next, but when it’s your career or your life, the guessing game isn’t so much fun.  But I have money in the bank right now so I’ll be going on trials wherever they’ll take me until I get a contract somewhere.  I’m still hopeful that I will end up in a good situation where I’m happy.  I know of quite a few places that are more appealing to me than Jakobstad or Valkeakoski, Finland.

That’s all I’ve got for now.  I’ll keep you all posted as to what happens next!

Expensive Burgers and Boston Pubs

February 16:

Today was just a recovery day and there is nothing at all interesting to talk about soccer-wise, so I’ll give you a little information on Jakobstad and FF Jaro!

I’m not going to give you a history lesson on Jakobstad because I don’t know its history and honestly if you really cared Wikipedia is just a click away you lazy bum.  Jakobstad is a city on the western coast of Finland on the Gulf of Bothnia.  From Helsinki, it’s about 3-4 hours northwest in a car.  Maybe more.  Jakobstad is a small town about the same size as Valkeakoski.  However, so far this city feels just a little bit bigger.  I think that’s in part due to the fact that this town has a much more vibrant downtown area.  Also, there are actually places that are open past 9pm!  Nothing says big city like being able to walk around at 10pm and not feel like you’re in an episode of The Walking Dead.  I even almost bought a burger today, but the one I wanted was 8.80 euros.  That price is just for the burger.  No fries, no soda, no nothing.  Just burger, bun, lettuce, tomato.  Maybe one day I’ll summon up the courage to pay $11.25 for a burger but today is not that day.

Of course I haven’t been able to see it for myself yet, but I hear that the summers here are crazy.  Apparently, we’re far enough north that the sun doesn’t hardly set at all and apparently that’s a cue for the locals to go wild.  As I understand it, everyone seems to have small summer homes on the coastline about 5 miles from the city center and in the summer they go there and drink and party.  At any of these parties Jaro players are the main attraction.  I would really like to stay here and play I think.  The city sounds like a really fun place to be and I get along great with the guys.  I also like the coach and the way the club treats the players.

An interesting aspect of this FF Jaro is their relationship with O’Leary’s, a Boston-style Irish Sports Pub that is big around Scandinavia.  I first saw an O’Leary’s when I visited Stockholm last year.  I was just walking down the street and noticed that one of the signs in a row of bars was completely in english and had Boston Celtic and Red Sox apparel everywhere.  Once you get over the inherit weirdness of a Boston-style Irish Sports Pub in a part of the world that has no Irish people or US sport affiliations, O’Leary’s is a pretty cool place.  It’s the only sports bar in town that I know of, so it’s always pretty crowded whenever there’s any sort of sporting event, or so that’s what I hear.  Anyway, Jaro has actually arranged for the players to have a free lunch there every day if we so choose.  If I end up playing here, I will definitely take advantage of this perk, since I’m always lazy after training and never want to cook lunch.  Players can also get a free dinner any day, but this is limited to a meal known as “Jaro Noodles”.  This is a huge plate of noodles with a white sauce of some sort and slices of ham.  All of that is doused in some sort of pepper and served.  It doesn’t sound great, but you can’t beat the price and it’s actually really good.  I can honestly see myself eating this meal 3-4 times a week indefinitely.


I talk about O’Leary’s mostly to make a point.  In Europe, most of the teams have no more money than a USL or NASL franchise.  The salaries of the vast majority of professional players in Europe are similar to the bottom end of MLS.  From what I can tell, you’d be hard pressed to find a player in the Veikkausliiga that’s bringing home more than 8-10k euros a month.  After taxation that’s similar to making about $150k in the US.  Most players in Finland make far less.  I’d be stunned if I learned any player at Haka made more than 4k euros a month.  For this reason it is really helpful that Jaro has taken the step to provide its players with lunch and dinner any day they want it.  Of course, this doesn’t only benefit the players.  In a small town where Jaro is the biggest thing going, I would guess that it helps O’Leary’s business tremendously to have the club’s players regularly going there.

There’s not much more at the moment.  I know many of my posts have been relatively drab accounts of tedious day-to-day stuff, but once I sign a contract and settle somewhere I’ll have more days where I can let my personality show a bit and write about some fun stuff, rather than just recount how a match went.  Hopefully I can stay in Jakobstad with Jaro and write about the good times here!

Offsides in Jakobstad

February 15:

My first League Cup match with Jaro was today.  I played the second half, which is understandable since I have only just arrived last night.  I didn’t play great, and I was extremely tired for the last twenty minutes.  Every time I’d look at the clock, only two minutes would go by.  I’d say to myself, “wait ten minutes this time,” then I’d look up again and it’d be another two minutes.  It was terrible.  Yesterday I had two training sessions with Haka.  At the end of the first session, Sami kept a few of us behind to do about 45 minutes worth of finishing crosses.  That required quite a bit of running.  The second session was pretty rigorous itself, and then after it was over we ran fitness.  The fitness was 5x4minute runs.  This would be simple if you did it by yourself, but in a group setting you can’t allow yourself to fall behind and the last 90 seconds of each run is just awful.  My point is that I wasn’t tired in the match tonight because I’m lazy or out of shape, but rather because I did running yesterday that I would never have been asked to do if the match tonight had been on my schedule yesterday.

Despite this, in the first 20-25 minutes I was in the game, we played great and scored two good goals.  That took the score from 1-1 to 3-1.  I didn't score, but I still played ok and in the end I helped the team on both ends of the field.  I doubt I showed enough from my performance tonight to win a contract, but I did show some important attributes.  I showed off my speed, though I was called offside a lot.  Part of that was me mistiming my runs, part was my teammates not yet realizing how fast I am and part of it was the assistant referee getting a decision or two wrong.  I also worked my tail off, and even when I was obviously very tired I still chased when I was supposed to and generally gave every ounce of energy I had for the team.  I think the coach acknowledged and respected that.  Of course, working hard doesn’t get you a professional contract, so in the upcoming trainings and match I’ll need to show a bit of skill and earn a job!

One cool thing about Jaro that is different from Haka is the media attention.  Maybe it was because our matches were on the road, but no reporters spoke with any of the Haka players after our two League Cup matches.  After playing one half with Jaro though, I had three reporters asking me questions.  It wasn't big time or anything, but it always makes you feel good when people want to interview you.  Anyway, I found this picture from the match so here it is:

The Worst Valentine's Day Ever

February 14:

Valentine’s Day is a day of love.  A day specifically set aside each year for couples to affirm how much they care about each other.  All around the world(The world, right? Valentine’s Day isn’t just in the US/Europe is it?)men and women are showing their affection for each other through gifts and whatnot.  My Valentine’s Day has been a bit different.  Why?  Well I’m glad you asked:

Haka told me today that I was released and now I’m in Jakobstad, Finland to start a trial with FF Jaro of the Veikkausliiga.

 I have been dumped by my club.  On Valentine’s Day.

And that is how you bury a lead.  Let me backtrack a bit.  First, we gotta set the scene.  Cue the music that plays while the heist from Ocean's 11 is explained at the end…screen fades to white to signify that we’re talking about the past aaaaaaannnnnnnddddd we’re in:

Six hours ago I was getting a massage to help recover from the double trainings that I had with Haka on Monday and today.  This morning, I spent the better part of an hour after training with Sami and the other strikers working on finishing.  In the afternoon we finished a difficult practice with fitness.  After it was all done I was pretty tired and looking forward to an off day Wednesday.  I was going to go look for a television for my room.

While I’m getting my massage, Sami hands me an envelope with the reimbursement from my flight and asks to speak with me in his office as soon as my massage is finished.  This struck me as a bit unusual, but I figured that there were only one of a few things that the meeting could be about: 1) He wants me to sign a contract for less money, 2) He wants me to sign a contract with more years since I’m going to be an obvious starter, or 3) A combination of the first two.  Before I can meet with him I get a call from my finnish agent who was provided to me by my agent here in the US saying that Sami has made an unacceptable offer and that he (the agent) will be around to pick me up in an hour to go to another club.  Quite the shocking message to receive.

By this time, Sami had to run out to do something so I went home and started to pack everything I owned back into the suitcases, duffle bag and backpack.  I was truly very sad and couldn’t figure out how or why this was happening.  Wasn’t my contract guaranteed after the 11^th?  Wasn’t I the starting striker for this club?  Did I not show in training and the first match that I could help disproportionately to the value of my contract?  I even wondered if the prospect of me leaving might force Sami into reconsidering his decision.

The meeting did finally happen about an hour later at the clubhouse, with my bags packed in the agent’s car.  Sami and I had a frank discussion about the situation.  I don’t feel any qualms about discussing our conversation here because I think that info like this is kinda the whole point of me making a blog about playing in Europe and secondly because I seriously doubt Sami reads my blog.  Anyway, Sami told me that he liked my play and that he believed that I was up to the level of the finnish league, something I agree with.  However, the club is not in a great place financially and for him to make the commitment to find a way to pay my salary, he had to be absolutely sure I was the player for the job.  He said that he just couldn’t be sure.  Sami then went on to say that after the first match I played against Mariehamn, he was ready to go through with the deal 100%, but that after my performance in the 2^nd match he became hesitant.  As I think about that it makes my mind go all over the place.  I believe that had the two matches been reversed and my better performance had been more recent, then the contract would have been granted.  Sami wanted me to stay for an extended trial for another week or two, but the finnish agent and I both thought that was an unacceptable request.  I also didn’t mention the fact that I have a signed contract as far as I know.  I signed a contract they faxed to me and then faxed it back.  I assumed the team president then signed the contract making it valid, but it’s possible he never did.  That would have made my contract more like a mortgage without a promissory note aka worthless.

Once Sami had his say, I had a chance to speak my mind.  I didn’t run my mouth off and yell and scream but I did make some points that I thought he should know before I left.  I started by saying that my performance in the second match was in part due to fatigue since I hadn’t played a full match in a very long time, let alone two in four days.  He agreed there and also noted without my suggesting it that the whole team played poorly and it would have been difficult for me to show well in such a game.  I then went on to say that I really enjoyed my time at Haka and I hoped that Sami changes his mind because I’d be happy to put this little mess behind us and join up again with the boys.  I also asked him to tell the squad goodbye for me and sorry that I couldn’t tell them in person.  I didn’t want any of the guys thinking I just disappeared in the middle of the night for no reason and didn’t even give them the courtesy of saying goodbye.  But, most importantly, I made sure that Sami knew that what he saw in the three weeks I was here over two separate trials was the player he was getting.  He didn’t need to see me for another week because I’m still gonna be the same player next week as I am this week.  If you need to see more at this point, you’re saying one of two things:  either you think I just need to be coached to be the player you want or you don’t think I can be that player and you just wanted to be extra sure.  I think Sami believes the former so maybe there’s a chance I end up at Haka after all.

Anywho, now I’m in Jakobstad in a hotel.  I play a match tomorrow with a team that I have never met and know nothing about.  I have no idea what formation Jaro play, where they want me to play or how they play.  I don’t know the coaches name or where they finished in the league last year.  I do know that we are playing the club that finished 3^rd place last season, so we’re definitely in for a tough test.  I just hope my body can handle a match on a day that I thought would be free until a few hours ago. 

Stay tuned people and wish me luck!

Oh, and Happy Valentine’s Day.