We met the manager Jani-Hur in Tampere were he every now and then retires to enjoy the city noise. "I come here when I have to clear away the cobwebs. You see the silence in Vesilahti is sometimes nerve-racking and in a such small town you can go nowhere anonymously. Here in Tampere I'm still Mr. No-One."
"The goal for season 22 was to be 3rd in our VI-division serie and we never dreamed on promotion. After season 21 I considered Kicknrun and Hkä se mafia to be top teams we can't compete with, but I was wrong. We had 12 wins and 3 draws - this has been a great performance."
"I really appreciate the facilities we have. The renovated Narva Sports Field is modern pitch that fullfils today's standards."
"Training program has continued as planned and both goalkeepers, formidable Henk and solid Jyrki, have developed very well. I don't think we'll change the training yet."
When we start to talking about next season Jani-Hur becomes serious. "Our serie in V-division is not the toughest one, but still we'll have there very much problems. Our goal is to avoid relegation and that's a challenge. In each league match next season we're the challenger and every point is valuable."
FC Metsänkulma's off-season party will be arranged next Saturday on O'Connells. Be there or be square !
FC Metsänkulma were imperious in recording a historic 3-0 Hattrick League qualification victory against The Nightriders FC (75822). A strike from Rasmus Fagerbratt was followed by next minute goals from Andrey Krasnov and Olavi Urhonen to promote Blair Pearson's side to V.240 at the Nuotioranta Areena.
The build-up to the game was overshadowed by the dismissal of two important NightRiders, goalkeeper Into Svensson (29368541) and Oskari Michelsson (15118367). The both contreforts were injured in friendly on Tuesday.
The host's best opportunity to score in the game was in 29th minute when Aapo Kivelä's hooked ball created a scuffle in front of the goal, and the visitors defenders had a hard time clearing the ball.
Ten minutes later some quick foot work on the left side of the field left FC Metsänkulma's top striker Rasmus Fagerbratt completely free to score the opening goal. But this was only a prelude to one minute Nightrider nightmare.
Nightriders were still in shock when FC Metsänkulma dispossessed the ball after kick off and sprinted upfield to score their second goal. And to complete the humiliation Olavi Urhonen shoot from 35 meters leaving off balanced Lauri Virkki without change.
That was a knock-out. Nightriders seemed stunned and could no more trouble Henk Pleijers. The tempo of the game slowed down when FC Metsänkulma pulled the line down to shield they goal.
In last quarter FC Metsänkulma has introduced few new players. Below you will find out Jani-Hur's characterizations of them.
Andrey Krasnov - 24 years old Argentinian forward.
"Andrey will bring more power to our offence. We used to have only two forwards and that's not enough during the long season. Now we've three strikers who can hit the ball home. He has already shown his value: three important goals in last two league games."
Leif Olsson - 32 years old Swedish defender.
"Experienced all-round player who can play equally well in defence and in midfield. He'll strengthen very much our defence line and he can also support Hermanni in midfield when necessary."
Jyrki Heikkinen - 18 years old Finnish goaltender.
"He has superb record in Vesilahden Visa's junior teams and he has established his position as 2nd playing goalkeeper."
"I'm more than happy to see the first fruit of co-operation with Vesilahden Visa already now. I'm proud when I can promote the local guys to our start-up line-up. I'm also sure that our supporters are proud of the team when we can show up local lads in the pitch."
Narva Sports Field enlargement project is finally finished.
It was a suprise for everybody involved into the planning that the complaint was processed so quickly by Administrative Court. In the decision Administrative Court stated that the impacts to the environment are adequately evaluated.
Immediatelly when the building plan became valid the documents connected with an invitation to tender were sent to local construction firms.
There was no problems during construction - only slight two days delay on schedule and final cost was very close to cost estimate. The new capacity of 21,000 seats is three-fold compared to the old pitch. At the moment only Kicknrun's arena has more capacity in VI.164.
Chairman of the board is perceptibly satisfied: "I can only say it was about time. The old pitch didn't fullfill the standards anymore. After the renovation we're not providing only first class football but also first class facilities. We've a great oppurtunity to bring in more services to our loyal punters." And he continues: "The sport field is not only for Hattrick League, but available for all kind of events organized by local athletic clubs or by local assosiations for example."
Pallo-Peikot reached bronze medal game in Amazing Trophy. The game was not played at all because the home team GoManU didn't show up, thus Pallo-Peikot won the bronze medals by walk-over. The no-show was result of misunderstanding between GoManU manager and the tournament organizer.
Pallot-Peikot's match details are available in season 22 statistics page.
FC Metsänkulma was the runner-up in Group E and qualified to the next round.
Next match will be played on 20 Apr in the home field of IFC Pihtipolvet (74253), a team playing in V.44.
The final standings of Group E:
Kuovi04 3 2 0 1 8-3 (+5) 6
Metsänkulman Pallo-Peikot 3 2 0 1 7-6 (+1) 6
Espoon toverien urheilu yhdistys 3 1 0 2 7-5 (+2) 3
FC Naula päähän ja baanalle 3 1 0 2 3-11(-8) 3
FC Metsänkulma matches:
13 Apr: Kuovi04-Metsänkulman Pallo-Peikot 1-3
6 Apr: Metsänkulman Pallo-Peikot-FC Naula päähän ja baanalle 4-0
30 Mar: Espoon toverien urheilu yhdistys-Metsänkulman Pallo-Peikot 5-0
Due to some mysterious reasons Brazziledo had to cancel the participation and the team was replaced by FC Naula päähän ja baanalle (254972) in VI.404.
FC Metsänkulma will participate in Amazing HT Trophy hosted by FC Kiisselit.
FC Metsänkulma plays in group E with teams:
Upcoming matches:
The first ever FC Metsänkulma Cup match was played tonight in Narva Sports Field. The result was not a big suprise - PunttiPojat (259424) defeated home team 3-0.
FC Metsänkulma coach Blair Pearson (8135120) was frustrated that his side could not break in the visitors defence: "We thought we had a chance of qualifying but it's fair to say that we did not have a chance. PunttiPojat started well but we thought we could start to control midfield - unfortunately, they scored and perhaps our defence was at fault for that goal."
The first 30 minutes was testimony to a basic gameplan well applied by Blair Pearson's home team. FC Metsänkulma worked hard and intelligently but were eventually beaten by talented PunttiPojat squad, which was also willing to match the Vesilahti side's work-rate. "The difficulties we encountered were because they are a well-balanced team who defended well," added PunttiPojat coach Vitalijs Zins (7455653). "But we did our job without too many worries."
Pearson left Narva Sports Field with regrets, despite the quality of his team's display in the first half. "Lewskär's (14417295) goals killed off our hope. I told the lads that PunttiPojat has the best attack in serie V and we had to convert any chance. So the fact that we had an opportunity to make it 1-0 not long before Lewskär made it 0-1 is a regret."
Match ID: 14159590