It is interesting that RFS already lost to the Valmiera team in the second round of the championship, then they still left points in Daugavpils, playing in a draw, but at the end of the first round, the team coached by Viktor Moroz achieved a four-game winning streak, celebrating a principled and very important victory 2:1 over the fiercest competitors last weekend “Riga” FC. Recently, there have been many discussions about the need to build a national football stadium, but this meeting of the two best Riga clubs clearly confirmed that football is respected in Latvia, as more than five thousand spectators gathered in the stands of the “Skonto” stadium.
In this central game of the first round, RFS experienced legionnaires – Czech defender Petr Mareš and Serbian forward Darko Lemajić – stood out with goals. If you add Slovenian defender and team captain Žiga Lipušček, Serbian midfielder Stefan Panić, Brazilian forward Emerson and home-grown energetic right-back Robert Savalnieks, it is these long-proven masters who set the tone of the RFS team’s game year after year. Undoubtedly, it is the teamwork, stability and experience of the team that is the main trump card of RFS.
In addition, “RFS” made this start breakthrough without last season’s top league player, Jānis Ikaunieks, the attacking midfielder of the Latvian national team.
who only played in the first three matches of the championship, then missed a month due to injury.
As usual every year, the role of the main favorites before the season was given to the country’s richest football team “Riga” FC, but last season’s vice-champions have already experienced three losses in the first nine games. This is more than last year in the entire championship. Remembering the quick nature of the bosses of “Riga” FC, it can be predicted that the chair of the team’s head coach, Simo Valakari, has wobbled a lot, but for now, the Finnish specialist is still given the opportunity to correct the situation.
If the losses of “Riga” FC in the derby in the capital or in Valmiera could still be understood, the fiasco of the Riga team in Tukum (1:2) is the main sensation of this season so far.
It is significant that “Riga” FC striker Marko Regža has topped the list of the tournament’s top scorers with seven goals. During the winter transfer period, “Riga” FC strengthened its ranks with three Argentinian footballers, but at the beginning of the season, two local footballers have demonstrated the brightest performance in the team – forward Regža and midfielder Eduards Daškėvičs.
After the first three matches of the championship, it already seemed that the 2022 champions “Valmiera” FC, who defeated the two main favorites RFS and “Riga” FC, would again be serious contenders for the first place this year, but in the continuation of the season, the team led by Jurģas Kalnas could not maintain such a convincing performance , losing to FK “Auda”, Liepāja and Daugavpils. It is clear that in terms of composition, the Valmiera club cannot compete with the two leading Riga clubs, therefore, objectively, the third place could also be the real goal of the Valmiera team. True,
the information about the indebtedness of the Valmiera club both to the tax authorities and to the footballers, for which the team has already been threatened with the deduction of points, causes concern.
Last season, for the first time in history, FK “Auda” won the bronze medals of the Latvian Championship, which is currently in fifth place, two points behind the Valmiera team. It is clear that the team coached by Portuguese coach Filipi Almeida is also a very serious contender for medals this year, especially because after a too long warm-up at the end of April, the team’s attacking leader Brazilian Reginald Ramiris finally started to show his skills, scoring four goals in two matches.
After the first round between the two predicted medal contenders “Valmieru” and “Auda”, the Daugavpils team, which has experienced only two losses in nine matches, has unexpectedly entered.
There are no bright stars in the ranks of Daugavpils, but it is a well-organized team that is a tough nut for any opponent.
We can especially praise the game of the Daugavpils team in defense, led by the 2-meter-tall goalkeeper Frenk Dāvid Orola, who has already managed to keep five matches dry without conceding a goal, which is the best score in the championship.
Only one victory away from the top three is the Tukuma team coached by Kristaps Dišler, who have already celebrated four victories, including the historic success in the match against title contenders “Riga” FC. The core of the FK “Tukums 2000/Telms” unit is made up of local footballers, among whom a couple of foreigners on loan fit in well, especially the Jamaican striker Kenroy Campbell.
Premier league table after the first round
Photo: LTV screenshot
In the first intermediate finish of the championship, the second four of the tournament table are already a little behind – Jelgava and Grobina units have eight points each, but the tournament table is closed by FK “Metta” and FK “Liepāja”, which have one less point on their account. In the Lejasgala company, the new entrants from Grobiņa deserve a good name, because the debutants led by the legendary Liepāja player Viktors Dobretsova demonstrate a sufficiently competitive performance, already deducting points from medal contenders “Auda” and “Valmiera”. On the other hand
I would like to call the 3:2 victory of “Grobinas SC/LFS” over FK “Liepāja” the most emotional game of the first part of the season,
to which a beautiful point was added by dozens of jubilant fans running onto the field immediately after the final whistle. In the match, which has already been called the Southern Kurzeme derby, the stands of the Liepāja stadium’s reserve field were crowded (about a thousand spectators). It is symbolic that ten Liepāja football students took to the field in the starting line-up of the winners, while there was only one such student in FK “Liepāja”.
It is not for nothing that right now “Grobina” can be safely called the favorites of the Liepāja football public, which could make the owners of the traditional Kurzeme football giants FK “Liepāja” think,
who have been putting emphasis on all kinds of guest players for more than the first year, but are unable to get good results or keep the fans’ sympathy. FK “Liepāja” is definitely the biggest disappointment of the season so far, because after the first round the team, which usually fights for medals, has slipped to the last place in the tournament table. It remains to be seen how long the management of Liepāja’s international club will keep their faith in the head coach Tamaz Perti, who this year formed the foundation of the team from his compatriots Georgians and Senegalese, involving five players from both countries. We are already looking forward to the second South Kurzeme derby on May 29, which will be held at Liepāja’s main stadium.
