Watching Lithuania A Lyga – Week 3

June 6 & 7, 2020

History

Lithuania’s A Lyga was created following Lithuania’s independence in 1991. The now defunct FBK Kaunas, who used to be owned by infamous Hearts owner Vladimir Romanov, have won the most titles ( 8 ) but they folded after financial irregularities came to light, and Romanov is still wanted in Lithuania against fraud and embezzlement charges. Next come FK Zalgiris and the defunct FK Ekranas with 7 titles each.

The National Side

The Lithuanian national side are currently ranked 131 in the world, sitting between Guatemala and Rwanda. Only 7 European nations are ranked lower than Lithuania. However, in their last outing they did beat New Zealand. In 2008 Lithuania did get as high as 37 in the world rankings, and they beat Scotland and drew in Germany in the Euro 2004 qualifying campaign.

League Structure

For 2020, the top division in Lithuania will consist of just 6 clubs who will play each other six times for a 30 game season. 

The 2019 season featured 8 teams but two sides, Atlantas and Palanga, were relegated to the third level of Lithuanian football following revelations of match fixing, and bottom side Sumbras folded during the season when its owner stopped funding the club. FK Banga Gargzdai won a promotion play-off to join the A Lyga for 2020 and whilst 4 other sides applied for an A Lyga licence, all applications were rejected for failing to meet various criteria.

The Second Division of football in Lithuania ( 1 Lyga ) consists of 14 sides including four B teams. Four sides are to be promoted this season, and with no relegation from the A Lyga, the top league should be of 10 teams in 2021.

Last Season

FK Sudova were the 2019 Champions, and qualify for the 2020/21 First Qualifying Round of the Champions League. This was their third consecutive title, after winning the league for the first time in 2017. FK Zalgiris finished 13 points behind, and they, together with third placed FK Riteriai and fourth placed FK Kauno Zalgiris will enter the first round of the 2020/21 Europa League qualifiers.

Sudova made a small splash during their 2019 European campaign, surprisingly knocking out Maccabi Tel Aviv from the Europa League, after a narrow loss to Red Star Belgrade in the Champions League qualifiers. Their Europa League run was ended by Ferencvaros after a draw in Lithuania. In the previous season they had embarrassed Celtic by drawing in Lithuania, before losing in Glasgow.

Attendances

In 2019 the average attendance in the A Lyga was 468, with Sudova being the best supported team with an average of 1,065. Following the resumption of the football in Lithuania, spectators are allowed to attend matches in the A Lyga but the numbers are restricted, with 300 currently appearing to be the permitted number. However, spectators must observe social distancing and stay one metre apart ( unless with family members ), and wear face masks throughout the match. At Panevezys, disposal masks will be available from the ticket office for anyone without one, and to maintain social distancing, spectators will only be able to sit in spaces marked with white stickers and numbers.

How To Watch

Live coverage of matches from Lithuania is available either directly from Delfi TV’s website  www.delfi.lt or via their YouTube channel. The Lithuanian Football League’s A Lyga YouTube channel is normally quick to upload highlights of all matches.

The Season So Far

The season began on March 6^th but play was suspended after one round of fixtures due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The season resumed on May 30^th.

After two rounds of matches, only Sudova had a 100% record, with only Panevezys having lost both of their matches. The other four sides all had a won one, lost one record. All ten goals scored to-date were by different players, so there were 10 joint top goal scorers on one each !

Round 3

FK Kauno Zilgiris vs FK Zilgiris

Despite the names this is not a local derby, although there doesn’t seem to be much love lost between both clubs. The Battle of Zilgiris in 1410, where an alliance between the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania defeated the German-Prussian Teutonic Knights, is considered to be one of the major milestones in the history of Lithuania, representing the victory of a repressed people, a symbol of national pride and symbol of struggle against foreign invaders

Vilnius based FK Zalgiris are long standing stalwarts of club football in Lithuania. On the other hand, FK Kauno Zilgiris were only formed in 2004 in the second city of Kaunas, approximately 100 km west of the capital Vilnius, and adopted the Zilgiris moniker in 2014 when they became the football section of the Zalgiris Kaunas Basketball club. Understandably FK Zalgiris filed a complaint to the Lithuanian football league on the basis of league rules not allowing two teams to have the same name, and when this was not resolved, legal action followed. Matters were not helped by the new side also playing in green shirts, Zalgiris being Grunwald in German ( or Green Forest in English ). However, the football continues.

As their normal stadium is being renovated, FK Kauno Zilgiris are playing at the SM Tauras stadium which has a grass pitch and an official capacity of only 1,000, although their average attendance in 2019 was just 363. Ticket prices were 5 Euros ( 3 Euros for discounts ), and the match was sold out the day before kick-off.

This was Kauno Zalgiris’ first home match of the season, having so far won 3-0 at Riteriai before losing the resumption match at Sudova 0-1. They have one current member of the national team squad, 31 year old defender back Egidjus Vaitkunas who has 44 caps and has played for Bohemians in the Czech Republic and for FK Minsk in Belarus. Goalkeeper Armantas Vitkauskas won one cap in 2008, defender Martynas Dapkus won two caps in 2013, midfielder Linas Pilibaitas won the last of his 35 caps in 2016 and had a short spell at Hearts before spending 5 seasons in Hungary. Midfielder Gratas Sirgedas has 3 caps and played in the German Third Division for Stuttgarter Kickers.

Their overseas players include experienced Ukrainian Yuri Bushman, whilst defender Rudinilson Silva ( Rudi ) has 16 caps for Guinea Bissau. Upfront are two young Nigerian forwards, Philip Otele and Emmanuel David, who is on loan from Danish club Fremad Amager.

Today’s visitors FK Zalgiris have started with two home matches, recording a resounding 4-0 over Panevezys played in an indoor arena, before a disappointing 0-1 loss to Riteriai. Perhaps the most famous name in their squad is ex-Liverpool, Bolton and Swansea striker David N’Gog although the squad contains quite a number of foreigners including former Slavia Prague keeper Martin Berkovec, ex Sparta Rotterdam defender Donovan Slijngard, Serbian defenders Ivan Tatomirovic and Nemanja Ljubisavljevic, ex Ajaccio and Tubize French midfielder Hugo Videmont, promising Canadian youngster Richard Ennin, Romanian forward Liviu Antal, Slovenian defender Klemen Bolha, German Marko Karomarko and Brazilian Higor Vidal, who has also played in the Greek top flight.

In amongst this cornucopia of nationalities are also a handful of Lithuanians. 36 year old Salius Mikoliunas is still playing for the national side, having made 74 appearances in a career that included 4 years at Hearts. 32 year old Mantas Kuklys has 37 caps and has played in Belgium and the Czech Republic.  Other members of recent national squads include Modestas Vorobjovas ( 17 caps ), Domantas Simkus ( 9 caps ), Rolandas Baravykas ( 19 caps ) and uncapped 20 year old Matas Vareika.

Given their vastly more experienced squad, FK Zilgiris went into the match as 7/10 favourites, with FK Kauno Zilgiris 3/1 outsiders.

In response to last week’s defeat, FK Zalgiris made three changes to their starting line-up, with N’Gog and Ennin not even in the matchday squad whilst Uzela dropped to the bench. In came Vorobjovas, Higor Vidal and Vareika.  Kauno Zilgiris also made three changes, with keeper Vitkaiskas making way for Mikelionis, and Pilibaitis and Otele being replaced by Anisas and Urbys.

Kauno were playing in an all dark green stripe whilst FK Zilgiris wore green and white stripes ! All the writing on the shirts eg sponsors and players names, as well as all of the advertising hoardings were in Roman script, apparently only 8% of the population in Lithuania have Russian as their first language.

The far side of the ground is a roped off field, which in England would probably be a cricket pitch, but in Lithuania it looks like some practice football pitches. 

Behind one goal is a small hillock outside the ground by a main road, on which 30 or so fans were able to watch the match, the numbers appeared to increase as the match progressed. The dressing rooms are in the bottom corner of that end.

At the other end is a nice looking park with a river in the distance where a dozen or so spectators were watching behind the fence. The Main stand has 500 uncovered seats above which were the location of the main TV camera.

The crowd could be heard signing and chanting, and there was a drummer audible, although it seemed to be the away supporters making the noise ! From the one TV picture shown of the crowd, the wearing of face masks didn’t seem to be being observed, and there wasn’t any social distancing ! Unless, of course, they are all related.......

Not a great deal happened in the first half hour or so, as play was concentrated in the middle third of the pitch. FK Zalgiris had an early chance when Slijngard released Videmont down the left but his shot was from a tight angle and was easily blocked by the Kauno keeper. The first goalmouth action at the other end occurred in the 21^st minute when FK Zalgiris keeper Berkovec had to dive to keep out a low bouncing free-kick. It was not until the 34^th minute before FK Zalgiris threatened again, but Videmont’s near post shot was pushed behind for a corner. 

Slijngard’s dreadlocks caught the eye although it looks like he could do with losing a kilo or two, whilst for Kauno, Rudi looked a reassuring presence at the back and most forward moves were initiated via him.

There were a few niggly fouls for the referee to start issuing yellow cards. The ref, Manfredas Lukjancukas, has a trendy, almost Mohican haircut, which is normally a worrying sign that he likes to be the centre of attention, and today he got plenty of camera time as he issued a total of 11 yellow cards and two red cards.

Out of the blue, FK Zalgiris took the lead in the 43^rd minute when Rudi’s attempted clearance was blocked by Vorobjovas, and the ball fell to Frenchman Videmont, unmarked just outside the 6 yard box to sweep past the Kauno keeper for the lead at half-time.

Kauno Zalgiris started the second half brightly, David’s chip-cum shot from the edge of the 6 yard box got deflected wide and from the corner, half-time substitute Otele had a free header palmed away by Berkovec. Sirgedas’ dangerous run was then blocked in the area. However, the spell of home pressure soon ended and after this the best two chances fell to Videmont, twice forcing Mikelionis to tip shots over the bar.

The game appeared to have decisively turned in FK Zalgiris’s favour when Kauno defender Sadauskas was shown a second yellow for an innocuous challenge. However, ex Hearts man, bearded substitute Pilibaitas had other ideas and Kauno dominated the rest of the match. Pilibaitas showed good skill to chest down but his shot went just over. Kauno then thought they had been awarded a penalty, but the referee decided the foul was just outside the area. On 86 minutes, Pilibaitas was first to a low corner, but his flick went just wide, and then two minutes later the referee showed a mysterious red card, this time to Vorobjovas of FK Zalgiris to make it 10 a-side.

There was still time for Pilibaitas to break down the left to the bye-line but his dangerous low cross hit a defender and unfortunately for Kauno bounced clear rather than into the net or to a Kauno player. Four minutes into injury time Pilibaitas was found in space on the edge of the penalty area, but his left footed shot was comfortably saved.

FK Zalgiris were then able to see out the remaining minutes of injury time to hang onto what in the end was a slightly fortuitous victory. Frenchman Videmont looked their best player on the day. However, had Pilibaitas been on the pitch for more than 22 minutes the outcome may have been different.

Highlights :https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K4Y6U3UGhzM

FK Panevezys vs FK Sudova

Panevezys is around 135 north of Vilnius and their football side play at the 6,600 capacity Aukštaitija Stadium, which has a grass pitch surrounded by an athletics track. FK’s home colours are all red.

In 2019, Panevezys finished 5^th but started 2020 with two discouraging away loses, being thumped 0-4 at FK Zilgiris and badly beaten 0-2 at newly promoted Banga Gargzdai.

Portuguese might be the main language of their dressing room as the squad has 6 undistinguished journeyman Brazilians and one player from Portugal, Rafael Floro who made one appearance for Sheffield Wednesday. They also have one player from Japan, Kotaro Amemiya, and a Colombian, Sebastian Vasquez,  Manager Alexandru Curteian had a short spell as manager of the Moldova national side.

Champions Sudova come from Marijampole, 135 KM south-west of Vilnius, and have started with two 1-0 home wins, over Banga Bargzdai and FK Kauno Zilgiris. Their kit is all white.

They too have a number of legionnaires in their squad, but they are nearly all of the “Eastern European” variety with 4 Croatians, 2 Latvians, a Serb and a Slovak in their matchday squad for last week’s win over FK Kauno. Bosnian Mihret Topcagic was suspended for today’s match though after a red card last week for a nasty tackle, being replaced with ex RB Salzburg, Sturm Graz and Wolfsberger Austrian Daniel Offenbacher, who didn’t feature at all last week.

They also have three current members of the national side, Algis Jankauskas ( 13 caps ), Giedrius Matulevicius ( 3 caps ) and Vaidas Slavickas ( 19 caps ). 32 year old midfielder Povilas Leimonas won the last of his 5 caps in 2018 and his firm header was the match winner against FK Kauno.

Understandably, Sudova were 1/6 favourites, with Panavezys rank outsiders at 9-1.

Sudova started with all 4 of their Croatians whilst for Panevezys, all six of their Brazilians started, but Rafael Floro was left out in favour of Vasquez.

The ground is fairly uninteresting, with a ring of 7 rows of blue or red blocks of seating around a running track. The main stand is much larger but is also uncovered

After some early sparring, Sudova took the lead in the 9^th minute when Offenbacher was left in acres of space just inside the penalty area, and had time to control a pass from the left and shoot to the centre of the goal. However, Brazilian keeper Broetto dived over and around the shot for Sudova to take the lead.

Panevezys responded well to this set-back, forcing Kardum in the Sudova goal to be alert to gather several crosses but the home team were not able to create any clear chances.

Sudova extended their lead after 36 minutes when a decoy overlapping run distracted the defenders allowing Svrljuga the time play the ball into the penalty area, where Croat Josip Tadic athletically twisted and shoot across the goal in one movement. The goal took Tadic to the top of the A Lyga goal scoring charts with two goals.

Just before the break, Sudova failed to clear a corner and from around 12 yards Vasquez’s effort crashed against the bar.

With a 0-2 lead half-time, Sudova controlled the start of the second half, with Paneveyzs looking short of ideas, and it was no surprise when the lead was extended after 51 minutes, with Jankauskas breaking down the left and cutting back past Janusevskis onto his right foot to fire home.

Sudova had a couple more good chances to further increase their lead, but with 20 minutes to go they seem to relax and allowed Paneveyzs back into the match. Kardum was forced to make an acrobatic save to tip over a deflected long-range shot, and a few minutes later Janusevskis out jumped his marker free to power home a header for 1-3 and their first goal of the season.

Sudova rose from their slumbers to see out the rest of the match, and Panevezys keeper Broetto had to make a brave save to deny Matulevicius  

With this win Sudova retained their 100% record to stay top of the table. It is hard to judge how good they are against weak opposition but today they passed the ball well and looked well organised until getting a little complacent. Their keeper looks competent, but one of the main differences between the two sides today was the clinical finishing. Panevezys look like they face a long hard season.

Highlights : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NaaElcz7gpc

FK Riteriai vs Banga Gargzdai

FK Riteriai are based in Vilnius and play in the same stadiums as FK Zilgiris. Today’s match was on the artificial grass pitch at the 5,000 capacity LFF Stadium, the stadium of the Lithuania Football Federation. Until the start of last season they played in Trakai, 30 km from Vilnius and were known as FK Trakai.

They play in what can best be described as all highlighter yellow. Their starting XI at FK Zilgiris were all Lithuanian although Ivorian Lajo Traore and Brazilian Michael Thuique both came off the bench.

36 year old captain Valdemar Borovskis has 27 caps. Forward Donatas Kazlaukas has 12 caps and is a current member of the national squad and midfielder Justinas Mazaras has 2 caps. His close range header from a left wing cross supplied by Alexsandras Levsinasdelivered the slightly surprising win at FK Zalgiris. After this a combination of good goalkeeping and poor finishing enabled them to hold on for the three points.

Newly promoted Banga are based in Gargzdai, which is nearly 300 km from Vilnius and approximately 20 km from the Baltic Sea. Their kit is normally all orange with their change colours, required today, being dark blue with orange trimmings. They have started the season well, losing only 0-1 at Sudova and beating Panevezys 2-0 at home.

Veteran Robertas Vezevicius impressed for Banga in their morale boosting win over Panevezys with a neat finish to give them an early lead before a strong run and intelligent pull back gave the unmarked Karolis Urbaitis the chance to fire home from near the penalty spot. Brazilian Renato missed two easy second half chances to make the win even more convincing. Their other overseas players are two Ukrainians defenders ( Yuri Pavluk and Oleksandr Aksenov ) and Japanese midfielder Shogo Yashikawa

Tickets for the game today were 2.50 Euro and Riteriai were 1/2 odds on favourites, Banga 9/2 outsiders

It looked like 5 or 6 Banga fans had made the long journey and they were located in a corner behind one of the goals. Behind this uncovered stand were parked the Banga team bus, and a police wagon. Hopefully this was just a precaution…..

Some home fans were spread out in the seats along the far side of the ground, with social distancing clearly evident.

Some other fans were audible in the main stand, out of sight of the camera.There were no facilities behind the other goal, and behind the fencing another football pitch could be seen. The scoreboard was located in the corner by the main stand,

Banga started the match brightly with Yashikawa shooting over and then Kasparavicius’s long deflected shot being gathered by Simaitis in the Riteriai goal. After this though they became less adventurous as the game developed into patient passing football on the artificial pitch as both sides probed for openings. All the players looked technically comfortable on the ball.

Riteriai’s first effort came on 16 minutes, when left back Levsinas sent a long shot from out wide onto the top of the crossbar. Two minutes later Grigaravicius’ first time volley was straight at the Banga keeper, but the offside flag was raised anyway.

The match then entered a dull spell until Riteriai lost possession in midfield and Renato drove forward, but his 25 yard low, skidding shot was palmed away for a corner. This was in the 37^th minute. The only other piece of excitement in the first half was a big appeal for a penalty from Riteriai in the 44^th minute, but the replay clearly showed that Marazas had fallen over without any help from the Banga defender, and it was an excellent decision by the referee. There is no VAR in the A Lyga. Half-time 0-0.

Matters did not improve at the start of the second half, as the only noteworthy incident in the first 20 minutes of the half was a yellow card issued when a Riteriai player made no effort to retreat from a free-kick to Banga, so the Banga player kicked the ball straight at him. The referee rightly awarded the card, and I wish this was done more often in other matches, where the player stands in the way to prevent the free-kick from being taken quickly.

After 65 minutes, Banga broke down the right wing but the cross from Verevicius was just too high for Kasparavicius, and his header went high and over. Despite this, Riteriai were starting to get on top as the corner count increased and a number of crosses were pumped into the Banga penalty area. However, the Banga back four and their keeper were not overly troubled and no clear-cut chance was created.

After 74 minutes, a low cross from the right was delivered into the Banga area, but substitute Thuique’s back flick went harmlessly wide. It subsequently became obvious that Thuique would perform an unnecessary show-pony fancy flick when a normal pass would do.

With time running out the match the match finally burst into life. On 83 minutes, Yashikawa got to the bye-line but his crossed was met beyond the far post by Verevicius, who could only head-over. It was the best chance of the match up to that point.

Shortly after, Verevicius had to go off with cramp, and the first involvement of his replacement, Paulius Lotuzys, was to stride forward and from just outside the area, unleash an unstoppable left-footed shot into the top corner. 0-1 and the away fans celebrated wildly !

A minute later Lotuzys broke down the right wing but the sliding Kasparavicius was just unable to connect with his low cross. It wasn’t all over yet, and in injury time Riteriai pressed and Kaslauskas’ cross was headed at the far post by Paulauskas across goal, but there was no Riteriai player on hand to finish.

So a tedious match ended with an exciting finish, with the visitors taking the three points. 

Newly Banga will be delighted with the start to the season they have made, with two wins and only one goal conceded. They appear to have a solid defence, with both Aksanov and Padaigis having particularly good games today.

On this showing Riteriai looked a reasonable side but with only one goal in three matches have a distinct lack of a cutting edge. However, with no relegation, and four European places between just 6 sides they have a reasonable chance of qualifying for next season’s Europa League.

Highlights : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0DVY9ZLwE_o

Table

                                    P          W        D         L          F          A         PTS    

FK Sudova                  3          3          0          0          5          1          9

FK Zilgiris                  3          2          0          1          5          1          6

Banga Gargzdai          3          2          0          1          2          1          6

FK Kauno Zilgiris      3          1          0          2          3          2          3

FK Riteriai                  3          1          0          2          1          4          3

FK Panevezys             3          0          0          3          1          9          0

Round 4

13/6     FK Kauno Zilgiris vs FK Panevezys
13/6     Banga Gargzdai vs FK Zilgiris
14/6     FK Riteriai vs FK Sudova

Acknowledgement : I am grateful to @pavelsleftfoot for the map of Lithuania with the club crests !