May 14, 2022
These diaries regularly reviewed the 2020 Lithuania A-Lyga season, when Suduva lost the title following a 0-3 defeat at FK Zalgiris on the final day, and in a close fought competition, Kauno Zalgiris finished in third place, 5 points behind Suduva.
The 2021 season saw Zalgiris retain their title, with a 9 point gap over Suduva, with Kauno again in third place a further 7 points behind, and a distant 16 points from Zalgiris.
Expectations that these three sides would again dominate the A-Lyga have been disappointed this season, as going into today’s match, Suduva sat in 5th place, 10 points behind surprise leaders Panevezys, with Kauno in 6th place a further two points behind.
Suduva had seen significant changes to their squad compared to the 14 players who took to the field in the winner-takes-all match against FK Zalgiris in November 2020, with only 2 of those players still remaining at the club.
4 of those players are still playing in the A-Lyga though, with defender Linas Klimaviius now with his home town side Panezezys, Croatian forward Josip Tadic and Argentine midfielder Nicolas Gorobsov are playing for Zalgiris, and forward Eligijus Janauskas is with Siauliai.
Other departures include Croatian goalkeeper Ivan Kardum now playing for Traiskirchen in the Austrian regional leagues, Bosnian centre-back Semir Kerla is now with Cypriot side Doxa, Ukrainian midfielder Yevhan Yefremov is with FC Minaj, Latvian defender Valerijs Sabala is with KI in the Faroe Islands, Austrian striker Thomas Salamon is back in his home country with St Polten, Bosnian striker Minret Topcagic plays for Croatian side Osijek, and Brazilian midfielder Ronan Oliveira has gone back to Brazil and joined Caxias.
Their new arrivals include ex-Riga and Beerschot DR Congo striker Kule Mbombo, who was top scorer in the 2020 Latvian Virsliga ( as covered by these diaries ), keeper Tomas Svedkaukas ( ex-Roma and Lommel, 14 caps ) came home, ex-Zaglebie midfielder Markas Beneta (14 caps ) returned from Poland, Belgian midfielder Olivier Rommens had previously played for NAC Breda and Jong PSV, Serbian midfielder Marko Pavlovski made 13 appearances for Dinamo Minsk in 2020, and Spanish midfielder Xabi Auzmendi had last been seen with Lori in the Armenian Premier League.
Ukrainian midfielder Yevhen Protasov had been playing for Metalist 1925 Kharkiv prior to the invasion and Georgian midfielder Ivan Matcharsahvili was with A-Lyga side Hegelmann last season.
Suduva went into today’s game with a 4-5-3 record and whilst being unbeaten in their last 5 matches, they had not yet beaten any side in the top 6 in the table. Their three losses occurred at Riteriai ( 0-2 ), Panevezys ( 1-2 ), and at home to Hegelmann ( 0-1 ).
In the earlier meeting this season between the two sides, Suduva took a 4th minute lead though striker Mbombo, before an injury time equaliser saw the points shared.
Kauno had a 4-3-5 record and although they had won their two most recent matches, a 2-1 home victory over leaders Panevezys, and a repeat of the 2-1 victory over Dziugas. However, the 3 matches prior to this had all been lost.
Tickets for the game on the artificial surface at the VDU Valdo Adamkus Stadium were priced at 5 Euros, and when I enquired an hour before kick-off, 359 tickets were still available on Kauno’s website.
Bet365.com made Kauno 2/1 outsiders, with Suduva 11/8 favourites and the draw at 7/4. The weather at the 13.00 local time kick-off was 13 degrees but with light rain, and scattered showers forecast for the rest of the day. A stiff breeze madethe players’ shirt ripple.
The visitors journey from Marijampole to Kaunas was a relatively short 60 kilometres and the match was streamed live on the A-Lyga website.
Kauno’s starting XI featured 8 of the players who appeared in the 2-1 win over Dziugas covered by these diaries in March, with the newcomers being Dutch defender Jason Noslin, ex Koper Croatian midfielder Marko Pejic, and Ivorian forward Moussa Sangare.
Suduva made two changes from the side that drew at home to Riteriai in their last game, with French midfielder Nicolas Taravel and experienced international Vaidas Slavickas ( 22 caps ) replacing Mbombo and Leimonas.
Kauno played in all white with green numbers and letters rather than their all green kit, but Suduva were in their familiar all red outfit.
The home side started strongly, dominating possession in the opening 10 minutes as Suduva struggled to get out of their own half. Vaitkunas fired a long-range effort a few feet wide, and Naah’s chip into the penalty area was missed by a defender, but the portly Thique was unable to latch onto the loose ball. Kauno were playing neat, passing football with Sirgedas and Silkaitas at the core of most of the moves.
Suduva were able to win a corner in the 15th minute when Rommens released Slavickas behind the flat defensive live, but a sliding tackle ended the danger.
Against the run of play, Suduva opened the scoring in the 21st minute. Former Go-Ahead Eagles striker Said Hamulic ran onto a pass from Auzmendi, and rather than choosing to make a return pass and put Auzmendi clear on goal, he cut-back onto his right foot to score in the bottom right hand corner from around 25 yards.
Kauno quickly responded with Vaitkunas shooting from 25 yards, forcing Suduva keeper Svedkauskas into a far from convincing diving parry as the ball bounced just in front of him, but a minute later another swift counter-attack saw Auzmendi feed Slavickas to send a swerving left-footed effort from just outside the penalty area high inside the far post to make it 0-2 after 25 minutes.
It got worse for Kauno 10 minutes later when Hamulic chased after another long-ball from the Suduva back-line, but in his effort to keep up with Hamulic, Kauno’s Dutch defender Noslin appeared to pull a hamstring and crumpled to the floor to leave Hamulic in the clear. The Suduva striker cut-back onto his right foot again to shoot between Mikelionis and his near post as the keeper moved the other way.
At the interval, Kauno trailed 0-3 despite having 65% of the possession. They hadn’t played badly but Suduva’s clinical finishing had taught them a lesson.
Kauno’s response was to bring on joint top scorer Mohamed Bahlouli
( 4 goals ), and the ex-Sampdoria youngster looked lively as Kauno sought a way
back into the match as the rain became heavier. First though, less than 30 seconds into the half, Hamulic nearly claimed his hat-trick, but his chip over the diving keeper when through on goal was cleared off the line by the sliding Vaitkunas.
For Kauno, Pejic was then put clear close to the by-line but his ball across the face of the goal was too high, and then Bahlouli’s long-range bouncing attempt on goal was gathered at the second attempted by the sprawling keeper. Bahlouli then played a neat, flicked pass to Sirgedas but his curling left-footed shot lacked power and was easily saved.
Svedkauskas then had to dive to push away a long range shot and from the resulting corner, appeals for a penalty were ignored by the referee.
After 60 minutes Hamulic was helped from the field with a nasty looking foot injury, and a couple of minutes later veteran Linas Pilibaitas made his customary appearance from the bench for Kauno, for the 12th time in 13 matches this season ! Pilibaitas almost made an immediate impact but he shot into side-netting from a tight angle after a curling cross from Sirgedas.
Suduva continued to defend resolutely, and the final chances in the match fell to the visitors. Auzmendi’s snap-shot after poor control by Naah defender ended in the side netting, and with just over 6 minutes remaining the Spanish midfielder played in Matulevicius, but the Kauno keeper was quickly off his line to made an important block. With just over 2 minutes left on the clock, Mikelionis played a sloppy pass out straight to Matulevicius but rather than attempt to go for the empty net, he chose to cross towards Protasov but his ball was intercepted.
At the final whistle, Kauno’s possession statistic for the match had fallen to 60%, and they had won 12 corners. However, the most important statistic was the three goals for Suduva ! Despite their victory, Suduva remained in 5th place, and Kauno now have the worst goals against record in the division apart from rock bottom Jonava.
FK Kauno Zalgiris : Mikelionis – Dapkus ( Trotman ), Vaitkunas, , Girdvainis, Noslin ( Anisas ) – Pejic, Naah, Silkaitas ( Pilibaitas ), Sirgedas – Sangare ( Bahlouli ), Thique
FK Suduva : Svedkauskas – Janusevskis, Zivanovic, Slavickas ( Baltrunas )– Benata, Rommens, Taravel, Pavlovski, Auzmendi ( Zingertas )– Hamulic ( Protasov ), Matulevicius
Highlights : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LvkI5B9yn34
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