May 13, 2023
When these diaries first started covering the Estonian Meistriliiga in 2020, Tallinna JK Legion were in their first season in the Estonian top flight, and thanks to the 10 goals of mid-season signing Nikita Andreev they finished a respectable 7th. 40-year-old goalkeeper Pavel Londak was another notable regular in their side, but retired at the end of the 2022 season. Andreev is now the coach at Nomme Kalju.
Legion did even better in 2021, and finished in 5th place. Aleksander Sapovolov contributed 11 goals to earn a move to Flora Tallinn.
The 2022 season was not so good and Legion finished in 9th position and faced a relegation play-off against FC Elva, today’s opponents. Legion won the play-offs 3-1 on aggregate, but afterwards decided to voluntarily go down to the second level Esiliiga. The Estonian FA decided to reprieve Vaprus from relegation rather than give the promotion spot to Elva.
Legion started today in 8th place in the table with a 3-1-1 home record but an appalling 0-0-6 away from the Spotland Area, where they had an average attendance of 97, compared to 126 last year. Today’s paltry crowd perhaps indicates that they do not have a legion of supporters……
FC Elva finished 3rd in the Esiliiga last season but participated in the promotion/relegation play-off as second place Levadia Under 21s are not permitted to play in the same division as their first XI. Ex-Tammeka Tartu midfielder Andre Paju scored 15 times and David Lehter, on loan from Levadia found the net 13 times, and has now been loaned by Levadia to Tammeka for this season.
Elva sat in 7th in the Esiliiga with a 3-1-1 home record but a disappointing 1-1-4 away from home. They did win the first meeting with Legion, winning 3-2 at home in April with Paju twice on the scoresheet.
Elva is approximately 165km from the capital, and the journey usually takes around 90 minutes by car.
The temperature at the 15.00 local time kick-off was 14 degrees with the weather sunny but windy. The game was live streamed on the Esiliiga YouTube channel and on Bet365.com, and English commentary was available on CW Sport Radio.
Legion were in their all red-kit whilst Elva were in a Bulgarian style white shirt with green shorts.
Elva got off to a flying start, with less than 2 minutes played a right wing cross by Erik Jasper found Paju completely unmarked 6 yards out for a simple finish to give the visitors an early lead. Kasper then made a good run into the Legion area but his shot was caught by keeper Bolgov at his near post.
Legion won a couple of corners, but the first was harmlessly put wide, whilst the second fell kindly to Belenikin but his wild blaze ended up going off for a throw-in.
Elva looked the most dangerous side though, and a bouncing ball across the artificial surface reached Poldsaar, whose shot was held by Bolgov, and after an Elva corner was partially headed away, Alev’s shot was blocked by the Legion defence. In between Elva centre-back Tinn became the first player to be shown the yellow card after bringing down Kulikov.
The game took a decisive turn in the 30th minute. Harm’s long ball down the right-hand channel looked harmless enough but Legion centre-back Gasinski’s back pass was under hit, giving Alev the opportunity to run onto it. Keeper Bolgov came off his line and appeared to bring down Alev, and both players lay on the ground injured. A penalty was awarded, but strangely it was Lithuanian Gasinski, the only foreign legionnaire in their starting XI, who was shown the red card rather than the keeper. After a lengthy delay whilst the two injured players received treatment, Reilson converted the spot-kick although Bolgov went the right way.
Elva nearly added a third when Poldsaar’s flick over the flat-back line put Reilson clear but the midfielder’s delicate flick over Bolgov was cleared off the line by Havier.
Legion went into the dressing rooms already looking a beaten side, losing 0-2 with a player less and without having had a shot in anger. Unsurprisingly, Elva had 58% of the possession
Elva started the second half where they had left-off as Alev’s low shot was saved at the second attempt by Bolgov, but then Legion responded by creating their best chance of the game. Substitute Vinogradov raced onto a long-ball out of defence, and although he looked off-side the referee allowed play to continue. Keeper Kruus came off his line to narrow the angle and made the save with a chest-block.
The miss proved costly, and the visitors effectively wrapped up the three points in the 50th minute. Legion had possession on the edge of the Elva area but inexplicably the ball was passed backwards to Paju, who looked up and played a defence splitting ball. Alev timed his run perfectly to collect the pass, round the keeper and put the ball into the empty goal from a fairly tight angle.
Elva came close to adding a 4th three minutes later. With a player on either side laying on the ground injured, and some players waiting for the referee’s whistle, Elva played on and Reilson jinked past two defenders to be 1 on 1 with Bolgov, but was thwarted by the Legion keeper, who made a fine save to push the shot one handed around the post for a corner.
After this chance the game drifted, with very little of note happening. Legion were not good enough to get back in to the game with one player less, whilst Elva were content to coast to victory. They even had the luxury of taking off their goal-keeper with 8 minutes remaining to give their 18-year-old back-up keeper some game-time.
Elva did have one final chance in the 88th minute. Timm robbed a dozing Legion defender and played a square pass to give Paju, unmarked on the edge of the area, a golden opportunity. Bolgov advanced off his line, but Paju could only steer his shot over the keeper but also wide of the post.
The result took Elva up into third place in the table, although the four sides immediately below them all have games in hand. Legion look like they might have a tough battle to avoid another demotion.
Highlights : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eENE748gDx4
Tallinna JK Legion : Bolgov – Havier, Volodin, Gasinski, Salamatov – Borissov, Kondratski ( Visman ), Ruus, Terletski ( Panov ), Belenikin – Kulikov ( Vinogradov )
FC Elva : Kruus ( Janes ) – Harm, Kutt, Tinn ( Ilves ), Vokksepp – Kasper, Lokk, Reilson, Poldsaar – Paju, Alev ( Timm )
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