Three points in a dreadful game are still three points — that’s the short version of Valmiera FC’s 2:1 home win over FK Salaspils on August 31, a match that saw 14 yellow cards and three red cards handed out — including two for the visitors.
On another rain-soaked afternoon, it seemed like the deck was stacked in Valmiera’s favor — all they had to do was run, attack, and score. But it wasn’t that simple. From the opening minutes, Anatolii Sidenko’s Salaspils side showed grit, determination, and a willingness to fight for every ball — in the most literal sense.
Rough tackles, personal duels, and retaliation dominated the match, leaving little room for actual attacking play. In the 34th minute, Valmiera found themselves a man up, but failed to capitalize. Then, just before halftime, the referee showed a second red card, this time to Salaspils’ Ukrainian player Yaroslav Tkachenko for dissent. At that point, it seemed the second half would be a mere formality in favor of the home side.
Instead, the game stayed scrappy. Valmiera couldn’t impose total control, and Salaspils — far from giving up — even threatened Haralds Kalniņš’s goal on several occasions.
The deadlock was finally broken in the 58th minute when Ritvars Krists Zauska beat his marker on the right wing and squared the ball to Oskars Stupelis, who tapped it into an empty net — 1:0.
But just moments later, the lead vanished. A clumsy challenge by Rinalds Krists Freilihs in the box gifted Salaspils a penalty, and Gļebs Cvetkovs converted with confidence — 1:1.
For the next ten minutes, uncertainty lingered — could Valmiera really fail to make their numerical advantage count? Matters worsened when Ēriks Maurs-Boks received his second yellow card in the 71st minute, making it ten versus nine.
Luckily, just two minutes later, substitute Daniils Cepeļevs made an immediate impact — stretching to meet Richmond Owusu’s pass and lofting the ball over the keeper into the net — 2:1.
The final 20 minutes brought more cards than chances, with five additional yellows shown before the referee’s final whistle finally put an end to the chaos.
It wasn’t pretty — in fact, it was the kind of game that might still haunt players’ dreams — but the three points now sit proudly in Valmiera’s column.
Next up: a serious test on the road against SK Super Nova-2 on September 13 at 17:00 at the Krasts Sports Base in Riga.
