At a stage of the season when every match feels decisive — especially for the teams at the top of the LVBET League and, above all, Valmiera FC and FK Metta — life in Latvia’s second tier is delivering both great joy and equally painful disappointment. After a hard-fought 2–1 victory over JDFS Alberts in Riga, Gatis Kalniņš’s side stumbled at home against Riga Mariners, losing 2–4 and allowing Metta to open up a three-point lead at the top.
It had been quite some time since we last played at the Hanzas Secondary School pitch in Riga, a ground that holds some great memories for Valmiera — including memorable Virslīga victories over both Metta and RFS, the latter at the beginning of our championship-winning season.
Injuries have been relatively rare for Valmiera this season, although the same cannot be said for suspensions caused by accumulated cards. This time, both problems struck at once, leaving the team without its two central defenders, Lenny Manisa and Ernests Kalniņš. Nevertheless, the defence coped well, with Artūrs Bērziņš and Rinalds Krists Freilihs stepping in and doing an excellent job. At the other end, both teams lacked the final touch, despite creating opportunities throughout the first half.
As we have seen several times this season, when Valmiera struggle to break down an opponent before the break, the team often returns from the dressing room and quickly changes the course of the match. That was exactly what happened at Hanza.
In the 61st minute, an Alberts defender failed to deal with the danger, allowing Valmiera marksman Gleilson to collect the ball. With just a couple of touches, the Brazilian also beat goalkeeper Rūdolfs Zandreiters and made it 1–0.
Eighteen minutes later, Gleilson almost repeated the trick. This time the goalkeeper managed to get a touch to the ball, but Rojs Bušs was in exactly the right place at the right time to immediately double Valmiera’s advantage.
At 2–0, the result appeared relatively safe, but there was no opportunity to relax as the hosts had no intention of giving up. Their persistence eventually paid off, although only in the very final moments of the match, when they took advantage of one of the few misunderstandings in Valmiera’s defensive line to set the final score at 2–1.
Elsewhere in the same round, Metta demolished Ventspils 7–0, while our next opponents, Riga Mariners, suffered a surprising 1–4 defeat away to Smiltene.
A week later, everything was in place for a big match at Jānis Daliņš Stadium — the Pirates arriving with several former Valmiera players in their ranks, including head coach Stefano Greco, plenty of anticipation surrounding the fixture, and crucial points at stake.
Both teams were also missing important players. The visitors were without the league’s leading scorer Aļģirdas Gražis, while Gatis Kalniņš’s side had to cope without captain Fraj Kairmani, who was serving a one-match suspension after exceeding the yellow-card limit in the previous fixture.
Who knows how differently the match might have unfolded had Valmiera converted more than one of their three excellent first-half opportunities.
Artūrs Bērziņš’s superb seventh-minute opener would certainly have been remembered more fondly had the evening ended on a positive note. But every time Valmiera scored, the Pirates had an answer — and their goals were every bit as impressive.
In the 12th minute, following a corner delivered by Krišs Kārkliņš, Artjoms Pavlovskis caught the entire Valmiera defence off guard and headed the ball past Haralds Kalniņš to make it 1–1.
Just before half-time, a brilliantly executed counterattack brought the stadium to its feet. Gleilson raced down the left flank before delivering an excellent ball towards the far post, where Toki Yamamura arrived at exactly the right moment. The Japanese defender made no mistake, beating Vladislavs Kurakins to restore Valmiera’s lead — 2–1.
The second half then provided a textbook example of one of football’s oldest sayings: if you don’t take your chances, your opponent will.
Valmiera wasted several opportunities in front of the Pirates’ goal, and the visitors responded ruthlessly. Three clear chances came their way — and all three ended in the net.
First, in the 63rd minute, Kārkliņš and Pavlovskis combined once again, with the latter scoring his second goal of the match to make it 2–2. Two more goals followed at roughly ten-minute intervals. First, Matīss Caune put the visitors ahead with a spectacular volley before Richmond Owusu finished another attack to make it 2–4.
For the Valmiera supporters in the stadium and watching from home — and for the players themselves — it was the first time this season they truly found themselves in the kind of situation we are usually accustomed to seeing our opponents endure.
Well, almost the first time. We had already found ourselves in a similar mess once this year, sometime in spring, somewhere in Mežaparks — against these very same Riga Mariners. And it was the Pirates who knocked us out of the Latvian Cup last season as well.
Metta also had a difficult afternoon against Alberts, but eventually secured a 3–1 victory. Looking at the remaining fixtures on paper, Metta (54 points) appear to have their biggest test against the Pirates (47), who together with Leevon PPK (49) complete the league’s leading quartet.
Leevon PPK will undoubtedly also have their eyes on Valmiera’s (51) promotion play-off position and will already be looking ahead to the meeting between the two sides in Riga in the penultimate round on October 31.
October promises to provide plenty of answers, with four of the remaining five league rounds taking place during the month.
Following an extended international break, the LVBET League battle resumes on October 10, when Valmiera FC hosts SK Super Nova-2 at Jānis Daliņš Stadium. Kick-off is at 14:00.
Your support in this match — and throughout the remaining games of the season — will be invaluable.
See you at the stadium!
