The quarter-finals of the Latvian Cup were played at Jana Dalina stadium – Valmiera FC hosted Tukums 2000/Telms. The game expectedly was challenging, full of cards, tackles, and errors on all sides.
For the first time this season Leo Gaucho drew into the starting eleven. Emils Birka played in the recently departed Alvis Jaunzems position, while Jurgis Kalns returned to the defensive duo of Roberts Veips and Daniels Balodis. Klavs Lauva managed to get the start in goal.
No time to waste as right from the kick-off the game began to swing back and forth, from one side of the pitch to the other. Lauva had to get on his A level rather fast to keep the balls away from entering his goal.
However, in the 7th minute, a cold shower was offered – a quick counter against the Valmiera team. Bogdans Samoilovs elected to shoot from a distance to not allow defenders to close up a lane and he succeded giving his team the first and only lead in the game.
Gaucho, Maksims Tonisevs, Emils Birka – all responded with their own scoring chances but nothing came out of them. It was all either missed or kept out by the opposing keeper.
In the first half, players flew left and right, and yellow cards were awarded by the book and that ended badly for Gustavo. Attempting to kick the ball into the net, he managed to kick an opponent in the face and the referee didn’t hesitate – second yellow and game over for him leaving Valmiera down by a man.
Although Tukums had an advantage on the scoreboard and on the pitch, the home team did not stop for a second. Valmiera kept searching for the equaliser but everything was denied either by themselves or Tukums players.
In the added time of the second half Tukums did lose a player of their own – Deniss Rogovs received a second yellow, leveling things on the playing field, however, a little too late, and Tukums 2000/Telms could celebrate a ticket booked to the Latvian Cup quarter-finals.
Our next game will be played on Sunday (26.08) when the team will travel to the Latvian capital, where at 20:00 at Skonto stadium they will face Riga FC under the lights of the Optibet Virsliga tournament.
