In the 14. round of Optibet futbola Virsliga we experienced our second defeat this season, losing to FK Spartaks Jurmala (0:1) on away game.
This was the first game on natural turf for Valmiera FC this season.
Tamaz Pertia chose almost all familiar players in starting 11 against Spartaks, including goalkeeper Rihards Matrevics whose form in final games was on top. Svyatoslav Kozhedub and Camilo Mena were the only starters with a relatively smaller number of played games so far.
The game began with stormy attacks by the hosts. For the first 15 minutes of the game they fully owned the initiative, and they also turned it into a goal — in the 14th minute, Richard Friday coolly carried out the penalty shot, after Ivan Zhelizko had committed the foul in the penalty area.
As the game continues, coach Pertia was forced to replace Luka Gadrani in the 24th minute, because of the defender’s head injury. Seven minutes later, seeing the game is slipping away, he made two more substitutions, sending Luka Silagadze and Daisuke Yokota in place of Kozhedub and Mena.
In a game of a lot of battles and fouls, it was the first thus far when we lost our opponents in the fight. The parameter, thanks to which we got all eight wins of the season.
The failure of the attack and the inability to be superior in the fight finally ended with a loss, despite the desperate efforts at the very end of the game to pull out at least a draw.
In this round, not only the Valmiera trip from the leading trio, Riga FC was unable to bring home from Daugavpils nothing more than a draw (1:1), and now with 26 points in the tournament table are side by side with us. The leader RFS has the same amount of points, but they have another game in reserve.
Now we go for a three-week break, during which we will be working hard on training to continue the championship on June 13 in Daugavpils with new desire and determination.