After the international break which lasted from March 21st until March 29th, all ten Valmiera FC internationals have returned to their teams.
Latvian Men’s national team had a total of five Valmiera FC players at their camp. Raimonds Krollis started both games on the main squad. Valmiera FC’s captain was substituted off the pitch during the game against Kuwait (1:1) at the 77th minute of the game while against Azerbaijan (1:0) he played from the beginning till the end.
Alvis Jaunzems also got involved in both matches having played one half against Kuwait while in the second match he stepped on the pitch during the 63rd minute.
Goalkeeper Rihards Matrevics made his national team debut getting involved off the bench in the second half. As it turned out later his debut was successful as our keeper was ready to pull through in the important moments.
Emils Birka and Daniels Balodis were also a part of the national teams camp, however, they didn’t see any game time.
Roberts Veips, Maksims Tonisevs, and Kristers Lusins represented Latvia at the UEFA U-21 European Championship Qualifiers where they lost against Germany (0:4) and San Marino (0:0). Our youngsters played in both matches getting 180 minutes of game action each. 21-year-old Tonisevs was also the team captain.
Klavs Lauva returned from the U-19 Latvian national team where they played two friendly matches against Croatia (1:2 and 2:3). Lauva played in the second match when he was subbed on the pitch for the second half.
Derrick Kakooza has returned from Uganda national team where he made his debut at the men’s level at the Four Nations tournament in Uzbekistan. 19-year-old center-forward debuted in the opening game of the tournament against Tajikistan and played 8 minutes at the end of the match which also allowed him to take part in post-game penalty shots as things were tied 1:1. The game ended 5:4 in the penalties that helped Uganda to earn a ticket to the tournament finals where they lost 2:4 against Uzbekistan. In that match, Kakooza played twenty minutes.
Two of our players that have been loaned out also took part in U-21 action – Rudolfs Zengis and Vladimirs Stepanovs. Zengis started in both games but fully finished only one of them as against San Marino he was substituted during the 88th minute of the match. Stepanovs played in both games but joined the game from the bench, during 71st minute against Germany and 74th against San Marino.
