A historic victory and Perth’s “curse” in Valmiera

“Valmiera FC” against FK “Liepāja”. In the two previous seasons, FK “Liepāja” has beaten the Valmiera team only twice, and both victories were achieved away from home with a score of 1:0. The first meeting between the two teams this season was in Valmiera, and the same thing happened again – the Liepāja team won 1:0. In all three mentioned games, the head coach of the Liepāja team was Tamazs Pertija, who moved to Liepāja directly from Valmiera in June 2022. The “curse” of Perth in Valmiera? Let’s wait for the third round game, when the two teams will meet again in Valmiera, only then at the Jānis Daliņa Stadium. On the other hand, in the mentioned match of this round, the Valmiera team played better, there is no doubt that the Valmiera team had an advantage, but it did not help, because the home team did not score a single goal. The visitors played relatively simply – a long pass forward, where Dodo or Mohamed Rasul Ba might do something. Valmierians did not manage to convert the first 15-minute advantage into goals and there were almost no real opportunities to do so. It cannot be said that the players of Valmiera “helped” the opponents to score again, but right after Nika Sliede’s unsuccessful episode, a penalty kick was awarded from about 18-20 meters near his own penalty area, and former Valmiera team player Luka Silagadze reminded how skillfully he can take penalties. shots – 1:0 in favor of FK “Liepāja” at the very end of the first half. The Valmiera team (Djibril Gay) hit the post once in the first half. In the second half, Liepāja team masterfully used the tactics of keeping the minimum advantage and “suffocated” the game, only responding to the paret with counterattacks. Is this the Liepaja team’s game model now? Something similar was also visible in the previously won (also with 1:0) game against FK “Auda”. The Valmiera team had chances to score goals, but the visitors were saved three times by goalkeeper Vladislavs Lazarevs (especially the first time after Jason Bahambula’s shot) – another former player of the Valmiera team. Once the ball went into the visitors’ goal, but the back was fixed. And that’s probably all. French-born Congo national team candidate Bahambula (was in the Cannes club system, but before coming to Valmiera in the Portuguese club “Guimaraes” system) came on as a substitute in the 85th minute, and it quickly created more sharpness in the visitors’ penalty area. We can only guess whether he should have been brought on earlier.