On April 27, the JFK “Ventspils” team played a game against AFA “Olaine” in the 4th round of the Optibet “Future League”, where they drew 2:2. After getting behind, our team managed to fight back twice and fought for three points until the last second.
The goal for our team was scored by Mayfer Arroyo from Colombia, who in the first half, trailing 0:1, jumped the highest after a great cross from a corner kick and headed the ball into the opponent’s goal, as well as our local football student Artemy Mikhail Luchin, who after Pierre Hanlett’s passing turned out to be the smoothest of the three opponents and he headed the ball into the goal, the score 2-2.
Everyone already knows that the Olaine team is a particularly principled opponent of the JFK “Ventspils” team, because in the last year we have already met this team five times, in which three times we fought to a draw, but in two times we recognized the superiority of the opponent, so the team did not need an additional the motivation to give everything on the field to fight for victory only.
Head coach Igor Kichigin’s comment on the played game:
“I am happy with the team’s performance, not everything that was planned was successful, but in general the game plan was fulfilled. If we talk about the opponent, we know that Olaine knows how to play football, where he knows how to break the opponent’s defense with various combinations, the team plays physical football, does not concede and defends in an organized manner. I am happy for the boys that they were able to create several moments and scoring opportunities during the game by directly applying the actions that we practice in the training process.
If we talk about our actions, then we earned an unnecessary penalty kick, which allowed the opponent to take the lead. Similarly, with the second conceded goal, we did not deal with the opponent in time, which allowed us to make a long shot, once again the opponent took the lead. We are happy that we did not give up and came back twice and continued to play actively until the final whistle. Overall, the game was episodic from both teams. One moment they are attacking, controlling the ball, the next we have taken the initiative, so I can’t say that either team controlled the game. I evaluate the game positively, because in this tournament every opponent is a test for us and we prepare for each game with great seriousness, analyzing the played games and studying the next opponent. I want to thank every fan who came to the stadium to support the young guys! Victories will come to us with time, in which hard work will be invested!”
Comment from center back Valteras Liepājnieks:
“I believe that the team played a good game, we could get three points, we had several opportunities to score goals, but we played carelessly in defense. We trained hard all week to fight for the win. We will prepare seriously for the next game, we will analyze in order to know how to break the opponent’s defense and score as many goals as possible.”
Almost 300 spectators watched the game in person! JFK “Ventspils” team thanks everyone who gave their time to be with the team on this day!
ONL will play its next game on May 5, when it will host guests from Smiltene at home, in the stadium of the 2nd elementary school.
