For the first time since 2010, Riga teams will compete in the LBL gold series – Basketball – Sportacentrs.com

Without Broch duels with “Bonus” in the first four seasons of the Latvian Basketball League (LBL), the battle of Riga teams for the Latvian championship title has been a very rare event. During this millennium, the paths of teams from the capital crossed only twice in golden duels. In 2008, Kārlis Muižnieks at the helm of “Barona” defeated “ASK Riga” in a series of six matches. On the other hand, two years later, under the leadership of Edgars Teter, the same “Barons” upset VEF Rīga, who reached the finals for the first time, in a series of seven games.

Since the loss to “Baron” Waffle have always been the main contenders for the Latvian championship title. It has failed to be achieved only three times in the last 13 years. The “Ventspils” team had to concede twice, but another failure came when the “Valmiera/Ordo” basketball players made the biggest splash of the season. In 2020, it looked like “Ogre” had reached its peak form in order to challenge the people of Riga, however, the Covid-19 pandemic did not allow to find out the best in a sporting way, for more successful results in the unfinished main tournament, the gold was awarded to the “VEF Rīga” team by a cabinet decision.

Before the start of this season, there was a knock on the door of Latvian basketball roses – “Riga Zelli”. Edgars Buļas and others medicine the team stirred up the waters, the usual order of things had already settled in the choirs. First, medicine accession increased the representation of Latvian teams in the highest league to seven units, which created tension in the regular season, the owner of the last place among our teams remained without the usual spring matches, since there were only six teams in the LBL playoffs.

“Rīgas Zeļļi” created a stir wherever the team played. Matches against Latvian clubs turned out to be very interesting, for the pink ones defeating and losing at least once to each of the local teams, except for “Latvijas Universitati”, for which the debutants’ nut turned out to be too hard in both meetings. The team coached by Jura Umbraško has played against “VEF Riga” five times. In the first fight for the pink ones managed to win, but the following battles in the final of the Latvian Cup, in the second match of the main tournament of the combined league and in the quarter-final of the Latvian-Estonian league playoffs were in favor to black death.

The fact that the representatives of “VEF Rīga”, sitting on the national basketball throne, do not like the rose-colored glasses that the new team from the capital has put on in the eyes of the neutral fans is confirmed criticism and criticism that have been uttered in the public space. Vefina representatives tried to cut off questions about the growing Riga basketball derby and Jānis Gailītis was like a thorn in the eye pink operating in the marketing sector, performing extraordinary maneuvers that have generated great interest from the fans.

Beach volleyball player Aleksandrs Samoilovs in the ranks of “Rīgas Zeļļi”. Photo: Inna Zakharova

Everyone heard about the promotion of “Rīgas Zeļļu” about Aleksandar Samoilov going to the basketball court. But in general for the pink ones was the biggest rotation of players during the season experienced in recent years. Including Samoilov, a total of 24 different players appeared on the field in the uniform of “Rīgas Zeļļi” during the season. Changes in the course of the season were also determined by the goal of Frančas Láčas and Sigmars Raimo to the Paris Olympic Games in 3×3 basketball.

Canadian defender Aizeja Osborne and center Jordi Hunter, who played for the Australian national team, have emerged as the leaders of “Rīgas Zeļļų” at the moment. Kamaka Hepa, an Alaskan with Hawaiian roots, can also take over the game in some matches. There is also no shortage of local players in Jura Umbraško’s squad (Toms Skuja, Juris Vītols, Dāvids Vīksne, Ričards Vanags, Uģis Pinete and Mārtiņš Meiers) who can play leading roles.

The change in the composition of “VEF Riga” during the season was most influenced by the complete reorientation of the legionnaires’ corps. With some foreigners Waffle missed from the start of the season, while others were replaced after relegation from the Champions League. Each of the current four Vefina guest players have basketball players of such a level that they can single-handedly decide the fate of games at the level of Latvia. In the playoffs, PJ Pipes took over the leadership role on the perimeter while Jaizek Lottie was nursing an injury. At the long end, the master of the woven class is another American, Greg Whittington, but the center of Puerto Rico, Arnaldo Toro, is a decent power meter under the basket, who collected more than a dozen rebounds more than once.

After a month’s absence, the captain of the Latvian national team Dairis Bertāns has returned to the “VEF Rīga” team, whose last matches were also watched by his brother Dāvis. Roberts Blums has announced himself loudly this season, who repeated the Latvian-Estonian league performance record with 41 points this season. Also, recently Rodrigo Boomeister has received more and more trust from coach Gailiš, who does not shy away from doing black workwhich tend not to be reflected in statistical annals.

The games of the golden series of the Latvian basketball league will be broadcast live on the channel LTV7.

“VEF Rīga” – “Rīgas Zellī” gold series

LBL final series

Final series of the Latvian Basketball League