Sūduva coach, who wanted to boycott the second part: we were stationed against the wall to shoot

In the last league A of 2020. In the match of the season, Sūduva lost 0: 3 to Žalgiris in Vilnius and gave the competitors first place in the tournament table. Vilnius residents won gold in 20 matches with 45 points, while Marijampolė players were second with 43 points.

The last time Žalgiris’s team was proclaimed champion was in 2016, and later in league A their conditions were dictated by “Sūduva” coached by Vladimir Cheburin. After Kazakhstan left Lithuania, S. Širmelis took command of the Marijampolė team, but the season for the 64-year-old soccer specialist was not successful.

Žalgiris automatically received a ticket for next season’s UEFA Champions League qualifying matches, which some of the footballers from the Balkan capital chanted after the match in a circle in the middle of the field. When the entire team in the capital energetically raised the top of the winners’ glass and served champagne, the atmosphere at the Sūduva camp was completely different.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic on the team, the people of Suvalk were able to train for the entire team for just a few days. However, even those training sessions were not of high quality, as S. Širmelis pointed out after the match.

“The game is such that we were made to shoot against the wall. There is not much to comment on, congratulations to Žalgiris for the victory. We could have expected Žalgiris to fire empty rounds, but that was not the case. After what happened with this team, I just want to thank the men for going out on the field and fighting, but that is not enough for a game so tense and with so much preparation, “he said.

However, S. Širmelis soon decided to comment in more detail.

He shone stones both over the tournament organizers’ decision to invite a team of judges from Latvia, and because of his own work during the match, which even caused the team to want to compete during the break.

He called the court referee Vitalijus Spasjonikov the decision not to count the goal after seeing the foul of Mihrets Topčagičius “stealing”, he also regretted that the match was not postponed until a week later, which the Marijampolė team was very eager to recover. after the COVID-19 attack.

At the end of his speech, the coach admitted that he was leaving the Marijampolė club.

– Coaches, does it mean that the team did not go out to the field to collect silver medals after the game?

– I wouldn’t say it means anything. He hadn’t heard much information before, and when it was announced that he would be going to collect the medals, that half of the team was already in the shower. It’s more of a misunderstanding than anything else.

– Will you take responsibility for the untitled season (Suwalki’s team “Žalgirai” lost the LFF Super Cup and League A, and in the LFF Cup tournament they lost to “Panevėžys”, – ed. Past)?

– And who else can take it?

– How do you assess the situation in the first half, when the referee did not score a goal?

– Frankly, all parties were on the verge of collapse. There was very little that the team had failed to make it to the second half. In my opinion, the goal was stolen. I don’t know who will see the fault there. Clearly, those who need it will see it.

– What do you mean that the team may not have left the field of play? Have you talked about this seriously?

– There was a little discussion like that, but the final fact is that we had to respect the rival, the championships that ended, so we decided to go fight. Probably here is the understatement of the Lithuanian judiciary that such a judge was invited. I’m not just talking about the goal, but generally about inviting him to a match of this level … I had to work in Latvia, but not even the Latvian players know what it is here. They have good judges who work in the UEFA Champions League …

Definitely an odd decision, but it’s not the point here. The bottom line is those other reasons, because we only collected a few players after illness on Wednesday. And how “good” it is to play after a coronavirus infection, only they can tell. And really, those viruses didn’t show up here after some sat in the saunas that I had to read about. Now is not the time for someone in the sauna to contract viruses.

– Would the team have been different on November 22 if the match had taken place then?

– We would have seen a different image if we had played for 22 days. It is not clear how different. But we still would have recovered, not forced to play in a few days. As the situation is now not entirely clear, those who joined on Wednesday had practically not felt football. Some were sick in one way, others in another … We tried to postpone the date of the match, but it was decided as it was decided. I think a lot of people should wear a “bird” here.

– Will you stay in Marijampolė next season?

– That my presence or absence is not related to today’s result. We got to this day first at the tournament table, we stumbled, we got up, but we got there first. And the question of how much I will work was agreed before arriving. There are no questions here, Sūduva will have another coach and this is probably not a surprise. This was agreed immediately because my contract expired in advance. But I didn’t want to escape, although it could have been done in the first place: the team is leading, what do you want from me? But that would be very disrespectful. So, I wish the club good luck. It is a pity that today it was not possible to give a gift to the president of the club Vidmantas Murauskas, which is celebrating its anniversary.

At the time, champion strategist Aliaksejus Baga was happy with the victorious end of the season.

“Only positive emotions. We achieved victory in a beautiful way. We are very happy that the gold medals are returning to Vilnius after the break. We were able to score even more.

There was no difficulty preparing. We played Marijampole for the sixth time this season so we already knew it all. It was more difficult for the host of rival coaches, who faced such a situation.

If we consider that we started with a victory in Supertaru and ended up being champions, then the season is really positive. Perhaps they wanted to perform better in European tournaments, but more importantly, the titles returned to Vilnius.

After each game there are judges satisfied and dissatisfied with the work. I do not want to comment on that, because the situation is quite complicated in general. We didn’t have game practice for 25 days. But after each game there are different emotions, ”said the Belarusian.

– Wouldn’t it have been fairer for the opponents if the match had taken place on the 22nd and they had managed to regain strength after the COVID-19 infection?

– We do not think so, because we have already postponed the match date three times. We also beat Sūduva 4: 0 during the season. So I don’t think that changes anything. We just played the way we played and it was the date it was.

Victory is always a positive thing. This year will go down in the history of “Žalgiris”, because we have recovered the gold. It is important that both the youngsters present themselves in the plaza and the veterans. I would like to congratulate the whole city and the Žalgiris Club, the director of Žalgiris, Vilma Venslovaitienė.

We remind you that “Kauno Žalgiris” won bronze medals in league A, in which only 6 teams competed this season.

A League final tournament table (place, team, matches, wins, draws, losses, goals scored, goals lost, ratio of goals, points)