2010 Latvian Higher League

2010 Latvian Higher League (Latvian: LMT Virslīga 2010) was the 19th season of top-tier football in Latvia. It began on 9 April 2010 with the first round of games. Liepājas Metalurgs were the defending champions, having won their second league title last season.

Latvian Higher League
Season2010
ChampionsSkonto Riga
15th title
RelegatedTranzīts Ventspils
Jaunība Riga
Champions LeagueSkonto Riga
Europa LeagueVentspils
Liepājas Metalurgs
Daugava Daugavpils
Baltic LeagueSkonto Riga
Ventspils
Liepājas Metalurgs
Daugava Daugavpils
FK Jūrmala-VV
Jelgava
Matches played135
Goals scored416 (3.08 per match)
Top goalscorerNathan Júnior
Deniss Rakels
(18 goals each)
Biggest home winMetalurgs 8–0 Jaunība
Biggest away winJaunība 0–9 RFS/Olimps
Highest scoringJaunība 0–9 RFS/Olimps
← 2009
2011 →

With the re-expansion of the league to 10 clubs, the format of the competition was altered for the third year in a row. The ten clubs played 18 rounds of matches, once at home and once away, against each of the other nine clubs in the league. After this, another nine rounds of matches were played for a total of 27 matches. The clubs finishing in the first five positions after 18 rounds received the benefit of hosting five of their last nine matches.[1]

Teams

Due to a match fixing scandal last season, Dinaburg FC were excluded from the Latvian Higher League and were relegated to the Latvian First League.[2][3]

Promoted to the Higher League from the First Division automatically were last season's First Division champions, Jelgava.

Daugava Rīga finished in 8th place in last year's Higher League competition and competed in a promotion/relegation playoff against the runners-up of the First Division, Jaunība Rīga. Jaunība Rīga won this two-legged playoff 1–1 (1–0 on away goals scored) and won promotion to the Higher League for this season and Daugava Rīga was relegated to the First Division.

Despite finishing last year's First Division competition in 9th place, Daugava Daugavpils were offered a place in this year's Higher League competition, which the club accepted.

Team summaries
Location of teams in the 2010 Latvian Higher League
Club Location Stadium Capacity Current manager
FC Daugava Daugavpils Daugava Stadium (Daugavpils) 3,500 Tamaz Pertia
FK Jaunība Riga Daugava Stadium (Riga) 5,000 Sergejs Davidovs
FK Jelgava Jelgava Zemgales Olimpiskais Sporta Centrs 1,560 Dainis Kazakevičs
FK Jūrmala-VV Jūrmala Slokas Stadium 5,000 Vladimirs Babičevs
FK Ventspils Ventspils Olimpiskais Stadium 3,200 Nunzio Zavettieri
JFK Olimps/RFS Riga Latvijas Universitates Stadions 5,000 Mihails Miholaps
Metalurgs Liepāja Daugava Stadium (Liepāja) 5,500 Rüdiger Abramczik
SK Blāzma Rēzekne Sporta Aģentūras Stadions 3,000 Eriks Grigjans
Skonto FC Riga Skonto Stadium 10,000 Aleksandrs Starkovs
FC Tranzit Ventspils Ventspils 2. pamatskolas stadions 500 Igor Kichigin

League table
Pos Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts Qualification or relegation
1 Skonto (C) 27 22 3 2 86 16 +70 69 Qualification for Champions League second qualifying round
2 Ventspils 27 20 3 4 68 18 +50 63 Qualification for Europa League second qualifying round[lower-alpha 1]
3 Liepājas Metalurgs 27 19 4 4 70 20 +50 61 Qualification for Europa League second qualifying round
4 Daugava Daugavpils 27 16 8 3 35 16 +19 56 Qualification for Europa League first qualifying round[lower-alpha 1]
5 Jūrmala-VV 27 8 4 15 30 45 −15 28
6 Jelgava 27 6 7 14 36 45 −9 25
7 Blāzma Rēzekne 27 7 3 17 27 57 −30 24
8 Olimps/RFS 27 5 6 16 31 63 −32 21
9 Tranzīts Ventspils (R) 27 5 4 18 17 56 −39 19 Qualification for relegation play-offs
10 Jaunība Rīga (R) 27 4 4 19 16 80 −64 16 Relegation to Latvian First League
Source: Latvian Football Federation (in Latvian)
Rules for classification: 1st points; 2nd head-to-head points; 3rd head-to-head goal difference; 4th overall wins; 5th goal difference; 6th goals scored
(C) Champion; (R) Relegated.
Notes:
  1. Ventspils won the 2010–11 Latvian Football Cup competition and qualified for the second qualifying round of UEFA Europa League, so 4th-place Daugava Daugavpils qualified for the first qualifying round.

Results

Regular home/away matches
Aleksejs Soleičuks tries to block a shot by Vitalijus Kavaliauskas on a goal guarded by Jevgēņijs Sazanovs in the match between SK Liepājas Metalurgs and FC Tranzit
Home \ Away BLĀ DGD JAU JEL JVV LIE RFS SKO TRA VEN
Blāzma Rēzekne 3–1 1–2 0–0 0–4 1–4 2–0 1–3 2–0 0–5
FC Daugava Daugavpils 2–0 1–0 1–1 1–0 1–1 2–0 1–1 2–0 1–0
Jaunība Rīga 0–1 1–1 1–1 0–2 2–3 0–9 0–3 1–0 0–5
Jelgava 4–0 3–3 4–1 1–2 1–2 4–0 0–5 2–1 1–2
FK Jūrmala-VV 0–0 0–1 0–1 2–1 1–2 2–2 0–4 2–1 1–4
SK Liepājas Metalurgs 4–0 0–1 4–0 3–1 1–2 4–0 1–2 2–0 0–0
Olimps/RFS 2–1 1–1 2–2 2–1[lower-alpha 1] 0–2 0–3 1–3 0–1 0–3
Skonto FC 6–0 1–0 7–0 4–1 4–2 0–0 6–1 5–0 1–0
Tranzīts Ventspils 3–1 0–1 2–0 1–1 1–1 0–4 2–2 0–2 0–2
Ventspils 1–0 1–1 5–0 2–1 1–0 2–4 7–0 2–1 2–0
Source: Latvian Football Federation (in Latvian)
Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.
Notes:
  1. Jelgava were assigned as home team for both first and second round of matches against Olimps/RFS for unknown reasons; this match was the latter of these two and has been put in this table cell for organisational reasons.

Extra home matches
Home \ Away BLĀ DGD JAU JEL JVV LIE RFS SKO TRA VEN
Blāzma Rēzekne 2–1 2–3 1–1 1–4
FC Daugava Daugavpils 3–1 3–1 2–0 1–0 0–1
Jaunība Rīga 0–4 0–1 2–2 0–1
Jelgava 2–0 0–1 0–0 2–4
FK Jūrmala-VV 0–1 1–1 1–4 0–3 0–2
SK Liepājas Metalurgs 0–0 8–0 3–0 2–1 1–2
Olimps/RFS 0–2 2–1 0–2 0–3
Skonto FC 0–1 6–0 2–1 4–0 2–2
Tranzīts Ventspils 0–3 2–3 0–6 0–6
Ventspils 2–0 4–1 3–1 0–1 5–0
Source: Latvian Football Federation (in Latvian)
Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.

Relegation play-offs

At season's end, the 9th place club in the Latvian Higher League, Tranzīts Ventspils, was supposed to face the runners-up of the Latvian First League, FC Jūrmala, in a two-legged playoff, with the winner being awarded a spot on next year's Higher League competition. However, before this playoff began, the LFF received information from Tranzits that it would not participate in the playoff and, further, was forfeiting its place in the Latvian Higher League. Because of this, FC Jurmala achieved promotion to the Higher League automatically.

Top goalscorers

Source: LMT Virslīga 2010 (in Latvian)

18 goals
15 goals
12 goals
11 goals
9 goals
8 goals

* Players in italics left the clubs they are listed in during the season.

Awards

Monthly awards
Player of the Month
Month Player Club
April[4] Artūrs Karašausks Skonto
May[5] Oļegs Malašenoks Jelgava
June[6] Nathan Júnior Skonto
July[7] Kaspars Dubra Skonto
August Jurijs Žigajevs Ventspils
September Aleksandrs Cauņa Skonto
October/November Jurijs Žigajevs Ventspils

Golden boot

Nathan Júnior from Skonto also scored 18 goals during the season, but while Rakels had scored all his goals from game-play, Junior netted 3 goals from the penalty spot.

Team of the tournament

(Selected by www.sportacentrs.com)

Goalkeepers: Marks Bogdanovs (Jelgava), Kaspars Ikstens (Skonto Riga)

Defenders: Jevgēņijs Simonovs (Daugava Daugavpils), Kaspars Dubra (Skonto Riga), Tomas Tamošauskas (Liepājas Metalurgs), Vitālijs Maksimenko (Skonto Riga), Māris Smirnovs (Tranzit Ventspils), Yuriy Shelenkov (Daugava Daugavpils)

Midfielders: Ruslan Mingazov (Skonto Riga), Jurijs Žigajevs (Ventspils), Arturs Zjuzins (Ventspils), Valērijs Afanasjevs (Daugava Daugavpils), Michael Tukura (Ventspils), Takafumi Akahoshi (Liepājas Metalurgs)

Forwards: Nathan Júnior (Skonto Riga), Deniss Rakels (Liepājas Metalurgs), Daniils Turkovs (Skonto Riga), Oļegs Malašenoks (Jelgava)

Best player awards

Organization
  • Fair-play award: Skonto Riga
  • The best matches' organization: Skonto Riga
  • The best referee: Andrejs Sipailo and Harijs Gudermanis (assistant)

See also

References
  1. (in Latvian)
  2. "Динабург" исключен из чемпионата Латвии и Балтийской Лиги (in Russian)
  3. LFF measures in FC Dinaburg case
  4. "Artūrs Karašausks – LMT Virslīgas labākais spēlētājs aprīlī". LFF. 2 May 2010. Retrieved 3 May 2010.
  5. ""LMT Virslīgas" labākais spēlētājs maijā – Malašenoks". sportacentrs.com. 7 June 2010. Retrieved 7 June 2010.
  6. "Natans Žuniors – LMT Virslīgas labākais spēlētājs jūnijā". LFF. Retrieved 22 August 2010.
  7. "Kaspars Dubra atzīts par labāko spēlētāju jūlijā". LFF. Retrieved 22 August 2010.
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