Polonia Vilnius plays in new season of First League!

After a long and frosty break, football comes back to Lithuanian stadiums. Earlier, 9 teams had begun competing in the League A, now teams fighting at its back, which means in the First League, come back. It seems that the 2013 season will be really exciting, since 12 teams will fight for the title of the winner.

On March 28^th the Executive Committee of Lithuanian Football Federation confirmed the composition of the league, in which 6 teams from the previous season will play („Lietava”, „Nevėžis” from Kėdainiai, FK „Trakai”, „Polonia” Vilnius, FK „Šilutė” and FK „Palanga”) and six teams, for which this is going to be a debut: „Lokomotyvas” from Radviliškis, „Klaipėdos Granitas”, „Šilas” from Kazlų Rūda, „Spyris” from Kaunas, „Baltija” from Panevėžys and VMFD „Žalgiris-3”.

Two teams —„Klaipėdos Granitas” and „Polonia” from Vilnius — entered into the season with three points less on their accounts (it is a penalty for not following the license requirements). Apart from taking away three points at the beginning of the season, both teams were charged with a fine of 1000 litas. Thanks to the help of Polish friends, during the match between Polonia Warszawa and Lechia Gdańsk, the supporters of the Black Shirts collected 1 200 PLN to pay this fine.

Until that time, players of Polonia Vilnius were not sitting with their hands, or rather legs, folded. The club, during the preparation time, played three friendly matches: it won in three and in one, after a fight, it lost. The first match took place on VSSS stadium with „Gariūnai”. Polonia won 2:1 (the goals were scored by R. Tamarin and A. Wilkicki). In the next match Polonia Vilnius crushed “Bekentas”, playing in the second league, with a score 7:0 (the goals for Polonia were scored by G. Viktoravičius (2), Ž. Kirsys (3) and R. Tamarin.)

Unfortunately, our team did not manage to keep the series of victories. In the cold morning (thermometers were showing -13 C!) on the LFF stadium, at the end of the match, Polonia gave up to the VMFD „Žalgiris-3” team by one point. As the next match showed that failure was an accident. In the meeting with the young team of the Vilnius „Granitas” Polonia scoder five goals (A. Moliškevičius (2), R. Tamarin, E.  Daraškevičius and Ž. Kirsys one goal each) and lost only one. All we are left with is hoping that Polonia Vilnius will continue winning and that it will go further in sports achievements throughout the whole upcoming season.

On April 8^th we were able to see the inauguration match of the First Lithuanian League and Polonia Vilnius had the chance to take a revenge for the only lost match in the preparation time.

Late at night, on Monday, April 8^th, on the LFF Stadium (Stadiono 2 Street, Vilnius) VMFD „Žalgiris-3” played with Polonia Vilnius. The federation, when setting up the schedule, apparently had no doubt which matches would be the most exciting ones in the season. It is enough to remind you the June “friendly” match of the basic team of “Žalgiris” with Polonia.

There is one certain thing – there was a lot of emotion. The match was not a friendly one anymore and both teams had a lot to prove. The youth from “Žalgiris” wanted to show that they are worthy successors of the basic team and it was not an accident that they appeared on backstage of the Lithuanian Extra League. There was more motivation, though: to remove the penalty of three points in the very first match and start collecting important points; the honest desire to revenge and to prove the fans that in the season the  team can reach the podium of the First League. We have to say that since the moment of the release of the schedule of matches, fans of both teams have had higher blood pressure. And to think that this state of matters it to last for half a year! The season will be really exciting.

Aleksander Sudujko

Source: http://kurierwilenski.lt/2013/04/02/polonia-wilno-startuje-w-nowych-sezonie-i-ligi/

Tłumaczenie Emilia Zawieracz w ramach praktyk w Europejskiej Fundacji Praw Człowieka, www.efhr.eu. Translated by Emilia Zawieracz within the framework of a traineeship programme of the European Foundation of Human Rights, www.efhr.eu.