In conversation with Edmunds Novickis on his Patreon, Metta’s captain Kārlis Vilnis shared his insights on what went on in the team before and after their win over RFS.
Following FK Metta‘s first win over RFS since 2017, Edmunds Novickis spoke to Metta’s 21 year old captain Kārlis Vilnis. Vilnis, who spent his entire playing career to date at FK Metta, acknowledged both the responsibility and the honour of being elected captain for this season and stated that the team does not see the win against defending Champions as some sort of a fluke:
Honestly, we believed that we can win. We won the previous two games and finally started scoring goals so we believed in ourselves and believing in ourselves is very important for overall performance of the team – how can you enter the pitch without believing that you can win? This is essential for any professional football player. At the pre-game huddle, I told the guys that, yes, they are the Champions but this is our home and we must be better here, we must win.
Continuing on the conduct of the game, Vilnis echoed post-match press conference comments by his coach, Andris Riherts, saying that while nobody likes to man-mark RFS, this is exactly what Metta did so successfully during the match.
Despite Metta falling behind on the xG for this match, they managed to catch RFS on the break and capitalise on their chance, with Rūdolfs Kļavinskis scoring his first Virslīga goals early in the second half. Following this win and much to the surprise of many pre-season predictions, Metta rose to the third place in the Latvian top tier.