FA Šiauliai head coach Dainis Kazakevičs praised his team’s determination after they finally claimed their first victory of the season over Riteriai with a 2-0 win.
“We were preparing for a really tough match,” Kazakevičs said after the game. “This year in the league, we hadn’t beaten Riteriai yet — we’d had one draw and one loss. So we knew it would be difficult, and honestly, it really was.”
Kazakevičs admitted his team limited Riteriai’s chances well but found it hard to create much themselves, particularly in the first half.
“We didn’t give Riteriai many moments where they could really threaten us, but it wasn’t easy for us either,” he explained. “We scored in the first half, but you can’t say we managed to organise much more going forward. The second half was maybe a bit better for us offensively.”
A key turning point was Riteriai’s red card, which gave Šiauliai more freedom to play.
“Of course, the situation changed a bit when they got the red card. After that, we had more of the ball and could control possession. Maybe we should have scored that second goal quicker to feel more secure, but we only managed it right at the end. Still, these three points were very important for us, and now we keep moving forward.”
Riteriai surprised some by introducing two new signings straight into the starting eleven on match day, but Kazakevičs said the arrivals didn’t drastically change Riteriai’s style of play.
“Honestly, the new players haven’t really changed Riteriai’s style much yet,” he noted. “They’re still playing quite similarly to before. Maybe Varinkas is a bit more experienced, and there was a sense that Riteriai weren’t as nervous in defence. But I wouldn’t say there was a huge difference from what we’d seen before this match.”
Kazakevičs was also asked whether he’d noticed changes in Riteriai since Gintautas Vaičiūnas took over from former head coach Nikolas Vitorovic.
“It seems like the team wants to play more with the ball now, using shorter passes, compared to the start of the season when they played a lot of vertical, long balls,” he said. “Today, you could see them trying to find passes between the lines. That’s probably the biggest change so far, although it’s still early days — there have only been two games under the new coach, so we’ll see more of his ideas as time goes on.”
A key part of Šiauliai’s game plan was to attack quickly and catch Riteriai off guard — an approach that paid off with their opening goal.
“Yes, we wanted to play faster whenever possible,” Kazakevičs confirmed. “In the last game against Riteriai, our biggest problem was that they were very organised defensively, and it was really hard for us to break them down and score. We ended up with no goals. Today, we aimed to create faster transitions and find moments where we could surprise them. We also talked a lot before the match about how important our set pieces could be.”
With the victory, FA Šiauliai finally broke their winless streak against Riteriai this season — and Kazakevičs hopes this momentum will carry his team forward in the A Lyga campaign.
