Riga FC claimed their fourth Virslīga title and first since 2020 on Friday evening, drawing 0-0 with FK Tukums 2000 to seal the championship. For Krišjānis Zviedris, who joined the club this season, it was a personal milestone – his 20th clean sheet of the campaign, and one of the biggest reasons Riga returned to the top of Latvian football after five years. For the 28-year-old goalkeeper, it was also the first major trophy he has truly earned on the pitch.
Zviedris has played in 33 of Riga’s 34 league matches so far this season, conceding only 19 goals and keeping 20 clean sheets. The goalless draw against Tukums was the decisive one – enough to secure the title. After the match, speaking to Baltic Football News, Zviedris reflected on the night with mixed emotions, showing his professionalism: “Of course, it feels amazing to lift the trophy, but personally I wanted to win the match as well – to end the evening on an even more positive note.”
It wasn’t a calm evening for the Latvian international either. Despite Riga’s dominance, missed chances in the first half kept the game open, and Zviedris had to step up several times to prevent a late upset. “The Tukums players really came here to fight – they battled for every centimeter of the pitch, so hats off to them,” he said, praising the opponents’ effort.
Zviedris made his Virslīga debut in 2016 wearing FK Liepāja colors, keeping a clean sheet in a 1–0 win over BFC Daugavpils. He represented Liepāja until 2023, with a short loan spell at Lithuanian side Atlantas in 2019. In the 2020 season, he won the Latvian Cup, but injuries forced him to miss the decisive quarter-final, semi-final, and final matches. Although he has a winner’s medal from that run, Zviedris doesn’t consider it his “real trophy”: “That one doesn’t feel fully mine. This league title is the first real one – the one where I truly played my part.”
Now, as a newly crowned champion, Zviedris’ next goal is clear: the Latvian Cup final on October 29, where Riga FC will host FK Auda. “Of course, now we want to finish the season with a double,” he said.
This year has been a turning point for the shot stopper. Along with the Virslīga title, he also became Latvia’s first-choice national team goalkeeper. Looking back, his journey wasn’t easy. After a tough stint with Finnish side SJK, he admitted after the match at Wembley in March that he had questioned whether it was worth continuing his career. “Now it’s all behind me,” he said. “The last two years have been really good – the second half of the season with Auda and now this title with Riga. To end up here, with all these emotions turning positive, means a lot.”
His first full season as a team’s clear number one came in 2022 with FK Liepāja, when he played all 36 matches. Under manager Kirill Alshevskiy, Liepāja started the campaign strongly, even leading the table after the first round, and it felt like something special could happen. But two serious injuries to key players – Mārtiņš Ķigurs and Marquese Pedroso – changed everything. Now it’s his second full season as an undisputed number one.
Looking back, when asked to compare both teams as a collective, because it felt like that early season Liepāja team and this Riga side feels similar in terms of collective in the locker room: “Yes, I’d say there are similarities, we had great collective at the start of the season, I agree. But to compare… Riga this year was just incredibly stable. If you look at the whole season – apart from a slow start – we were consistent, united, and avoided big drops. You see what kind of team you have when tough moments come, and with Riga we had no problems – no negativity, no toxicity, just a very tight group.”
And about that “slow start” – it almost cost Riga FC their season. At one point, reports suggested that head coach Adrián Guľa was on the verge of being dismissed. Asked what changed the momentum, Zviedris explained: “Personally, I always felt we were playing good football, but the ball just wouldn’t go in. Everything we tried seemed to hit the post or miss by inches, and every mistake we made was punished. It wasn’t about tactics – it was about breaking that bad run, the unlucky spell, whatever you call it. I truly believed it would turn around. And when it finally did, everything started flowing. We became more vocal in the locker room helping each other out, motivating, while more aggressive on the field, and that made a difference.”
From that point onward, Riga FC never looked back – embarking on an unbeaten run of 30 league matches on their way to the title. Zviedris, whose contract runs through next season, summed it up with quiet pride: “It’s been a long road, but this team deserves it. Now, we just want to keep winning.”
