Latvia national football team

Latvia

Association	Latvian Football Federation
Confederation	UEFA (Europe)
Head coach	Aleksandrs Starkovs
Captain	Vitālijs Astafjevs
Most caps	Vitālijs Astafjevs (162)
Top scorer	Māris Verpakovskis (26)
Home stadium	Skonto stadions
FIFA code	LVA
FIFA ranking	49
Highest FIFA ranking	45 (November 2009)
Lowest FIFA ranking	111 (July 2007)
Elo ranking	70
Highest Elo ranking	45 (September 1938)
Lowest Elo ranking	124 (April 1995)
Home colours Away colours
First international
Latvia 1 - 1 Estonia  (Riga, Latvia; 24 September 1922)
Biggest win
Latvia 8 - 0 Estonia  (Tallinn, Estonia; 18 August 1942)
Biggest defeat
Sweden 12 - 0 Latvia (Stockholm, Sweden; 29 May 1927)
European Championship
Appearances	1 (First in 2004)
Best result	Round 1, 2004

The Latvian national football team (Valstsvienība in Latvian) is controlled by the Latvian Football Federation, the governing body for football in Latvia and represents the country in international football competitions, such as World Cup and the European Championships. So far, they have never qualified for a FIFA World Cup, but have qualified for one European Championship, in 2004.

History

Latvia played their first match in 1922, a game against Estonia; the result was a 1-1 draw. Latvia are the only Baltic team that has qualified for a European Championship and have won the Baltic Cup 19 times. Latvia in its pre-war period from 1922 to 1940 played 99 official games.

In 1937, the Latvian team participated in the first qualification tournament for the 1938 FIFA World Cup. Latvia were seeded in Group 8 with Austria and Lithuania. Latvia beat Lithuania 4-2 in Riga (Goals: Fricis Kaņeps 9', 52', 83'; Iļja Vestermans 50' - Gudelis 79', Pavilionis 90') and then won 5-1 in Kaunas (Kaņeps 4', 45' (penalty); Vaclavs Borduško 11', 30'; Vestermans 67' - Pavilionis 72'), but lost 1-2 in the decisive match with Austria. Goals by Iļja Vestermans at the 6th minute for Latvia, and by Binder at 33' and Jerusalem at 15'. In April 1938 the Austrian Anschluss relegated the Austrian team, but the team of Latvia was not invited by FIFA as the group's runner-up.

In 1940, Latvia was annexed by the Soviet Union; the country regained its independence in 1991 and played their first match as a new nation against Estonia on November 16 of that year in the Baltic Cup, and their first FIFA-recognized match against Romania on April 8, 1992, a 0-2 loss at Bucharest.

Latvia were surprise qualifiers for the 2004 European Football Championship. After coming second in their qualifying group (ahead of Poland) they defeated 2002 World Cup semi-finalists Turkey in a playoff to reach the final tournament. They were drawn into group D with Germany, Czech Republic, and the Netherlands. On June 15, 2004, Latvia played Czech Republic and took half-time lead with a goal from Māris Verpakovskis. The Czechs would later come back to win the game 2-1. Four days later Latvia earned a respectable draw 0-0 against Germany to earn their first point in a major tournament. Latvia later lost to the Netherlands 3-0 and were eliminated with one point from their draw and two losses.

In the qualifying for World Cup 2006, Latvia were in group 3 with Portugal, Slovakia, Russia, Estonia, Liechtenstein, and Luxembourg. Latvia were considered as a small threat for the playoff spot. However, they failed to show any surprises as they did in Euro 2004 and failed to qualify for World Cup 2006 finishing fifth with 15 points from four wins, three draws and five losses.

Vitālijs Astafjevs has played for Latvia more times than anyone else, with 158 caps currently. Māris Verpakovskis is the nation's top goal scorer with 26. Astafjevs has netted 16 times and Marians Pahars has 15 goals.

World Cup record

• 1930 to 1934 - Did not enter
• 1938 - Did not qualify
• 1950 to 1990 - Did not enter, was part of USSR
• 1994 to 2010 - Did not qualify

European Championship record

• 1960 to 1992 - Did not enter, was part of USSR
• 1996 - Did not qualify
• / 2000 - Did not qualify
• 2004 - Round 1
• / 2008 - did not qualify

2010 FIFA World Cup qualification

Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts  Switzerland 10 6 3 1 18 8 +10 21  Greece 10 6 2 2 20 10 +10 20  Latvia 10 5 2 3 18 15 +3 17  Israel 10 4 4 2 20 10 +10 16  Luxembourg 10 1 2 7 4 25 −21 5  Moldova 10 0 3 7 6 18 −12 3

Greece  – 2 – 1 5 – 2 2 – 1 3 – 0 1 – 2 Israel  1 – 1 – 0 – 1 7 – 0 3 – 1 2 – 2 Latvia  0 – 2 1 – 1 – 2 – 0 3 – 2 2 – 2 Luxembourg  0 – 3 1 – 3 0 – 4 – 0 – 0 0 – 3 Moldova  1 – 1 1 – 2 1 – 2 0 – 0 – 0 – 2 Switzerland  2 – 0 0 – 0 2 – 1 1 – 2 2 – 0 –

UEFA Euro 2012 qualifying

Group F

Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts  Croatia 4 3 1 0 8 1 +7 10  Greece 4 2 2 0 4 2 +2 8  Georgia 4 1 3 0 3 2 +1 6  Israel 4 1 1 2 5 5 0 4  Latvia 4 1 1 2 3 5 −2 4  Malta 4 0 0 4 1 9 −8 0

Upcoming fixtures

Date	Tournament	Location	Opponent	Result	Scorers
17 November 2010	Friendly match	Beijing	China	TBD	TBD

Results and fixtures

Recent results

Date	Tournament	Location	Opponent	Result	Scorers
11 August 2010	Friendly	Liberec	Czech Republic	1:4	Aleksandrs Cauņa
19 June 2010	2010 Baltic Cup	Kaunas	Lithuania	0:0
18 June 2010	2010 Baltic Cup	Kaunas	Estonia	0:0
5 June, 2010	Friendly	Buckinghamshire	Ghana	0:1
21 May, 2010	Friendly	Riga	Latvian Youth Talents' Team	0:0
3 March, 2010	Friendly	Luanda	Angola	1:1	Ģirts Karlsons
22 January, 2010	Friendly	Malaga	South Korea	0:1
14 November, 2009	Friendly	Tegucigalpa	Honduras	1:2	Vladimirs Koļesņičenko
14 October, 2009	World Cup 2010	Riga	Moldova	3:2	Andrejs Rubins, Kristaps Grebis
10 October, 2009	World Cup 2010	Athens	Greece	2:5	Māris Verpakovskis
9 September, 2009	World Cup 2010	Riga	Switzerland	2:2	Aleksandrs Cauņa, Vitālijs Astafjevs
5 September, 2009	World Cup 2010	Ramat Gan	Israel	1:0	Kaspars Gorkšs
1 April, 2009	World Cup 2010	Riga	Luxembourg	2:0	Jurijs Žigajevs, Māris Verpakovskis
28 March, 2009	World Cup 2010	Luxembourg City	Luxembourg	4:0	Ģirts Karlsons, Aleksandrs Cauņa, Aleksejs Višņakovs, Andrejs Perepļotkins
11 February, 2009	Friendly	Limassol	Armenia	0:0
12 November, 2008	Friendly	Tallinn	Estonia	1:1	Kristaps Grebis
15 October, 2008	World Cup 2010	Riga	Israel	1:1	Vladimirs Koļesņičenko
11 October, 2008	World Cup 2010	St. Gallen	Switzerland	1:2	Deniss Ivanovs
10 September, 2008	World Cup 2010	Riga	Greece	0:2
6 September, 2008	World Cup 2010	Tiraspol	Moldova	2:1	Ģirts Karlsons, Vitālijs Astafjevs
20 August, 2008	Friendly	Urziceni	Romania	0:1
1 June, 2008	Baltic Cup 2008	Riga	Lithuania	2:1	Andrejs Perepļotkins, Vidas Alunderis (o.g.)
30 May, 2008	Baltic Cup 2008	Riga	Estonia	1:0	Juris Laizāns

Top Latvia goalscorers

Latvia coaches

Coach	Latvia career
Jānis Gilis	1992 – 1997
Revaz Dzodzuashvili	1998 – 1999
Gary Johnson	1999 – 2001
Aleksandrs Starkovs	2001 – 2004
Jurijs Andrejevs	2004 – 2007
Aleksandrs Starkovs	2007 – present

Current squad

The Folowing 21 players have been called up for the EURO 2012 qualification matches against Croatia taking place in Riga, Latvia on September 3, 2010 and Malta taking place in Ta' Qali, Attard, Malta on September 7, 2010. Kaspars Gorkšs has been named the captain for these matches.

Caps and goals correct as of 23 August, 2010.

0#0 Pos. Player Date of Birth (Age) Caps Goals Club 1 GK Aleksandrs Koļinko June 18, 1975 (1975-06-18) (age 35) 86 0 Spartak Nalchik 2 DF Oskars Kļava August 8, 1983 (1983-08-08) (age 27) 41 1 Anzhi Makhackhala 3 MF Vitālijs Astafjevs (captain) April 3, 1971 (1971-04-03) (age 39) 162 16 Skonto 4 DF Ritus Krjauklis April 23, 1986 (1986-04-23) (age 24) 7 0 Ventspils 5 MF Juris Laizāns January 6, 1979 (1979-01-06) (age 32) 104 15 Salyut Belgorod 6 DF Deniss Ivanovs January 11, 1984 (1984-01-11) (age 27) 36 2 Sivasspor 7 DF Pāvels Mihadjuks May 27, 1980 (1980-05-27) (age 30) 7 0 Liepājas Metalurgs 8 MF Aleksandrs Cauņa January 19, 1988 (1988-01-19) (age 23) 17 3 Skonto 9 FW Māris Verpakovskis October 15, 1979 (1979-10-15) (age 31) 81 26 Ergotelis 10 MF Andrejs Rubins November 26, 1978 (1978-11-26) (age 32) 109 10 Qarabağ 11 FW Ģirts Karlsons June 7, 1981 (1981-06-07) (age 29) 45 9 Inter Baku 12 GK Andris Vaņins April 30, 1980 (1980-04-30) (age 30) 32 0 Sion 13 DF Kaspars Gorkšs (captain) November 6, 1981 (1981-11-06) (age 29) 31 2 Queen's Park Rangers 14 FW Andrejs Perepļotkins December 27, 1984 (1984-12-27) (age 26) 24 3 Skonto 16 FW Artjoms Rudņevs January 13, 1988 (1988-01-13) (age 23) 4 0 Lech Poznań 17 MF Maksims Rafaļskis May 14, 1984 (1984-05-14) (age 26) 7 0 Liepājas Metalurgs 18 MF Jurijs Žigajevs November 14, 1985 (1985-11-14) (age 25) 16 1 Ventspils 19 DF Aleksandrs Fertovs February 15, 1987 (1987-02-15) (age 23) 4 0 Skonto 20 DF Vitālijs Smirnovs June 28, 1986 (1986-06-28) (age 24) 0 0 Skonto 25 MF Artis Lazdiņš May 3, 1986 (1986-05-03) (age 24) 2 0 Jelgava 30 GK Deniss Romanovs September 2, 1978 (1978-09-02) (age 32) 3 0 Khazar Lankaran

Current starting 11

Last updated on 11th of August 2010 against Czech Republic.

Vaņins

Kļava

Gorkšs

Ivanovs

Mihadjuks

Laizāns

Rafaļskis

Rubins

Perepļotkins

Karlsons

Verpakovskis

External links

• Official site of national football federation
• RSSSF archive of Latvia national team results
• RSSSF archive of most capped players and highest goalscorers
• UEFA.com

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