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Wednesday marked the end of the 2005 "A Lyga" season for two clubs - as the defending champions and second place finishers "Kaunas" faced the absolute underdog "Nevėžis" in the final round of postponed matches and defeated them with a two-goal lead.
S.Darius and S.Girėnas Stadium, 20 spectators Referee - Audrius Kancleris 0 - 2 18` [0 - 1] Andrius Velička 28` [0 - 2] Andrius Velička
"Nevėžis": Jazokas; Rabikauskas (79` Petrusevičius), Vaškūnas, Januševskis (82` Jodenis), Adomaitis; Slepakovas, Kestenis, Sruogis, Činikas; Smilginas (76` Latušenka), V.Stankevičius
"Kaunas": Kurskis; Zelmikas, Manchkava, Kunevičius, Papečkys; Petrenko (90` Šulkevičius), Poderis (79` Žaliūkas), Pehlič (46` Mačiulis), Pilibaitis; Beniušis, Velička
Although the match took place in Kaunas, Kėdainiai was considered the home team, as they played their home matches at the S. Darius and S. Girėnas Sports Center stadium this season. Since there was nothing at stake for both teams and no intrigue left, this was one of the least attended matches in the "A Lyga" this season.
"Kaunas" did not field their strongest lineup against the underdogs. Due to yellow cards, defenders Tomas Kančelskis, Mindaugas Bagužis, midfielder Givis Kvaratskhelia, and forward Artūras Rimkevičius couldn't play due to injury.
Given these circumstances, the match proceeded sluggishly. Andrius Velička scored in the 18th minute to put Kaunas ahead and doubled the lead with a beautiful strike ten minutes later. Neither team managed to score more, so the match ended 0-2.
After the match, "Kaunas" coach Eugenijus Riabovas called the game sluggish and admitted that after scoring two goals in the first half, his players relaxed in the second half: "This happened because the result was achieved in the first half. The second half of the match was messy. However, our team created a lot of chances to score after the break, maybe even more than in the first half."
The coach mentioned that sometimes teams suffer greatly due to relaxation: "It's good that the Kėdainiai team couldn't score, so we didn't have any problems."
It is interesting to note that "Kaunas" defeated "Nevėžis" four times this year, but with each victory the margin decreased: starting with an 8-0 win, followed by 5-0 and 3-0 victories, and finally a narrow 2-0 win. Andrius Velička scored six of the 18 goals that Kaunas scored against Kėdainiai.
On the other hand, "Nevėžis" did not win a single game throughout the season and matched Marijampolė's "Sūduva" 1991 record of 14 winless matches, while also conceding a whopping 113 goals, ranking second only to Ukmergė's "Vienybe" who conceded 125 goals in the 1997/98 season.
