N. Kesminas: "Yesterday's Lithuanian episodes can be shown to children"

2025-03-25 15:58

Sports journalist Nerijus Kesminas assessed the performance of the Lithuanian national team in the World Cup qualifying match against Finland.

"Since ancient times, people have been coating their wooden ship hulls with various resins in layers. This was to avoid having to bail water out of a leaky hold in the middle of the seas.

In the World Cup qualifying match against the Finns in Kaunas, the Lithuanian footballers decided not to use the wisdom of the old, for in the first 20 minutes, they conceded two goals.

They conceded in such a style that the Finnish television director could have easily aired some old Hollywood sitcom laughter instead of comments.

Watching the scene, an old nostalgia creeped in - don’t be mad at an old grumbler with four decades of amateur football experience - nostalgic analogies. Where have the times gone when, seeing Andrius Skerla and Tomas Žvirgždauskas on the field, you knew: we probably won’t score anything, but they’ll have to work really hard?

The episodes of yesterday’s Lithuanian play could be shown to children to teach them how not to defend. And not just in goal situations - there were other moments when Finns received exquisite passes from Lithuanian players in their own third of the field, but they did not take advantage of them.

Perhaps one could suggest the absence of Artemijus Tutyskinas, with whom the defense was mobile, flexible, and focused last week in Poland. But it is not worth drawing cosmic conclusions from a single match, nor criminalizing the importance of one player to the team.

Everything is not necessarily as it seemed to an emotional enthusiast during the game. If you see a fly buzzing on a mirror’s glass, it doesn’t always mean that the glass is hopelessly dirty.

Yesterday, the Lithuanian football ship had to be saved in an emergency in the middle of the seas. They succeeded. Armandas Kučys and Gvidas Gineitis scored, ending a streak of seven consecutive defeats.

"No goals? None. What to do? Nothing, unless you have other suggestions.

Wait. Wait for the potential of Armandas Kučys and Gvidas Gineitis to turn into real numbers in the goal column.

Both have plenty of time - we’re talking about guys who, just a couple of years ago, by the laws of the Republic of Lithuania, wouldn’t have been served beer in a bar."

This is from my collection of astrological visions from last week. A bit unexpected, but bingo - it turns out waiting was only necessary for a couple of days.

"In summary - the Polish team is not yet a morsel that the young Edgar Jankauskas’ team could chew and digest. Yes, they did not bring points back from Warsaw, but the time when those points will come is approaching.

When? On Monday. Our boys can certainly strip the Finns at home or at least avoid losing to them.”

This is also from my review of the matches in Poland. And yes, they managed to hit the target too,” wrote the journalist.