© EuroFootball.com
On Sunday at 18:00 at the Gargzdai city stadium, "Banga" will meet with Klaipeda's "Atlantas".
It is the Western Lithuania derby. The neighboring Gargzdai and Klaipeda clash – probably one of the oldest derbies still alive. The disappearance of many football clubs from the Lithuanian football map interrupted the history of perhaps more impressive derbies, while the incidents from Gargzdai and Klaipeda, first meeting in the autumn of 1994, continue their battles. In the top league from 1994-2000, the teams played 13 matches - "Atlantas" won 10 times, two ended in a draw, and once "Banga" was stronger. The derby history was further complemented by a single match in 2007, when the teams met in the fourth round of the LFF Cup. The match held in Klaipeda was won by "Atlantas" with a score of 1-0.
Over the past few years, the roles of the teams have changed. In 2009, "Atlantas" along with "Kaunas" participated in the famous "demarche" and landed in the Second League, while "Banga" returned to the A League after a longer break. Face to face, the teams met again only last season, when the Klaipeda team returned to the A League after two years. However, unlike at the end of the 20th century, "Banga" was already recognized as the favorite in the face-to-face meetings. Gargzdai residents proved their dominance in all three matches - on March 20, "Banga" defeated "Atlantas" 2-1, on June 10 - 3-0, and on August 26, the Gargzdai team simply humiliated the people of Klaipeda - 5-0.
"Atlantas". At the beginning of the year, it was announced that new investors were coming to "Atlantas", and the team was taken over by Arminas Narbekovas, who had previously worked with "Banga" for the last two years. However, as the start of the season approached, a thick fog enveloped the future of the port city club. Investor names changed, and players either trained or awaited good news from V. Lekevičius at home. Finally, a few days before the start of the season, it was announced that V. Lekevičius was handing over the "Atlantas" club to his comrade, the president of the Klaipeda Football Federation, entrepreneur Romualdas Jonaičius.
This was not an easy task for him - to quickly assemble a team competing in the A League and, in the long term, to pull the club out of bankruptcy. Despite almost a month passing since the start of the season, the fog over "Atlantas" has not yet dissipated. The people of Klaipeda gathered quite powerful players (just looking at the names), but some of them (Ž.Banys, P.Šarūnas, M.Choruži, P.Leus) started to leave after the second round.
There was no place left for "Atlantas" and A. Narbekovas - the head coach was replaced by R. Norkus, who had worked with "Atlantas" last year. He faced a serious challenge - to try to quickly remove the problems caused by the chaotic preparation for the season.
There were many changes in the composition of the people of Klaipeda. Only a few players remained from the team that competed very unsuccessfully last year - K. Laukžemis, Ž. Kymantas, A. Babachin, K. Atutis. Among the newcomers, there were quite a few players from the three disbanded teams of the A League in 2011: D. Surblys and E. Užkuraitis represented "Mažeikiai", T. Jean Tratch and J. Vilavičius - "Klaipėda", E. Razulis and D. Kapustas - FBK "Kaunas". In addition, D. Arlauskis and V. Zubavičius (both of whom played for "Taure" last year) found shelter in Klaipeda clubs, as well as E. Mastianica who moved from "Žalgiris" to "Atlantas". Another player - D. Gordėj - was loaned to Klaipėda by the Vilnius club. The goalkeeper G. Štreimikis was also loaned ("Dainava").
In the first three rounds, "Atlantas" suffered two losses - 0-3 against "Šiauliai" and 0-7 against "Žalgiris" - and played a draw of 0-0 with "Dainava".
Predictions. Before the fourth round of the General Financing A League, futbolo.tv spoke with the former "Sūduva" and "Tauro" coach Gediminas Jarmalavičius. In the clash of "Banga" and "Atlantas", the coach gives a significant advantage to the Gargzdai team (70 to 30 percent). G. Jarmalavičius also praised the passionate fans of Gargzdai: "People sincerely support. Elsewhere, fans may come to stadiums with the leaders, but everyone constantly cheers for 'Banga'."
In these matches, "Banga" will have to play without Armando Dos Santos. The legionnaire was disqualified for one match in the match against REO.
