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Today, the 2005 NFKA "A League" championship season starts with four matches in Lithuanian stadiums. Although its start was originally scheduled for April 3rd, due to poor weather conditions, the beginning of the season was decided to be postponed, so the first round of the championship will be played on a somewhat unusual day, which is Tuesday.
The first match of the new "A League" season will see the home team and the Kėdainiai "Nevėžis" footballers take the field at the "Vėtros" stadium in Vilnius. It is interesting how the circumstances of both clubs unfolded as the start of the 2005 championship approached - "Vėtra" had already assembled their team, found coach S.Borovskis, and prepared quietly for the season.
Meanwhile, "Nevėžis" for a while did not know if they would even play in the league, and finally, at the end of March, after receiving a license, strengthened their team with new players borrowed from "Kaunas" - Georgian A.Khubutia, Ukrainian O.Dorošenko, and experienced goalkeeper M.Poškus. However, on the eve of the season, the head coach of the team, V.Stankevičius, resigned, and on the last day, the Kėdainiai club appointed V.Vaškūnas in his place.
The slightly renewed season starts with "Ekranas," maintaining the same youthful core of the team and aiming for gold medals again. In the first match, the Panevėžys team will play at home against the "Vilnius" club, which in the offseason was reinforced with a legion of foreign players and will be guided by a new coach, K.Latoža. This 5:00 PM game will be broadcast live on Tango TV from the Aukštaitija stadium.
At 5:00 PM, the first home matches will also start for the newly coached Klaipėda "Atlantas" and Vilnius "Žalgiris" clubs, facing Marijampolė "Sūduva" and "Šilutė" respectively. The strengthened Suvalkai team will have their first serious test against last season's bronze medalists "Atlantas", while "Žalgiris" reinforced with "Kaunas" players and "Šilutė" will face each other.
The defending champions "Kaunas" will start their match with the ambitious "Šiauliai" at 6:30 PM. This will be the third consecutive meeting between these teams - previously, Kaunas won in the quarterfinals of the LFF Cup, the second ended in a draw after a dramatic duel, so "Šiauliai" were eliminated from the tournament and now have a chance for revenge.
