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Football returns to Lithuanian stadiums. On Saturday in Kaunas, A league football players will kick off with the new official league ball "Nike Maxim". The 2013 national championships will be started.
In the first round, eight out of nine league teams will show themselves to the fans over the weekend. The country's vice-champion Vilnius "Žalgiris" will start the season with the second round match at home against Klaipėda "Atlantas" on March 12.
Since the A league season starts right after March 8, women are invited to the first round matches in Kaunas, Marijampolė, Tauragė, and Gargždai for free.
Alytus "Dainava" - Panevėžys "Ekranas". March 9 at 14:00 Kaunas, National Football Academy Stadium.
The country's champion starts the season with re-arranged ranks - "Ekranas" no longer has goalkeeper Emilijus Zubas, defenders Ignas Dedura, Mantas Samusiovas, Yani Urdinov, Vytautas Lukša, and Marko Andelkovičius, but newcomers have come in their place - defenders Vaidas Slavickas and Spaniard Oscaras Reyesas, safeties Donatas Petrauskas and Latvian Igoris Kozlovas.
With increased club budget, coaches Gediminas Jarmalavičius and Virginijus Sinkevičius' experience, and publicly announced ambitions to take a higher place than last year's seventh, suggests that "Dainava" will be determined to compete with one of the A league favorites. The match will be played in Kaunas on artificial turf because the weather conditions for playing in Alytus are not suitable.
Marijampolė's "Sūduva" - Klaipėda "Atlantas". March 9 at 19:00 Marijampolė. "Arvi" Football Arena.
Injuries plagued "Sūduva" in the off-season, and they will start the season without the injured Rafael Ledesma and Marius Šoblinskas. The team, without defenders V.Slavicko, Valdemaras Borovskis, and Sergejus Loginov, safeties Tadas Eliošius and Andrius Urbšys, forward Povilas Lukšys, has been supplemented with legionnaires from Italy, Croatia, China, Lebanon, but there is significantly less experience in the team. Therefore, the first challenge for the team coached by Darius Gvildys seems to be intriguing. The completely renewed and significantly strengthened "Atlantas" travels to Suvalkija, led by Russian coach Konstantin Sarsanija with Tadas Eliošius and Andrius Urbšys among his team.
Tauragė's "Tauras" - Pakruojis "Kruoja". March 10 at 13:00 Tauragė. "Tauro" artificial turf stadium.
Already in the first round, two A league teams will meet face to face, making it probably the most difficult to predict their abilities. "Kruoja", which changed shareholders in the off-season and even doubted at one point if they would return to the elite league, decided to try again. They took 16 players to their training camp in Italy, where they plan to add some legionnaires who left a good impression in trials. The search for quality legionnaires was one of the main work areas for "Tauras", the team under the most financial pressure in the league. The Tauragians, along with their coach Šenderis Giršovas, who returned after many years, like all other teams, have until March 31 to finalize their squad when the transfer period officially closes.
Gargždai "Banga" - "Šiauliai". March 10 at 15:00 Gargždai. City Stadium.
Two of the most rejuvenated teams in the off-season will try to show their new potential. "Šiauliai" starts the season without their rival killer Artūras Rimkevičius, who scored 35 goals last season in the league, and a host of other former leaders, but with several newcomers from Croatia and former Lithuania youth national team players Mantas Fridrikas, Armin Vaskela, and young coach Tomas Kančelskis.
In "Banga", most of the veterans are also gone. On the other hand, striker Gajus Kulbis has returned to Gargždai, the team has been supplemented by several young Georgians, and the club's leaders seem determined - the goal for "Banga" is to take a higher place than in 2012 when Gargždai, one could say, traditionally finished sixth.
