© EuroFootball.com
On Sunday, in the "Sportima" arena in Vilnius, a friendly match took place between the FBK "Kaunas" reserve team and the team of "Šiauliai", who finished eighth in the "A League" last season. The match ended goalless.
0 - 0 "Kauno Jėgėriai"
Composition of "Šiauliai" in the first half: G.Arlauskis; Valys, Strockis, Žukauskas, Oriol; Juodeikis, Kuklys; Olišauskas, Timinskas, Šilėnas; Mirauskas;
Composition of "Šiauliai" in the second half: Lukovičs; Atigbiolaye, Pšelenskis, Lunskis, Lapeikis; D.Arlauskis, Lukoševičius; Butavičius, Tarasov, A.Garuckas; Mirauskas (60` P.Šidlauskas);
Although originally it was planned that the friendly match would be played between last year's champions "Kaunas" and "Šiauliai", the main players of the Kaunas team had to leave earlier for a training camp in Turkey due to a change in the flight dates, so they played against the reserve team of "Kauno Jėgėriai" instead.
Both teams started the match cautiously, and the first real chance to score a goal came only in the middle of the first half, when Gediminas Timinskas of "Šiauliai" attempted a shot. Later, this player, who was closely watched, tried his luck from afar, but his shot lacked accuracy.
The second half of the match was more active: after playing for five minutes, there was a near miss with a shot from Gediminas Butavičius aiming for the Kaunas goal, but he missed. Ten minutes later, the young M.Lukoševičius tested the goalkeeper's reaction from about 12 meters away.
These attacks seemed to wake up the Kaunas players, who created two very dangerous counterattacks: first, a missed chance from the left side, and then a shot from about 20 meters over the goal.
However, the last dangerous moment in the match was created by the more active Šiauliai team - last season's "Rodiklis" of Kaunas, Davidas Arlauskis, tested the Kaunas goalkeeper's reaction with a shot from about 20 meters away.
In these matches, the Šiauliai team played with just one forward for 60 minutes, the young striker Audrius Mirauskas, who participated in the review. Last season, playing for the reserves of "Atlantas" in the I League, he scored 12 goals, while appearing 5 times in the main team.
After the match, Šiauliai coach Darius Magdišauskas was not disappointed with the result: "The goal of the match was to test all the possible candidates for the main team. While we will give all the players a chance to perform in three or four matches, the main 18 team players are already standing out."
"In these matches, the lack of a good forward once again became evident," said D.Magdišauskas. "At the moment, we have a very talented forward in review, Audrius Mirauskas, but he is not yet fully prepared."
The coach said he was most satisfied with the performance of the defenders, pleased that the players looked good, even though it was only the second time they played on artificial turf this year.
"We are in negotiations with several arenas to be able to train twice a week on artificial turf," added the coach.
Asked if they have candidates in mind for the forward position, the coach, who returned from Sweden to Šiauliai, replied: "I don't want to reveal any names, but there are several foreigners in mind. These are strong men over 190 centimeters tall, who could 'hang on to the ball' and help in set-piece situations."
According to the coach, in the near future, Šiauliai should play friendly matches with one foreign and one Lithuanian team, but he refused to name the teams until negotiations are finalized.
It is worth noting that the Šiauliai football players played a friendly match in Latvia a week and a half ago, where they also played a goalless draw against the Latvian champions "Ventspils" with a less powerful lineup.
