© EuroFootball.com
On Wednesday in Šiauliai, the official presentation of the "Šiauliai" team for the 2006 season took place.
Compared to previous years, there are 8 new faces on the team - defender or midfielder Vilius Lapeikis returned to Šiauliai from "Atlantas" in Klaipėda, Belarusian goalkeeper Viktor Afanasenko moved from Marijampolė, and Latvian U-21 national team goalkeeper Ingus Lukovičs joined.
The club was also supplemented by three foreign players from Ukraine: midfielder Vadimas Tarasovas and brothers - defender Sergej and forward Ilja Galiuzos. The latest additions to the team are Russians - defender Konstantinas Zemskovas from the Kaliningrad football school and forward Stanislavas Žukovas from Samara.
Young players are expected to provide competition for the main team players in the near future.
Team leaders are hopeful that the team will perform better in the new season than last year. One of the owners of FK, Darius Vyšniauskas, said that the team's goal is to qualify for the Baltic League.
"Any lower position will be a disappointment for me. We know that other teams have also significantly strengthened. But a team that does not aim for the top goals is a bad team. If we had this team last year, we would probably set even higher goals. I believe we can compete with all teams," said D.Vyšniauskas about the season's goals.
Adomas Klimavičius, who has been working with the Šiauliai basketball team for over 10 years and is now contributing to the revival of Šiauliai football, said that the most important thing is for the players to be united.
"We hope to finish higher than last year and that the team's fans will leave the stadium smiling more often after the matches. And I wish the footballers not to look at each other, but to fight for their friends as they would for themselves," said A.Klimavičius.
The head coach of "Šiauliai", Saulius Vertelis, emphasized that in the matches in Šiauliai, only the highest goals will be set: "It has long been known that no team can play relaxed in Šiauliai. First of all, if we want to achieve our goals, we need to lose as few points as possible on our pitch. We will do everything to make the guests not feel welcome in our stadium."
One of the legionnaires, Ilja Galiuza, who played with Odesa's "Chornomorets" a few years ago and won a ticket to the highest Ukrainian league with his brother, has even more ambitious goals for himself and the team: "I think we should aim for medals. Of course, luck should also be on our side."
The team's captain for the second consecutive year, Deivydas Lunskis, hopes that the team will quickly find common ground in playing: "During the season, we had a few setbacks due to injuries, we did not play in full force in any official matches, several players joined the team later than others, but I hope we will be able to play well together soon."
This year, the Šiauliai team signed a contract with a sportswear manufacturer from Germany - "JAKO". Almost a decade ago, the legendary players of "Kareda" wore the clothing of this company.
This year, the Šiauliai stadium is promised to be modernized: the main stand will be covered, ticket sales and permanent toilets are promised to be installed.
Šiauliai will begin their battles in the "A League" this Saturday in Panevėžys - there they will face the footballers of "Ekranas" who will defend their championship title. It is worth mentioning that in the last round of the previous season, Šiauliai defeated "Ekranas" 5-1 in Panevėžys, but at that time many of the main team players were missing from the ranks of Panevėžys.
Football will return to Šiauliai on April 19 when Šiauliai will play at home against Kėdainiai's "Nevėžis", who were the underdogs of the previous season.
