2010 Latvian Higher League
# 2010 Latvian Higher League

2010 Latvian Higher League (Latvian: LMT Virslīga 2010) was the 19th season of top-tier football in Latvia. It began on 9 April 2010 with the first round of games. Liepājas Metalurgs were the defending champions, having won their second league title last season.

With the re-expansion of the league to 10 clubs, the format of the competition was altered for the third year in a row. The ten clubs played 18 rounds of matches, once at home and once away, against each of the other nine clubs in the league. After this, another nine rounds of matches were played for a total of 27 matches. The clubs finishing in the first five positions after 18 rounds received the benefit of hosting five of their last nine matches.

## Teams

Due to a match fixing scandal last season, Dinaburg FC were excluded from the Latvian Higher League and were relegated to the Latvian First League.

Promoted to the Higher League from the First Division automatically were last season's First Division champions, Jelgava.

Daugava Rīga finished in 8th place in last year's Higher League competition and competed in a promotion/relegation playoff against the runners-up of the First Division, Jaunība Rīga. Jaunība Rīga won this two-legged playoff 1–1 (1–0 on away goals scored) and won promotion to the Higher League for this season and Daugava Rīga was relegated to the First Division.

Despite finishing last year's First Division competition in 9th place, Daugava Daugavpils were offered a place in this year's Higher League competition, which the club accepted.

### Team summaries

| Club | Location | Stadium | Capacity | Current manager |
| - | - | - | - | - |
| FC Daugava | Daugavpils | Daugava Stadium (Daugavpils) | 3,500 | Tamaz Pertia |
| FK Jaunība | Riga | Daugava Stadium (Riga) | 5,000 | Sergejs Davidovs |
| FK Jelgava | Jelgava | Zemgales Olimpiskais Sporta Centrs | 1,560 | Dainis Kazakevičs |
| FK Jūrmala-VV | Jūrmala | Slokas Stadium | 5,000 | Vladimirs Babičevs |
| FK Ventspils | Ventspils | Olimpiskais Stadium | 3,200 | Nunzio Zavettieri |
| JFK Olimps/RFS | Riga | Latvijas Universitates Stadions | 5,000 | Mihails Miholaps |
| Metalurgs | Liepāja | Daugava Stadium (Liepāja) | 5,500 | Rüdiger Abramczik |
| SK Blāzma | Rēzekne | Sporta Aģentūras Stadions | 3,000 | Eriks Grigjans |
| Skonto FC | Riga | Skonto Stadium | 10,000 | Aleksandrs Starkovs |
| FC Tranzit | Ventspils | Ventspils 2. pamatskolas stadions | 500 | Igor Kichigin |

## League table

| Pos | Team | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts | Qualification or relegation |
| - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
| 1 | Skonto (C) | 27 | 22 | 3 | 2 | 86 | 16 | +70 | 69 | Qualification for Champions League second qualifying round |
| 2 | Ventspils | 27 | 20 | 3 | 4 | 68 | 18 | +50 | 63 | Qualification for Europa League second qualifying round |
| 3 | Liepājas Metalurgs | 27 | 19 | 4 | 4 | 70 | 20 | +50 | 61 | Qualification for Europa League second qualifying round |
| 4 | Daugava Daugavpils | 27 | 16 | 8 | 3 | 35 | 16 | +19 | 56 | Qualification for Europa League first qualifying round |
| 5 | Jūrmala-VV | 27 | 8 | 4 | 15 | 30 | 45 | −15 | 28 | |
| 6 | Jelgava | 27 | 6 | 7 | 14 | 36 | 45 | −9 | 25 | |
| 7 | Blāzma Rēzekne | 27 | 7 | 3 | 17 | 27 | 57 | −30 | 24 | |
| 8 | Olimps/RFS | 27 | 5 | 6 | 16 | 31 | 63 | −32 | 21 | |
| 9 | Tranzīts Ventspils (R) | 27 | 5 | 4 | 18 | 17 | 56 | −39 | 19 | Qualification for relegation play-offs |
| 10 | Jaunība Rīga (R) | 27 | 4 | 4 | 19 | 16 | 80 | −64 | 16 | Relegation to Latvian First League |

* 1 2 Ventspils won the 2010–11 Latvian Football Cup competition and qualified for the second qualifying round of UEFA Europa League, so 4th-place Daugava Daugavpils qualified for the first qualifying round.

## Results

### Regular home/away matches

| Home \ Away | BLĀ | DGD | JAU | JEL | JVV | LIE | RFS | SKO | TRA | VEN |
| - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
| Blāzma Rēzekne | | 3–1 | 1–2 | 0–0 | 0–4 | 1–4 | 2–0 | 1–3 | 2–0 | 0–5 |
| FC Daugava Daugavpils | 2–0 | | 1–0 | 1–1 | 1–0 | 1–1 | 2–0 | 1–1 | 2–0 | 1–0 |
| Jaunība Rīga | 0–1 | 1–1 | | 1–1 | 0–2 | 2–3 | 0–9 | 0–3 | 1–0 | 0–5 |
| Jelgava | 4–0 | 3–3 | 4–1 | | 1–2 | 1–2 | 4–0 | 0–5 | 2–1 | 1–2 |
| FK Jūrmala-VV | 0–0 | 0–1 | 0–1 | 2–1 | | 1–2 | 2–2 | 0–4 | 2–1 | 1–4 |
| SK Liepājas Metalurgs | 4–0 | 0–1 | 4–0 | 3–1 | 1–2 | | 4–0 | 1–2 | 2–0 | 0–0 |
| Olimps/RFS | 2–1 | 1–1 | 2–2 | 2–1 | 0–2 | 0–3 | | 1–3 | 0–1 | 0–3 |
| Skonto FC | 6–0 | 1–0 | 7–0 | 4–1 | 4–2 | 0–0 | 6–1 | | 5–0 | 1–0 |
| Tranzīts Ventspils | 3–1 | 0–1 | 2–0 | 1–1 | 1–1 | 0–4 | 2–2 | 0–2 | | 0–2 |
| Ventspils | 1–0 | 1–1 | 5–0 | 2–1 | 1–0 | 2–4 | 7–0 | 2–1 | 2–0 | |

* ↑ Jelgava were assigned as home team for both first and second round of matches against Olimps/RFS for unknown reasons; this match was the latter of these two and has been put in this table cell for organisational reasons.

### Extra home matches

| Home \ Away | BLĀ | DGD | JAU | JEL | JVV | LIE | RFS | SKO | TRA | VEN |
| - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
| Blāzma Rēzekne | | | | | 2–1 | 2–3 | 1–1 | 1–4 | | |
| FC Daugava Daugavpils | 3–1 | | 3–1 | | 2–0 | | | | 1–0 | 0–1 |
| Jaunība Rīga | 0–4 | | | 0–1 | | | 2–2 | | 0–1 | |
| Jelgava | 2–0 | 0–1 | | | | | | | 0–0 | 2–4 |
| FK Jūrmala-VV | | | 0–1 | 1–1 | | 1–4 | 0–3 | 0–2 | | |
| SK Liepājas Metalurgs | | 0–0 | 8–0 | 3–0 | | | 2–1 | 1–2 | | |
| Olimps/RFS | | 0–2 | | 2–1 | | | | | 0–2 | 0–3 |
| Skonto FC | | 0–1 | 6–0 | 2–1 | | | 4–0 | | | 2–2 |
| Tranzīts Ventspils | 0–3 | | | | 2–3 | 0–6 | | 0–6 | | |
| Ventspils | 2–0 | | 4–1 | | 3–1 | 0–1 | | | 5–0 | |

### Relegation play-offs

At season's end, the 9th place club in the Latvian Higher League, Tranzīts Ventspils, was supposed to face the runners-up of the Latvian First League, FC Jūrmala, in a two-legged playoff, with the winner being awarded a spot on next year's Higher League competition. However, before this playoff began, the LFF received information from Tranzits that it would not participate in the playoff and, further, was forfeiting its place in the Latvian Higher League. Because of this, FC Jurmala achieved promotion to the Higher League automatically.

## Top goalscorers

Source: LMT Virslīga 2010 (in Latvian)

### 18 goals

* Deniss Rakels (Liepājas Metalurgs)
* Nathan Júnior (Skonto)

### 15 goals

* Jurijs Žigajevs (Ventspils)

### 12 goals

* Kristaps Grebis (Liepājas Metalurgs)

### 11 goals

* Oļegs Malašenoks (Jelgava)

### 9 goals

* Eduards Višņakovs (Ventspils)
* Vitalijus Kavaliauskas (Liepājas Metalurgs)

### 8 goals

* Artūrs Karašausks (Skonto)
* Andrejs Perepļotkins (Skonto)
* Ruslan Mingazov (Skonto)
* Daniils Turkovs (Skonto)
* Pavel Ryzhevski (Blāzma)
* Players in italics left the clubs they are listed in during the season.

## Awards

### Monthly awards

Player of the Month :

| Month | Player | Club |
| - | - | - |
| April | Artūrs Karašausks | Skonto |
| May | Oļegs Malašenoks | Jelgava |
| June | Nathan Júnior | Skonto |
| July | Kaspars Dubra | Skonto |
| August | Jurijs Žigajevs | Ventspils |
| September | Aleksandrs Cauņa | Skonto |
| October/November | Jurijs Žigajevs | Ventspils |

### Golden boot

* Deniss Rakels (Liepājas Metalurgs) with 18 goals.

Nathan Júnior from Skonto also scored 18 goals during the season, but while Rakels had scored all his goals from game-play, Junior netted 3 goals from the penalty spot.

### Team of the tournament

(Selected by www.sportacentrs.com)

Goalkeepers: Marks Bogdanovs (Jelgava), Kaspars Ikstens (Skonto Riga)

Defenders: Jevgēņijs Simonovs (Daugava Daugavpils), Kaspars Dubra (Skonto Riga), Tomas Tamošauskas (Liepājas Metalurgs), Vitālijs Maksimenko (Skonto Riga), Māris Smirnovs (Tranzit Ventspils), Yuriy Shelenkov (Daugava Daugavpils)

Midfielders: Ruslan Mingazov (Skonto Riga), Jurijs Žigajevs (Ventspils), Arturs Zjuzins (Ventspils), Valērijs Afanasjevs (Daugava Daugavpils), Michael Tukura (Ventspils), Takafumi Akahoshi (Liepājas Metalurgs)

Forwards: Nathan Júnior (Skonto Riga), Deniss Rakels (Liepājas Metalurgs), Daniils Turkovs (Skonto Riga), Oļegs Malašenoks (Jelgava)

### Best player awards

* Goalkeeper: Kaspars Ikstens (Skonto Riga)
* Defender: Vitālijs Smirnovs (Skonto Riga)
* Midfielder: Jurijs Žigajevs (Ventspils)
* Forward: Nathan Júnior (Skonto Riga)
* Manager of the season: Aleksandrs Starkovs (Skonto Riga)
* The best youth player (under the age of 21): Artūrs Zjuzins (Ventspils)
* Player of the season: Jurijs Žigajevs (Ventspils)

### Organization

* Fair-play award: Skonto Riga
* The best matches' organization: Skonto Riga
* The best referee: Andrejs Sipailo and Harijs Gudermanis (assistant)
