Marked for Davis Dubra
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings3 May 2027
Successful dribbles: 43. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad3 May 2027
Eduards Bulvitis damages knee ligaments — 114 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 114 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Market3 May 2027
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Player ratings3 May 2027
Two goals and a mark of 8.70 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Squad3 May 2027
Darluis Paz was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Match1 May 2027
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Davis Dubra. 2‑0 against Metta/LU, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Squad3 May 2027
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Squad3 May 2027
The award goes to Gatis Ciganovs, and nobody around here is inclined to argue with the choice.
Player ratings3 May 2027
Chances created: 7. Not on the scoresheet and not remotely anonymous — a passing performance that pulled a defence apart without leaving a mark on the column that gets read.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad26 Apr 2027
Eduards Bulvitis damages knee ligaments — 121 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 121 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Market26 Apr 2027
Sören Dutoit hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Jelgava can pretend not to have heard.
Match26 Apr 2027
Jelgava sink to position 5
8 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.
Squad26 Apr 2027
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Player ratings26 Apr 2027
Successful dribbles: 26. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad26 Apr 2027
Bart Straalman was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad26 Apr 2027
Daniel Krch falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Match24 Apr 2027
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Gatis Ciganovs. 2‑1 against Daugavpils, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Player ratings26 Apr 2027
Ninety minutes of Gatis Ciganovs at his very best
Marked 8.05. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Jelgava.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad12 Apr 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Eduards Bulvitis
135 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Jelgava lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match7 Apr 2027
Jelgava bow out of the cup
Spartaks go through and Jelgava go home, 0‑2 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
Match10 Apr 2027
The wait goes on for Jelgava
6 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Squad12 Apr 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Jelgava this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match10 Apr 2027
Jelgava leaking at the back
4 matches, two or more conceded in every one of them. Sides that create as much as this can live with it for a while. Nobody lives with it forever.
Match10 Apr 2027
Skonto left with the points after a 1‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad12 Apr 2027
The manager makes an example of Sören Dutoit
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Player ratings12 Apr 2027
Davis Dubra ran the middle of the pitch — 6.72
He won it back and then made something of it, which is two jobs and the reason the scoreline looks the way it does. 11 combined actions and a mark of 6.72, and not one of them will make a highlights package.
Squad12 Apr 2027
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Jelgava know it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad5 Apr 2027
Eduards Bulvitis damages knee ligaments — 143 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 143 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Match3 Apr 2027
Gatis Ciganovs had done his part in building a 2-goal cushion. What happened after that was collective, and Liepaja were allowed back into a match that had been finished with.
Market5 Apr 2027
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Jelgava, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad5 Apr 2027
3 goals in one afternoon from one man. The other players were also present, a witness confirmed.
Squad5 Apr 2027
Irad Mshindi: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Jelgava have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Match3 Apr 2027
4 matches without a win for Jelgava
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around Jelgava are no longer polite ones.
Squad5 Apr 2027
Bart Straalman was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Player ratings5 Apr 2027
A performance of 8.36 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Match3 Apr 2027
A 3‑3 draw with Liepaja leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad29 Mar 2027
Eduards Bulvitis damages knee ligaments — 150 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 150 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Player ratings29 Mar 2027
Successful dribbles: 37. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Market29 Mar 2027
Sören Dutoit hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Jelgava can pretend not to have heard.
Squad29 Mar 2027
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 8 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Match29 Mar 2027
Jelgava are in real trouble now
Position 5, 4 points, and a fixture list with fewer games left in it than excuses. The arithmetic is not cruel yet, but it has stopped being kind.
Squad29 Mar 2027
A muscle injury sidelines Darluis Paz for 16 days
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. Jelgava will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Squad29 Mar 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Jelgava this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match27 Mar 2027
1‑2 to Spartaks, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Player ratings29 Mar 2027
Ninety minutes of Gatis Ciganovs at his very best
Marked 8.06. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Jelgava.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match13 Mar 2027
A 2-goal lead gone for Jelgava
It is a specific kind of quiet, a ground watching a winning position dissolve. Metta/LU kept coming because nothing stopped them, and Jelgava will be asked about the last half hour all week.
Player ratings15 Mar 2027
Two goals and a mark of 9.11 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Player ratings15 Mar 2027
Successful dribbles: 28. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Match13 Mar 2027
Metta/LU left with the points after a 4‑5 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad15 Mar 2027
Darluis Paz was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad15 Mar 2027
Words at Jelgava training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Daniel Krch is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Squad15 Mar 2027
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Player ratings15 Mar 2027
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.28, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Player ratings15 Mar 2027
A performance of 8.04 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad8 Mar 2027
The words a physio says slowly. 38 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Match6 Mar 2027
Daugavpils will want this one forgotten quickly: 5‑1, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Jelgava were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Player ratings8 Mar 2027
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 9.12, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Player ratings8 Mar 2027
Two goals and a mark of 8.27 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Squad8 Mar 2027
“The easiest signature of my career.” Daniel Krch and Jelgava agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad8 Mar 2027
Bart Straalman was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Match6 Mar 2027
Davis Dubra among the goals in a wild afternoon
6 goals in one match, Davis Dubra on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Jelgava and Daugavpils.
Boardroom8 Mar 2027
Graduation day at Jelgava
5 boys move up, and somewhere in the building the people who coached them at twelve are quietly having the best morning of their working year. Nothing about this shows up in a result and it is why the academy exists.
Squad8 Mar 2027
Daniel Krch falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.