Marked for Gatis Dubra
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match19 Jul 2028
The cup run ends for Ventspils
1‑5 against Liepaja, and the road stops here. Cup exits are quick deaths — no second leg, no next week, just the league from now until May.
Squad24 Jul 2028
A fracture rules Igors Laizans out for 73 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Ventspils will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The terraces24 Jul 2028
A cup hiding at Liepaja leaves Ventspils explaining themselves
1-5, and long before the end the away end had switched from encouragement to something considerably more pointed. Nobody rings a phone-in about losing narrowly.
Squad24 Jul 2028
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Squad24 Jul 2028
Pavels Ikaunieks 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.
Match19 Jul 2028
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between Ventspils and Liepaja, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Squad24 Jul 2028
Denis Baumgartner 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.
Boardroom24 Jul 2028
Nobody left the Ventspils dressing room in a hurry
The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
Market24 Jul 2028
“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Olegs Tarasovs has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at Ventspils.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad12 Jun 2028
A fracture rules Igors Laizans out for 117 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Ventspils will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Player ratings12 Jun 2028
Two goals and a mark of 9.03 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Market12 Jun 2028
“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 Ventspils, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad12 Jun 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Ventspils this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match10 Jun 2028
A 3‑2 win over Skonto, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Squad12 Jun 2028
Denis Baumgartner 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.
The terraces12 Jun 2028
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Afonso Leite has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Squad12 Jun 2028
The manager makes an example of Arturs Dubra
“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 Jun 2028
Gatis Dubra was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.45. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad29 May 2028
A knee injury of the worst kind for Peter Tschernegg
20 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Ventspils lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad29 May 2028
Igors Laizans breaks a bone — 132 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 132 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market29 May 2028
Raivis Kamess 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 Ventspils can pretend not to have heard.
Player ratings29 May 2028
Successful dribbles: 29. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Match27 May 2028
The wait goes on for Ventspils
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.
Squad29 May 2028
Arturs Dubra in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Ventspils this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad15 May 2028
A knee injury of the worst kind for Peter Tschernegg
34 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Ventspils lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market15 May 2028
Nikita Gabovs 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 Ventspils can pretend not to have heard.
Match13 May 2028
The wait goes on for Ventspils
5 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.
Squad15 May 2028
Pavels Ikaunieks 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 May 2028
Arian Mršulja 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.
Squad15 May 2028
The manager makes an example of Arian Mršulja
“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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad10 Apr 2028
Peter Tschernegg damages knee ligaments — 70 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 70 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.
Match8 Apr 2028
A 2‑1 win over Daugavpils, a place in the next round, and the quiet arithmetic every supporter does on the walk home: how many more until a final?
Match5 Apr 2028
Ventspils through in the cup
A 1‑0 win over Daugavpils, and the draw for the next round can be watched with some interest for once.
Player ratings10 Apr 2028
A brace, and Gatis Dubra takes the afternoon — 8.83
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Gatis Dubra provided it, and the 8.83 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Market10 Apr 2028
“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.
Match10 Apr 2028
Ventspils are in among the leaders
Position 3 and 6 points on the board. Nobody at the ground will say the word out loud yet, and everybody at the ground is thinking it.
Player ratings10 Apr 2028
Successful dribbles: 25. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Match8 Apr 2028
Ventspils make home a hard place to visit
10 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
Squad10 Apr 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Ventspils this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad20 Mar 2028
A knee injury of the worst kind for Peter Tschernegg
92 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Ventspils lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad20 Mar 2028
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Ventspils may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Match18 Mar 2028
No end in sight to Ventspils's wait for a win
5 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Ventspils has to find a result from somewhere.
Market20 Mar 2028
“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.
Squad20 Mar 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Ventspils this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match18 Mar 2028
It needed Gatis Dubra to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Liepaja, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad13 Mar 2028
A knee injury of the worst kind for Peter Tschernegg
99 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Ventspils lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Player ratings13 Mar 2028
Successful dribbles: 34. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Player ratings13 Mar 2028
Two goals and a mark of 8.41 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Market13 Mar 2028
“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.
Match11 Mar 2028
No end in sight to Ventspils's wait for a win
4 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Ventspils has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad13 Mar 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Ventspils this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad13 Mar 2028
Words at Ventspils training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Denis Baumgartner 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.
Match11 Mar 2028
Ventspils make home a hard place to visit
8 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
Squad13 Mar 2028
Arturs Dubra gets it from the manager
“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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match21 Jul 2027
The small margins put Ventspils out
Out, 1‑3 to Liepaja, and the long argument about which of the small moments decided it. The league is all there is now, and everybody knows it.
Squad26 Jul 2027
Kaspars Bulvitis: 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.” Ventspils have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad26 Jul 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 Ventspils this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad26 Jul 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Arturs Dubra, and the manager let it.
Squad26 Jul 2027
Gatis Kamess 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.
Market26 Jul 2027
Jelgava are about to pick up the phone
A conversation is coming this week. Ventspils will put a number on him, and from there it stops being football and becomes arithmetic.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad12 Jul 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 Ventspils this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad12 Jul 2027
Words at Ventspils training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Gatis Dubra 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.
Squad12 Jul 2027
35 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match5 Jul 2027
Ventspils refuse to drop out of the race
Position 3, 19 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
Squad5 Jul 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 Ventspils this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad5 Jul 2027
Amar Haïdara gets it from the manager
“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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market21 Jun 2027
Metta/LU come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Ventspils did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Squad21 Jun 2027
Arturs Dubra in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Ventspils this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad21 Jun 2027
Gatis Dubra 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market14 Jun 2027
The paperwork is done: Afonso Leite joins from Liepaja in a deal worth $120.0K. Now comes the harder part.
Squad14 Jun 2027
Raivis Kamess 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.
The terraces14 Jun 2027
Ventspils spend $120.0K on the signing the town wanted
It is the rarest sequence in football: supporters ask for something, and the club goes and does it. $120.0K for Afonso Leite, and for one week nobody is complaining about anything.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad7 Jun 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Gianluca Scremin
19 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Ventspils lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match7 Jun 2027
Ventspils refuse to drop out of the race
Position 3, 19 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
Match5 Jun 2027
Still nobody has beaten Ventspils
The unbeaten run reaches 11. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Squad7 Jun 2027
Pavels Ikaunieks 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.
Squad7 Jun 2027
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Di Stefano Castillo has just signed for Ventspils, and for once the answer mattered.
Squad7 Jun 2027
Words at Ventspils training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Gatis Kamess 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.
Match5 Jun 2027
It needed Davis Stolcers to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Skonto, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
Market7 Jun 2027
Olegs Tarasovs is free to find somewhere else
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Ventspils has been clear about where Olegs Tarasovs stands, which is more than many ever get.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad31 May 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Gianluca Scremin
26 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Ventspils lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match29 May 2027
Still nobody has beaten Ventspils
The unbeaten run reaches 10. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Squad31 May 2027
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Player ratings31 May 2027
Successful dribbles: 25. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad31 May 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 Ventspils this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad31 May 2027
Words at Ventspils training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Gatis Dubra 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings22 Mar 2027
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.58, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Squad22 Mar 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Ventspils may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad22 Mar 2027
Kauã Elias in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Ventspils this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad22 Mar 2027
Arturs Dubra gets it from the manager
“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.
Player ratings22 Mar 2027
Successful dribbles: 17. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Loan watch22 Mar 2027
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Ventspils, and 0 appearances in 9 say he has earned the hearing.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad1 Mar 2027
A fracture rules Roberts Vanins out for 36 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Ventspils will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad1 Mar 2027
Kauã Elias 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.
Squad1 Mar 2027
Words at Ventspils training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Gatis Dubra 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad15 Feb 2027
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 51 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad15 Feb 2027
Kauã Elias 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 Feb 2027
When it matters, Gatis Dubra plays
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad18 Jan 2027
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 81 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market18 Jan 2027
Spartaks come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Ventspils did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Kauã Elias 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.
Market18 Jan 2027
The phone has started ringing about Fiodor Eliosius again, and this time the name on the line is Spartaks. Ventspils are listening politely and promising nothing.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Words at Ventspils training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Gatis Dubra 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.
Squad18 Jan 2027
41 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad11 Jan 2027
A fracture rules Roberts Vanins out for 89 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Ventspils will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market11 Jan 2027
Ventspils say no — this time
The offer from Skonto for Davis Gabovs was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Pavels Ikaunieks 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.