Marked for Marius Paulauskas
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad15 Jul 2030
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Zalgiris may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Market15 Jul 2030
Amza Moubarack has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Zalgiris they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Market15 Jul 2030
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Squad15 Jul 2030
Bryan Teixeira 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 Jul 2030
71 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
Squad15 Jul 2030
Carlos Olses 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Squad12 Mar 2029
A one-man rearguard from Carlos Olses
There were 9 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Match10 Mar 2029
Zalgiris cannot stop winning
5 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
Squad12 Mar 2029
Bryan Teixeira 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.
Match10 Mar 2029
It finished 3‑1, and it was Bryan Teixeira’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Zalgiris.
Player ratings12 Mar 2029
A performance of 9.21 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Player ratings12 Mar 2029
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 9.19, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Player ratings12 Mar 2029
A performance of 8.75 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Squad12 Mar 2029
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to John Dembe, and the manager let it.
Player ratings12 Mar 2029
Successful dribbles: 16. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad5 Mar 2029
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Zalgiris may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad5 Mar 2029
A one-man rearguard from Carlos Olses
There were 7 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Match3 Mar 2029
Zalgiris make it 4 in a row
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Zalgiris have 4 straight wins of it.
Squad5 Mar 2029
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Bryan Teixeira and Zalgiris agree another 4 years.
Squad5 Mar 2029
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Zalgiris this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market5 Mar 2029
He left as a boy and has come back still knowing where the away end is. Most signings have to be explained to a town; this one needed a photograph and nothing else.
Market5 Mar 2029
Some transfers need a press campaign. This one needed a shirt with the old number on it. Linas Jankauskas is a Zalgiris player again, and the town has its story of the summer.
Market5 Mar 2029
The shirt still fits. Linas Vaitkunas is back at Zalgiris, and half the ground remembers him in these colours already. Some signings need selling to the town; this one sold itself.
Market5 Mar 2029
The shirt still fits. Deividas Jankauskas is back at Zalgiris, and half the ground remembers him in these colours already. Some signings need selling to the town; this one sold itself.