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TinakoFM
Dan
DNZY
@Dan - Haha stop I know, couldn't believe it myself! Hopefully we'll push on for a title challenge.
___________________________________________
UEFA EUROPA LEAGUE
FIRST QUALIFYING ROUND, FIRST LEG (HOME)
Good entertainment and a win to add, though concern about Flora nabbing two away goals. Despite letting in a soft opener, Adrian Burcă turned up in style being the fox in the box to grab two goals in nine minutes to take control. Flora missed an open goal to level the game and were punished with Arnas Zukauskas stretching the lead on the night. The Estonians did pull back, again a soft one we had to Pikk out of our net. Return leg in Tallinn should be interesting.
DNZY
FIRST QUALIFYING ROUND, SECOND LEG (AWAY)
Job done. Kept the home side quiet in every department and made chances count to safely advance. Chiorescu rifled in an early free kick and Zukauskas ploughed home from a Birskys inswinger. Rather poor game compared to the first leg, but we don't mind.
Well needed profit into the kitty.
SECOND QUALIFYING ROUND DRAW
Sofia calling as we set sights for Bulgaria in the next phase.
DNZY
SECOND QUALIFYING ROUND, FIRST LEG (AWAY)
Big result away from home. CSKA Sofia were imprudent at times, few risky passes gave us an outlet and one too many led to Pavlyukovich firing in a vital away goal. Adrian Burcă should have made it too but his header fell agonisingly wide of goal. That's when the Bulgarians sucker punched us with Ivan Stoyanov out of nowhere to balance the tie. We looked far more likely to score so we'll feel a little aggrieved that only a point was taken.
DNZY
MATCHDAY 17
Focus returned to the league a few days later, securing a narrow win over Utenis to remain top. Olivier Kabura's early strike the difference in a game that lacked any sort of conviction from that point onwards.
DNZY
SECOND QUALIFYING ROUND, SECOND LEG (HOME)
Not proud to say that we parked the bus in the second leg, blockading our visitors in a snorefest. Frankly the defensive mentality might have been redundant, CSKA were brutal over both legs and had nothing to offer at our ground. An historic day for the club though as they've reached the third qualifying round for the first time.
I honestly wouldn't blame them if they wanted their money back.
THIRD QUALIFYING ROUND DRAW
Keeping the Eastern European theme as Ukraine side Vorskla are next on the menu.
DNZY
MATCHDAY 18
The Europa League hangover in full effect, mauled by a scarily good Zalgiris side. Three goals in four minutes did the damage as Rrapaj and Klimavicius fed on our rotting corpse, both picking up braces. Four absolutely flattered us as it could've reached double figures we were that displaced. At least it's all over now.
DNZY
THIRD QUALIFYING ROUND, FIRST LEG (HOME)
A packed crowd saw us lock horns with Vorskla, falling short on the night. Alexandru Turdean can have no complaints in giving away a penalty on the stroke of half time; Maxym Bratkevych accurately finished. Did our best to escape with only one, they walloped the bar and brought an important save out of Zukauskas. Alas, a first leg defeat and have it all to do.
I say sellout, our stadium can barely hold 6,000.
RESULTS OVERVIEW
Europe dominated our month, progressing to the 3QR is a top feat for a club of our stature. The glaring defeat to Zalgiris needs to be corrected so we get our priorities straight once we exit the Europa League. A little fearful that we've not scored in three.
LEAGUE TABLE
The only positive from the Zalgiris defeat is that Suduva have been in dire straits lately, moving us three points clear. The downside is that Zalgiris and Atlantas are opening their jaws and hope to swallow us whole.
AUGUST 2043 SCHEDULE
Speak of the devil, Suduva next in line in another jam packed list of fixtures. The away leg to Vorskla and the LFF taurė encounter with Banga I may sacrifice to get the most out of our league performances. Atlantas also could be a caveat before some easy enough games, ending with Trakai. The question is will we still be in a title bout by that stage?
Shedender
DNZY
A LYGA
MATCHDAY 19
Massive win at the apex, pushing aside Suduva to widen the gap at the top. A year on after claiming his signature, Alexandru Turdean reached his landmark first goal for the club to start in positive light. It only got better from there with a red card for Suduva striker Lukosius, and on the stroke of half time another Romanian Ştefan Chiorescu had his free kick deflect off the wall and went in. The game fizzled out, but the result stayed with us. A big leap in the title race.
DNZY
THIRD QUALIFYING ROUND, SECOND LEG (AWAY)
European run comes to a grinding halt, no match for the clinical Vorskla. The power of the set piece ruined us; Bratkevych headed in from a free kick in the first half to scrap our gameplan further, Eugene Kozak from a corner put the game far beyond our control and a late goal from Tsarev (not technically a set piece) connected with a low cross. Kabura bulging the side netting is as close as we came, bowing out of Europe with a 4-0 aggregate defeat.
The payout is pretty good though.
DNZY
FOURTH ROUND
Didn't quite drop the Banga everyone expected us too, but made it through nonetheless. The Romanian connection between Turdean and goalscorer Adrian Burcă was a delight to behold, a 40 yard pass into Adrian's path to calmly seal the deal. Banga hit the post to keep it interesting and Burcă thought he made it two in injury time but the flag was raised for offside. We reach the quarter finals again.
QUARTER FINAL DRAW
Man, that's an original opponent...we meet with Krazante again in a cup run.
DNZY
MATCHDAY 20
Sickening, wanted to tear my hair off my dome after witnessing this. An early red card for Bobukh helped us gain a lot more adhesion to the game, and if that weren't bad enough for Atlantas - they lost one of their subs to injury and had used them all! Still, we failed to break the fourth wall against nine men. Adrian Burcă headed onto the crossbar from six yards out and Arnas Zukauskas brought an important save from their keeper but a stalemate is the final result. Goals for Pavlyukovich drying up too, none in eight games.
A point was good enough to confirm our spot in the Champions Playoff, not that it was ever in doubt.
DNZY
MATCHDAY 21
I wonder if Pavel heard my concerns. He came racing out of the blocks and tore Lietava a new one. The warning signs were there for the visitors as Pavy did score after 4 minutes or so he thought, ruled out for offside. Didn't stop him from banging another in before 10 minutes elapsed. The task became a lot harder for the bottom side; a two footer from Arlauskis sent him off for an early bath. Pavlyukovich ran the show; finishing from a tight angle for a 2-0 half time lead, then let fly in the final ten with the best of the bunch for a classy hat-trick.
Back on fire.
Definitely need a bit of work on the chants though....
DNZY
QUARTER FINAL
Semi finals booked! Had the same comfort as last year, Adrian Burcă again on cue. It was a stunner from Burcă to break Krazante's resistance, feeding off another long direct pass and blasted into the top corner from 18 yards. Pavlyukovich recaptured his goalscoring instincts to hone in on victory, before it was all but confirmed with an Abesadze penalty two minutes later. One step away from a cup final.
SEMI FINAL DRAW
The Kaunas derby reignites in what should be a gripping battle.
DNZY
MATCHDAY 22
Speaking of Kaunas, our good friends of ZK continued to bow at our feet with another thumping win. It was back to the Pavlukovich of old, surpassing the 20 goal mark with an 18 minute hat-trick, destroying any hope of an upset for the home side. If ZK's day couldn't get any worse they'd be gravely mistaken, Zukauskas saving a penalty to keep our three goal margin. Conor McParland got in on the act too with a header at the near post from a corner for numero cuatro. Would have gotten very embarrassing if it weren't for their keeper denying us further glory.
DNZY
MATCHDAY 23
Ah, the proverbial banana skin. It was clear that Trakai's approach was to target Pavlyukovich, hard tackled numerous times to have him hobbling off before half time. Once he was out of the equation, it evaporated our attacking threat and had them come in for the kill. Kancelskis broke the deadlock and a clumsy penalty gave way for Vejvoda to make it two. Kabura's breakaway clawed us back into it but Kancelskis tightened their grip again with an unstoppable hit. Arnas Zukauskas may have curled one in in injury time but there was no time to do a Suduva job on it. Unneeded setback.
RESULTS OVERVIEW
The European exit allowed us to focus on domestic duties, securing some impressive results before Trakai stopped it in it's tracks. Pavlyukovich was mighty this month after his dry spell, him and Burcă are looking like a perfect front two. Real improvements this month for Arnas Zukauskas and Alexandru Turdean as well.
LEAGUE TABLE
Ten games left and everything to play for, holding a firm four point lead ahead of Zalgiris. Suduva dropping off the face completely and are unlikely to compete. Two horse race?
SEPTEMBER 2043 SCHEDULE
Less intensive with only four games. The cup semi kicks it all off against FBK Kaunas for a potential historic first LFF taurė. Utenis are the appetiser for two big home games to Zalgiris and Suduva. 6 points from these three games is the aim.
DNZY
LFF TAURĖ
SEMI FINAL
We're in the LFF taurė final! It was more a frail slapfest than a crusade, both sides failing miserably to break the silence within the allotted 90 minutes. FBK were more likely in truth in a match destined for penalties, but it did take a penalty to win the game. 118th minute; Malinauskas was bundled over, brushed the dirt off his shoulder and slotted the penalty away himself. It won't go to an archive vault, but we'll go to the LFF stadionas in an effort to lift the treasured cup.
It goes to show that rivalries outweigh glitz and glamour, smashing our attendance record for the third time this year alone.
FINAL DRAW
A lot of big teams hit the deck, leaving only Utenis as the final pairing. Surely we've got this in the bag?!
DNZY
MATCHDAY 24
I mean if we play like this, the cup will be ours. The mock final went our way in a rather surprising 3-0 away day. I say rather surprising, Utenis didn't play bad at all...we were just better. An unlucky o.g. from Kancelskis, a rare goal for Birskys and an obligatory Pavlyukovich deep, deep into injury time had us laughing all the way to the Zalgiris game. Utenis to their credit fought really hard in the second half, but Zukauskas just would not be beaten, making two super stops to keep the goal blank. Makovskiy's red at the end summarised their day.
Blitzing everything and everyone this year.
A slight setback, Kabura a major doubt for the Zalgiris game.
Marcinkevicius, a certainty.
DNZY
MATCHDAY 25
The acid test before the cup final ended all square to boost our confidence. Pavlyukovich couldn't believe his luck when a baffling 30 yard backpass landed straight to him and had no problem giving us an early advantage. Zalgiris still remained scarily good, especially on the counter and wasted a handful of clear cut opportunities before eventually breaking through our defensive shield, left winger Laimonas Brazinskas erasing our lead. Nothing changes at the top, just one less game for Zalgiris to catch up.
DNZY
Keeping everyone in suspense for the LFF taurė final, our youth intake came through. I'll admit, I'm slightly disappointed. Not one guaranteed a potential 4* PA.
Aurimas Jankauskas - AM(R) - youth intake
The best of the lot sadly. A bit quicker than Arnas Zukauskas minus the creative abilities.
LFF TAURĖ
FINAL
In Stumbras' short spell as a recognised club, it's only their second ever cup final. Their only other appearance was in 2034, losing 3-2 to Trakai. On the other hand, opponents Utenis have secured this trophy before back in 2039, a solid 3-1 win over Silas had them leaping with joy. Who's day was it to be?
An almighty anticlimax, but STUMBRAS ARE LFF TAURĖ CHAMPIONS!! Almost a chore to compile a highlights package for this match, absolutely horrendous game. Fast forward through 120 minutes, I'm surprised the stadium didn't start emptying out. The penalty shootout wasn't much better but did provide some entertainment. Raimondas Zukauskas stopped three of their four spot kicks, while we also missed two.
Romauldas Birskys had the ice in his veins to finish the penultimate penalty with precision to walk away with the trophy. The bisons finally secure silverware!
Oh stop, you're making me blush.
DNZY
MATCHDAY 26
Just to finish this month off even sweeter, Suduva well and truly brushed aside. A breathless last six or seven minutes of the half as the goals just rained in; Kabura latched onto the rebound of a Turdean effort for 1-0, conceded in typical us fashion for 1-1, then the evergreen Ştefan Chiorescu used his set piece wisdom to convert twice from free kicks to complete the scoring. The other 83 minutes weren't as regal, only a red card for Suduva's Calilja to make it harder for them.
RESULTS OVERVIEW
Thus ends a glorious month, four wins and a well earned draw against Zalgiris - happy days!
LEAGUE TABLE
Seven games left, now looking to be a two horse race between us and Zalgiris with a six point lead. Suduva are surely out of it, languishing twelve points behind.
OCTOBER 2043 SCHEDULE
Two games left in the regular season, one banker and the other a little trickier. I'll let you fill the blanks.
DNZY
What a lovely surprise! Pavlyukovich decided to abandon his Belorussian roots and pursue an international career with Lithuania, securing his first cap in a friendly win over Kosovo. Glad he's getting the notice he deserves.
#RoadTo1000.
A LYGA
MATCHDAY 27
Not sure what game LRT were watching, implying we were defensive against relegation threatened Lietava - we demolished them in front of goal. Fresh off his first cap, Pavel Pavlyukovich headed in the opener before a potential goal of the season from Chiorescu while Kabura drove in a third to have the Lietava fans stream out of the stands to miss the traffic home. A consolatory goal from former Stumbras striker Edgars Jakovlevs gave little to no joy as the final result confirmed their drop back down to the 1.Lyga.
DNZY
MATCHDAY 28
Grabbed what was necessary in our final regular season game. Pavlyukovich is getting a lot more useful with his head, using his noggin to have us on our way. Atlantas didn't put up much of a fight and it ruined their chances late on when Chiorescu added the gloss to an important win. We're nearly there boys!
I'll give my first born to Vytis for Chiorescu, what a solid purchase for the club.
Pavy and Chiorescu came clutch in these two wins. Unbeaten in seven and only one defeat in thirteen. This doesn't f*cking slip now!
FINAL LEAGUE TABLE (REGULAR SEASON)
A huge centrepiece in the story as Zalgiris drop points to Trakai, moving eight points clear with only five games left! Suduva and co are too far off to trouble us. Lietava suffered relegation while our dear rivals Zalgiris Kaunas do battle in the relegation playoff.
CHAMPIONS PLAYOFF SCHEDULE
Hot damn, first ones up where a win will all but secure it. Defeat and it comes down to the final four games. Bold prediction: I'm expecting the news to ring out by the Trakai game. Surely winning one of the last four is doable.
DNZY
Could they throw any more obstacles in our path before our biggest game of the season?
A LYGA CHAMPIONS PLAYOFF
MATCHDAY 29
So important, maintaining our eight point lead with only four games left. We certainly got out of jail though after our left back's horrendous back pass put dangerman Klimavicius in to give Zalgiris the lead. Almost immediately we retaliated, Arnas Zukauskas dribbled wonderfully in the box before striking in from a tight angle to level it up. Both sides spurned winning plays thereafter; firstly Entonio Rrapaj forced Raimondas Zukauskas into a fine save and in the concluding five minutes, Pavlyukovich could've been the hero as he broke free but his final effort lacked any sort of power straight into the keepers arms. Happily walk away with that!
DNZY
MATCHDAY 30
I'm at a loss to explain this. Think we were too blinkered on the crown and not at the match at hand. An humdrum first half was greeted with a top corner finish by Turdean to send us ahead. The lead lasted less than four minutes when a completely unmarked Eliosius from a free kick had time and space to safely guide home. I'd have been happy with a point if all else fails but Utenis came out of nowhere to turn it around, Paukste's effort hit the ankles of Tarasevich to dupe Zukauskas into diving the wrong way, diverting it in. Adrian Burcă nearly ended a mini goal drought late on but denied by Utenis keeper Zaqaryan to leave a cloud of doubt hanging over Stumbras' players and supporters.
BUT it wasn't all doom and gloom, Trakai took down Zalgiris to keep the lead at eight with now only three games remaining! A point might just do it in our next game.
DNZY
MATCHDAY 31
Unbelievable. Total capitulation left us red faced against ten man Suduva. Arnas Zukauskas really showing his worth lately, however his goal was somewhat controversial in the form of a cross-cum-goal and Kabura seemingly interfered with the goalkeeper's movement, but it stood. Djurdjek gave us just desserts for it, tapping in with ease after leaving him too exposed in the box. Calija's red was the turning point, but in reverse. We were all over the shop in the second half; Turbic stunned us with a header to give the invalids a shock lead and committing too many men forward meant getting caught on the break, Cesnauskis applied the damage. A lot of shots, a lot of wasted efforts. Zalgiris play Sunday knowing that they've a golden opportunity.
Aaaaaand it's gone! Utenis frustrate them and leave it ending in a stalemate.
...meaning...
BOOOOOOOOOYS WE'VE DONE IT!! The A Lyga comes to Stumbras Kaunas for the very first time in the club's history against all expectations! What a marvellous moment for a side who certainly deserve to drink it all in.
DNZY
MATCHDAY 32
It needn't matter if we won or lost, but our last home game of the season at least provided some magic as we raised the A Lyga trophy aloft. Despite the frosty surface, chances were aplenty with Kabura testing the woodwork for the nth time early on. A moment of brilliance from Lukas Zutautas, not only did he score a beauty from range but it was also his first Stumbras goal in 116 appearances. Trakai were already on the beach with nothing to play for, Zutautas' partner in crime in central midfield Turdean snuck in a second before the day was out. Petr Zavadil must hate this fixture, third red card in this fixture in this season alone.
DNZY
MATCHDAY 33
Concluded the season rather unspectacularly. Tomas Poskus with both goals in a rather entertaining game in Klaipėda that consisted of ten clear cut chances. A straight red for Radenkovic to end his loan spell with an unhappy memory. We were uninspiring in front of goal, not even Pavy could pierce through the Atlantas rearguard who were very organised. Sour end but two trophies cap off a memorable campaign.
RESULTS OVERVIEW
I mean we more or less crawled over the finish line than on our own two feet. Three defeats in five after only four in the other twenty eight is quite unacceptable, I'll let it slide though. Not one striker scored during the playoffs, only midfielders.
FINAL LEAGUE TABLE
And there it is in black and white. CHAMPIONS of Lithuania! If you thought we were bad, take a look at Zalgiris - not a single win in those last five games! The eight point margin persisted all the way, with Zalgiris, Utenis and Suduva making it into the Europa League. Zalgiris Kaunas stayed up by winning their playoff game with FBK Kaunas and of course Lietava relegated.
Trophy count: 22!