Jelgava vs Blackpool, at the Zemgale Olympic Centre, Jelgava, Latvia Thursday 2nd September, kick-off 5:50pm (Local time) (3:50pm BST) Next game is the friendly in Latvia on Thursday. The six players on international duty will all miss the game - Charlie Adam, Matthew Gilks (both Scotland), David Vaughan, Neal Eardley (both Wales), Dekel Keinan (Israel) and Craig Cathcart (Northern Ireland). The rest of the squad will however travel to Latvia. Hopefully there will be some more new signings too by then. A few Blackpool fans will be there, though probably only a handful. The game will be screened live on Latvian television on the LTV7 channel, part of Latvijas Televīzija. It will also be attended by the State President of Latvia, Valdis Zatlers; the Latvian Prime Minister, Valdis Dombrovski; and the British Ambassador to Latvia, Richard Moon. BFC Director Nurmunds Malnac is a native of the town of Jelgava, a small town with a population of 65,000, located about 41km southwest of the countries capital, Riga. FK Jelgava were only founded in 2004 following the merger of RAF Jelgava and FK Viola Jelgava. Since then they have played in the 2nd tier of Latvian football, the First League (1. līga). In the 2009 season Jelgava finished 1st and were promoted to the top flight, the Higher League (Virsliga) for the 2010 season. After 15 games they are currently 6th (out of 10). They have also won the Latvian Cup, beating FK Jūrmala-VV in the final on 19 May. As Latvian Cup winners, they qualified for the 2010-11 UEFA Europa League, and recently made their debut in the competition, reaching the second qualifying round, losing out on away goals to Norwegian side Molde FK. I have included a poll in the thread, even though it is only a friendly!
Re: Jelgava vs Blackpool, Thursday 3rd September The game is being used as part of a festival to open the new centre. Media events: 1st September 19:00 - FK Jelgava pre-match training at Zemgale Olympic Centre Stadium 2nd September 10:30 - Blackpool FC pre-match training at Zemgale Olympic Centre Stadium. 16:30 - Zemgale Olympic Centre's official opening. 17:50 - Kick-off 20:10 - Post- match press conference. 21:30 - FK Jelgava and Blackpool FC "Friendship Night Club " in Jelgava.
Re: Jelgava vs Blackpool, Thursday 3rd September Fans are being asked to turn up at 4pm with a pre-match concert planned to take place and a refreshment buffet! The FK Jelgava website is reporting that ticket sales are going very well for the game.
Re: Jelgava vs Blackpool, Thursday 3rd September Just realised that with six players on international duty plus Marlon Harewood, Malaury Martin, Keith Southern, Billy Clarke, Paul Rachubka and Louis Almond all out injured, that leaves a squad of just 18 players to fly out for this match. And that includes just one keeper - Mark Halstead, whose only first team appearance was last week in the League Cup!!! It also includes young Tom Barkhuizen who is still in the youth team. I expect that there will then be more of the youth team flying out to Latvia as part of the squad prsumably including the keeper Chris Kettings. It will also mean that any new signings today, this will potentially be their first game in tangerine.
Re: Jelgava vs Blackpool, Thursday 3rd September The squad fly out of Gatwick airport early this morning to Latvia, including the two new signings Matt Phillips and DJ Campbell.
Re: Jelgava vs Blackpool, Thursday 3rd September An article from June about the game: http://balticreports.com/?p=19836
Re: Jelgava vs Blackpool, Thursday 3rd September *Saying a prayer that no one gets injured in this friendly match* Amen.
Re: Jelgava vs Blackpool, Thursday 3rd September FK Jelgava announced earlier today that all tickets for the game have been sold!
Re: Jelgava vs Blackpool, Thursday 3rd September I checked the LTV7 website and fingers crossed it looks like they will be streaming the game live. http://www.ltv7.lv/ At the article about the game is a link which when translated says "Watch live streaming on the internet" and a link to a page on their site. So hopefully the game will be streamed.
Re: Jelgava vs Blackpool, Thursday 3rd September Speaking ahead of the game Jelgava captain Valērijs Redjko said:
Re: Jelgava vs Blackpool, Thursday 3rd September Found the stadium capacity now. Not exactly big but still sold out! Capacity is 1,600.
Re: Jelgava vs Blackpool, Thursday 3rd September Please clear something up Bispham - is the game Thursday Sept 2 or Friday Sept 3rd?
The Blackpool squad trained at the stadium yesterday evening. The squad had a very early start, leaving Bloomfield Road at 5am to travel down to Gatwick airport for their flight to Riga. Also on the flight was a large group of Scotland fans on their way to Lithuania for their Euro 2012 qualifier and cue cants of 'There's only one Charlie Adam' from the back of the plane! Blackpool have taken a 21-man squad including two of the new signings Matt Phillips and the returning DJ Campbell, and both are expected to play this afternoon.
For those with Facebook (hello!!) the Blackpool Gazette has an album with some pictures from training this morning: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=272217&id=67764650897&ref=mf Includes a better image of the stand
Bispham, you are a prince among men, sir. Thanks for the updates!! And for the record, our Div II stadium is MUCH nicer than that!!
I tried to watch but I'm getting a "Server not found" error. From the link you posted I'm clicking on the picture of the Blackpool players which takes me to a page to select from a 500 Kbps or an 800 Kbps stream. Neither will work for me. The problem may be on my end, though. I'm at work and a lot of websites are blocked here. Or I may be clicking the wrong place. My Latvian is not as good as it used to be. I trust we can count on you to post periodic updates.
I can get the stream but it comes and goes for me. Jelgava has scored (didn't see when or by whom) so it is now: Jelgava 1 Blackpool 0
Stream is fine for me! Blackpool are totally dominating and playing good football yet it is Jelgava winning!