Unlike the competitors, the announcement of the lineup was delayed, and at the end there was also one unexpected turn from the coaches. The most valuable player of the 2023 World Championship, Artūrs Shilovs, was not included in the lineup on Thursday evening. One place in the goalkeeper position is left open. From Thursday to Sunday, the pre-Olympic qualification tournament with the participation of the national teams of Latvia, France, Slovenia and Ukraine will take place in Arena Riga. The first match for the Latvian national team is against Slovenia tonight at 20:00. Before that at France and Ukraine will start the round of 16 match.
After Monday’s test match with Denmark, the head coach of the Latvian national team, Harijs Vītoliņš, has already revealed what will be important in the selection of the team. “You have to understand that one is the World Cup, with a minimum of seven games, but here there are three games in four days. Here I expect a result from every shift, and experience is a little more important than youth and activity.”
In the two test matches with Denmark (2:3 loss and 5:3 win), goalkeeper Artūrs Šilov was left out of the lineup, as he had too much workload during the preparation phase. Vītoliņš stated that Šilov is in good physical shape and ready to start the qualifying tournament for the Olympic Games, however, he was left out of the squad on Thursday. Two goalkeepers, Kristers Gudlevskis and Gustavs Grigal, have been registered for the tournament, eight defenders –
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2024-08-29 21:44:40