Llanelli face Ventspils in Champions League
Llanelli have been drawn to face Ventspils of Latvia in the Champions League. The Latvians overcame TNS in this competition last season on the away goal rule following a 4-4 aggregate so the Reds have a realistic chance of progressing.
If they do progress through to the Second Qualifying Round, they will meet SK Brann of Norway, who demolished Carmarthen Town in the UEFA Cup last year before progressing to the last sixteen of the competition. Unfortunately, they avoided real crowd-puller clubs like Rangers, Fenerbache and Dynamo Kiev.
FK Ventspils are a Virsliga football team and their club's home ground is the 3,200 capacity Ventspils Olimpiskais Stadions in Ventspils. In total, they have won two league titles and four Latvian Cups. At the end of the 2006 and 2007 seasons, they became Virsliga champions.
They were founded in 1997 with the merger of two former Ventspils clubs - FK Venta and FK Nafta. Its predecessor Venta was one of the leading clubs in the Latvian league in 1960's. Since that time FK Ventspils has become one of the strongest Latvian clubs. In 2003 they won the Latvian Cup for the first time . Also in 2004 and in 2005 FK Ventspils won the trophy, but only managed to finish second or third in the Latvian first division championship. Finally in 2006 Roman Grigorshuk, the head coach from Ukraine, took the team to the league championship and he is still in charge of the club.
They debuted in Europe in the Intertoto cup in 1999, when they beat Norwegian club Valerenga over two legs. After that FK Ventspils only participated in the UEFA Cup, playing against a number of major clubs such as German side VfB Stuttgart, Norwegian side Rosenborg B.K., Danish club Brondby IF and Newcastle, who they performed admirably against, gaining a 0-0 draw at St. James' Park. Their star players are 63-times capped Latvian striker Vits Rimkus.
We can learn a lot from TNS, who played them last year and I'm sure that Nico (Peter Nicholas) will contact Ken McKenna (former TNS Manager) and other people at TNS to ask them about their strengths and weaknesses.
Following the draw Llanelli's star striker Rhys Griffiths told us,
"It's back to Latvia for some of the players, I think that Gary Lloyd has played out there about fifty times! But seriously, it's a draw that we feel we can win.
"We can learn a lot from TNS, who played them last year and I'm sure that Nico (Peter Nicholas) will contact Ken McKenna (former TNS Manager) and other people at TNS to ask them about their strengths and weaknesses."
Last seasons Player of the Year and Golden Boot Winner feels that preparation is the key for the club and he added,
"If we prepare properly, we'll have a chance and that's really all we can ask for. It's hard being in Wales with our close season, but more than anything I hope that our preparation continues, which so far has been as good as it could, so if that carries on, we can have no excuses."
The hot-shot has never played in Latvia before, but did mention that he and seven or eight other Llanelli players had recently been out to the country's capital, Riga for Reds' defender, Stuart Jones' Stag Weekend.
The Reds will play their home leg on 15th or 16th July and tickets are due to go on sale at Stebonheath Park on Thursday between 10:00 and 19:00 to season ticket holders, patrons and supporters club members.
Voucher holders from the WWFA Senior Cup Final and Under-19 game against Carmarthen will be able to buy tickets from 10:00 on Friday with the remainder going on general sale from 11:00 on Saturday.
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