2010

Latvian Higher League Latvian Higher League or Virslīga is a professional football league and the top tier of association football in Latvia. Organised by the Latvian Football Federation, the Higher League is contested by 10 clubs. The full name of the league is O ...

( lv, LMT Virslīga 2010) was the 19th season of top-tier football in Latvia. It began on 9 April 2010 with the first round of games. Liepājas Metalurgs were the defending champions, having won their second league title last season. With the re-expansion of the league to 10 clubs, the format of the competition was altered for the third year in a row. The ten clubs played 18 rounds of matches, once at home and once away, against each of the other nine clubs in the league. After this, another nine rounds of matches were played for a total of 27 matches. The clubs finishing in the first five positions after 18 rounds received the benefit of hosting five of their last nine matches.

Teams

Due to a match fixing scandal last season, Dinaburg FC were excluded from the Latvian Higher League and were relegated to the

Latvian First League The Latvian First League ( lv, Latvijas Pirmā līga, 1. līga) is the second tier of football in Latvia and is organised by the Latvian Football Federation. History The league was founded together with other Latvian football competitions in 19 ...

.LFF measures in FC Dinaburg case
/ref> Promoted to the Higher League from the First Division automatically were last season's First Division champions,

Jelgava Jelgava (; german: Mitau, ; see also other names) is a state city in central Latvia about southwest of Riga with 55,972 inhabitants (2019). It is the largest town in the region of Zemgale (Semigalia). Jelgava was the capital of the united Du ...

Daugava Rīga FK Daugava Rīga was a Latvian football club, based at the Daugava Stadium in Riga. They played in the Latvian Higher League. The last manager of the team was Armands Zeiberliņš. From the club's foundation in 2003 till 2009 the club was k ...

finished in 8th place in last year's Higher League competition and competed in a promotion/relegation playoff against the runners-up of the First Division, Jaunība Rīga. Jaunība Rīga won this two-legged playoff 1–1 (1–0 on away goals scored) and won promotion to the Higher League for this season and Daugava Rīga was relegated to the First Division. Despite finishing last year's First Division competition in 9th place, Daugava Daugavpils were offered a place in this year's Higher League competition, which the club accepted.

Team summaries

League table

Results

Regular home/away matches

Extra home matches

Relegation play-offs

At season's end, the 9th place club in the Latvian Higher League, Tranzīts Ventspils, was supposed to face the runners-up of the Latvian First League, FC Jūrmala, in a two-legged playoff, with the winner being awarded a spot on next year's Higher League competition. However, before this playoff began, the LFF received information from Tranzits that it would not participate in the playoff and, further, was forfeiting its place in the Latvian Higher League. Because of this, FC Jurmala achieved promotion to the Higher League automatically.

Top goalscorers

''Source
LMT Virslīga 2010
'' ;18 goals * Deniss Rakels ''( Liepājas Metalurgs)'' * Nathan Júnior ''( Skonto)'' ;15 goals * Jurijs Žigajevs ''(

Ventspils Ventspils (; german: Windau, ; see other names) is a state city in northwestern Latvia in the historical Courland region of Latvia, and is the sixth largest city in the country. At the beginning of 2020, Ventspils had a population of 33,906. It ...

)'' ;12 goals * Kristaps Grebis ''( Liepājas Metalurgs)'' ;11 goals * Oļegs Malašenoks ''(

)'' ;9 goals * Eduards Višņakovs ''(

)'' * Vitalijus Kavaliauskas ''( Liepājas Metalurgs)'' ;8 goals * '' Artūrs Karašausks'' ''( Skonto)'' *

Andrejs Perepļotkins Andrejs Perepļotkins ( uk, Андрій Ігорович Перепльоткін, ''Andriy Igorovych Pereplyotkin''; born 27 December 1984) is a Ukrainian born Latvian footballer, who plays primarily as a right winger for SK Super Nova. Altho ...

''( Skonto)'' * Ruslan Mingazov ''( Skonto)'' * Daniils Turkovs ''( Skonto)'' * Pavel Ryzhevski ''( Blāzma)'' ''* Players in ''italics'' left the clubs they are listed in during the season.''

Awards

Monthly awards

Golden boot

* Deniss Rakels ( Liepājas Metalurgs) with 18 goals. Nathan Júnior from Skonto also scored 18 goals during the season, but while Rakels had scored all his goals from game-play, Junior netted 3 goals from the penalty spot.

Team of the tournament

''(Selected by www.sportacentrs.com)'' Goalkeepers: Marks Bogdanovs (

), Kaspars Ikstens ( Skonto Riga) Defenders: Jevgēņijs Simonovs ( Daugava Daugavpils), Kaspars Dubra ( Skonto Riga), Tomas Tamošauskas ( Liepājas Metalurgs), Vitālijs Maksimenko ( Skonto Riga),

Māris Smirnovs Māris Smirnovs (born 2 June 1976, in Daugavpils) is a former Latvian football defender, currently the assistant manager of FK Ventspils, playing in the Latvian Higher League. Smirnovs has played 22 international matches for Latvia national fo ...

( Tranzit Ventspils), Yuriy Shelenkov ( Daugava Daugavpils) Midfielders: Ruslan Mingazov ( Skonto Riga), Jurijs Žigajevs (

), Arturs Zjuzins (

), Valērijs Afanasjevs ( Daugava Daugavpils), Michael Tukura (

Takafumi Akahoshi is a Japanese former professional footballer who played as a midfielder. Career In 2010, Akahoshi joined Latvian side Liepājas Metalurgs. Soon after joining the team, he became a vital figure in its starting eleven and made several excellent a ...

( Liepājas Metalurgs) Forwards: Nathan Júnior ( Skonto Riga), Deniss Rakels ( Liepājas Metalurgs), Daniils Turkovs ( Skonto Riga), Oļegs Malašenoks (

)

Best player awards

* Goalkeeper: Kaspars Ikstens ( Skonto Riga) * Defender: Vitālijs Smirnovs ( Skonto Riga) * Midfielder: Jurijs Žigajevs (

) * Forward: Nathan Júnior ( Skonto Riga) * Manager of the season:

Aleksandrs Starkovs Aleksandrs Starkovs (born 26 July 1955) is a Latvian football coach and a former player. Most recently he coached FK Liepāja. Starkovs has managed clubs such as Spartak Moscow in Russia, FK Baku in Azerbaijan and Skonto FC in Latvia. He had t ...

( Skonto Riga) * The best youth player (under the age of 21): Artūrs Zjuzins (

) *Player of the season: Jurijs Žigajevs (

)

Organization

* Fair-play award: Skonto Riga * The best matches' organization: Skonto Riga * The best referee: Andrejs Sipailo and Harijs Gudermanis (assistant)

References

External links

Latvian Football Federation

Latvian Football Federation news
{{2010–11 in European Football (UEFA) Latvian Higher League seasons 1 Latvia Latvia