Latvian national teams to start European League campaign with home-soil rounds
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Both Latvian national teams will start the CEV European Volleyball League in Riga on Friday with games against Romania. The stakes are high, as the tournament this season provides a chance to participate in the CEV EuroVolley 2028.
Latvia will host the first round of the men’s CEV European League in Riga, where they will meet the teams of Romania and Kosovo. In the second tournament next week in Portugal, they will play against the hosts and Montenegro, while in the third and final tournament in Norway, they will face the home team and Switzerland.
The opponent of the first game, Romania, is ranked 12th in Europe and is the fourth highest-seeded team in the competition. Latvia is ranked 25th, which makes them the no. 15 seed among this year's European League participants. A year ago, the two teams met in Romania in the European Golden League, where the hosts won 3-0 (25-23, 25-20, 25-21).
“In general they are a balanced team that has been playing together for many years. It will be important to push them away from the net, because they have strong middle blockers. If they receive serves well, then it will be difficult to compete, so we will try to vary the types of serves,” Latvian national team head coach Ugis Krastins said about the first opponents. “I am not building castles in the air and I am aware of what kind of team we are at the moment, but we are building team chemistry so that we can show our best performance. We may not have so many players from the strongest leagues, but we have champions of several countries. Hopefully, that winning mentality will drive us forward. Those guys have proven that they know how to win, and that, in my opinion, is the most important thing right now.”
The team has been working with 14 players since Thursday. Romanian national champion Janis Eduards Medenis could return to the to the list of candidates for the second half of the summer, when the team prepares for the CEV EuroVolley.
The women’s European League features 24 national teams competing in a similar format. The Latvian team will start their campaign in Riga with games against Romania and Israel, in the second leg in Ljubljana they will play against Iceland and Slovenia, and then in Tallinn they will face off against the Estonian and Greek teams.
“The team is currently in its best condition in recent years. Several players have started playing abroad, which is very important for the national team. Playing at a high level with their club helps to play at a high level on the national team,” coach Daniele Mario Capriotti said. “At the same time, we are aware that this summer, including the four test matches already played, we will take the court sixteen times against teams that are ranked higher than us. These include Romania, which is already used to playing at this level year after year. It will be important to play strongly in attack against their block and cope with receiving their serves. We have to play aggressively, starting with our own serve and attitude on the court.”
The Romanian women's national team is ranked 11th in Europe and is the highest seed among the European League participants. Latvia is ranked 29th, i.e. they are the no. 16 seed among the teams involved in the competition. Team Latvia finished second in the European Silver League last year, and also qualified for the CEV EuroVolley for the first time since 1997.