Ronaldhinio

best gool »

Latvia National Football Team

Head coach: Aleksandrs Starkovs
Captain: Vitalijs Astafjevs
Top scorer: Eriks Petersons
FIFA ranking: 107

The Latvian national football team (Izlase in Latvian) is controlled by the Latvian Football Federation, the governing body for football in Latvia, and represents the country in international football competitions, such as World Cup and the European Championships.

Latvia played its first match in 1922, a game against Estonia; the result was a 1-1 draw. Latvia is the only Baltic team that has qualified to final stage of European Championship, they won the Baltic Cup 19 times.

In 1940, Latvia was annexed by the Soviet Union; the country regained its independence in 1991 and played their first match as a new nation against Estonia on November 16 of that year in the Baltic Cup, and their first FIFA-recognized match against Romania on April 8, 1992, a 0-2 loss at Bucharest.

Latvia was a surprise qualifier for the 2004 European Football Championship, after defeating Turkey in a playoff to reach the final tournament. In Euro 2004, Latvia was drawn into group D with Germany, Czech Republic, and the Netherlands. On June 15, 2004, Latvia played Czech Republic and managed to take a late first half lead with a great goal from Maris Verpakovskis. The Czechs would later come back to win the game 2-1. Four days later Latvia earned a respectable draw 0-0 against Germany to earn their first point in a major tournament. Latvia later lost to the Netherlands 3-0, and was eliminated with one point from their draw and two losses.

In the qualifying for World Cup 2006, Latvia was in group 3 with Portugal, Slovakia, Russia, Estonia, Liechtenstein, and Luxembourg. Latvia was considered as a small threat for the playoff spot. However, Latvia failed to show any surprises as they did in Euro 2004 and failed to qualify for World Cup 2006 finishing fifth with 15 points from four wins, three draws and five losses.

Vitalijs Astafjevs has played for Latvia more times than anyone else, with 129 caps currently. Eriks Petersons is the nation's top goal scorer with 24, while modern-day star Maris Verpakovskis is second with 20.

Latvia Team
No.	NAME	POS	Height	Weight	Age
-	Pavels Doroshevs	G	-	-	-
1	Aleksandrs Kolinko	G	6-3	190	32
12	Andrejs Piedels	G	6-4	198	36
2	Igors Stepanovs	D	6-4	187	31
4	Dzintars Zirnis	D	5-11	172	30
6	Deniss Ivanovs	D	6-0	159	23
7	Maris Smirnovs	D	6-1	179	31
13	Kaspars Gorkss	D	6-3	187	25
17	Oskars Klava	D	6-2	176	23
19	Arturs Zakrishevski	D	6-2	176	-
25	Deniss Kacanovs	D	5-11	165	27
3	Vitalijs Astafjevs	M	5-11	173	36
5	Juris Laizans	M	6-1	168	28
8	Imants Bleidelis	M	5-10	160	29
10	Andrejs Rubins	M	5-9	154	28
14	Andrey Perepletkin	M	-	-	22
15	Genadijs Solonicins	M	5-11	159	27
16	Aleksejs Visnjakovs	M	5-8	154	23
18	Aleksandrs Cauna	M	-	-	-
9	Maris Verpakovskis	S	5-8	150	27
11	Andrejs Prohorenkovs	S	6-1	183	30
11	Vits Rimkus	S	5-11	176	34
20	Girts Karlsons	S	6-3	179	26
29	Marian Pahars	S	5-9	143	30

Group F
	GP	W	D	L	GS	GA	GD	P
Sweden	7	6	0	1	17	4	13	18
Spain	7	5	0	2	13	6	7	15
Northern Ireland	6	4	1	1	10	7	3	13
Denmark	6	3	1	2	9	5	4	10
Liechtenstein	7	1	1	5	4	18	-14	4
Iceland	7	1	1	5	5	15	-10	4
Latvia	6	1	0	5	4	7	-3	3