Siauliai

Ground: Siauliu miesto savivaldybes stadionas

Visits: 1

Date: 19th June 2014

Match: Siauliai - Ekranas 2-0 (A Lyga)

Attendance: 850

When I visited Lithuania in early May this year I went to the A Lyga match between Kruoja and Siauliai. That was kind of a derby and with the second match of this tour being Siauliai vs Ekranas I was more or less making the same journey from Vilnius today as back in May. My bus departed Vilnius bus station at 09.50 and 3 h 40 min later I was in Siauliai. In Lithuania there are few trains but the bus network is excellent and from Vilnius there are plenty of buses going to Siauliai. As my buss rolled into Siauliai there was a really heavy rain shower but after a few minutes the rain had disappeared. My hotel was a 12-minute walk from the bus station. As I was checking in I also asked the receptionist to order a taxi for me. 12 km outside Siauliai there is a place called Hill of Crosses (Kryiu kalnas) and this site is a must for anyone visiting Siauliai. For 15 Euros the taxi driver drove me to the site, waited 30 minutes and then drove me back to my hotel. Visit the official site for more information: http://www.hillofcrosses.com/

Once back in central Siauliai I had something to eat and drink before making the 25-minute walk to the ground. Siauliu miesto savivaldybes stadionas was a (positive) surprise for me. The West Stand has around 3 000 seats and most of them are covered. The East Stand has around 1 000 seats but is open to the elements. I didn´t expect a club like Siauliai to have such a big ground. The only negative is of course the running tracks. Siauliai and Ekranas (from Panevezys) are both in the lower regions of the A Lyga table. Only one team is relegated though and that will be Dainava who are 17 points behind Siauliai, who are second from bottom. The official attendance was given as 850 (although I doubt that number) and among those were vocal fans from both Siauliai and Ekranas. I actually recognised some of the Siauliai fans flags from my visit in May. The match this evening was ok and finished 2-0 to Siauliai. The last goal was scored in stoppage time from a nicely executed free-kick. The match ended around 18.50 and I hurried back to my hotel so I could watch as much as possible from the World Cup. The "early" match has a kick-off time of 19.00 in Lithuania. Tomorrow I will re-group to Liepaja in Latvia. More than five hours in different buses but I have no match planned for tomorrow. On Saturday I have two matches lined-up though. The first of those will be my first ever match in Latvia.

Pictures from the Hill of Crosses:

hill of crosses1