UNITED HOPE TO SEE OUT A DIFFICULT JULY OUT WITH 3 POINTS
28 / 07 / 2016
Olaine 
Riga United will only aim for three points tonight as they face Olaine.
Date published: 28/07/2016 - 11:55
Riga United FC vs Olaine
Venue:
Rīgas Vidusskola 49. Futbola Stadions
Kick off: 28/07/2016 - 20:30
United have to pick themselves up from last week’s away defeat to
FC Caramba (2-0). There were a lot of positives to take from
that game and with the fighting spirit they showed last week, this
will give good reason for United to feel they can pick up the win
against Olaine tonight.
Picking up on the squad situation and last week’s loss, Mo Awada
was feeling good about the status of his squad: ““Following last
week's disappointment, I believe it shows how far we have come from
last season. Normally July is a bad month for us as we are missing
many players but this season, having focused on recruiting more
local talent, we have a much stronger/bigger squad.”
With missing players, July has been a difficult month for Riga
United. They have had to constantly reshuffle the players and
positions, which doesn’t help with consistency, and they have lost
two and won one, conceding six goals and only scoring two. And
consistency in front of goal is something which Riga United have
had to look at in the past week and over July, after failing to
convert a lot of chances.
Olaine on the other hand are not having a good debut season in the
Riga division, currently lying second from bottom in 12th place
with twelve points. They remain a dangerous side though, having
beaten Salaspils last month and drawn with Monarhs-Flaminko.
Mo Awada is aware of Riga’s flaws and the potential threat from
Olaine: “Olaine have had a difficult season, but they remain
dangerous as some of their results have shown. So we need to be
focused and work hard. I will implement a slightly different system
tonight, which I believe will give us better tempo and danger to
our play.”
Team news:
Mo Awada is still missing players due to the summer, however, they
should be returning back soon. There’ll be one or two changes to
the lineup, Sofian Berrahal takes the captaincy and leads the team
out tonight.
Awada had this to say about the squad tonight: “I'm happy to
welcome some players back from injury; we have Tadi [Oumezdi],
Ervīns [Perkons] and Ede [Schauer] returning to the squad. We
are still missing players, who have gone away for the summer, also
Jānis [Pakalns] who is unavailable. Apart from that we have a
strong squad going into the game.”