Yes!

Latvian women's basketball team qualifies for 2008 Summer Olympics, with an 84:26 win over Angola in the last qualifier. They will the first Latvian team in any of the olympic team sports (basketball, football, voleyball, etc.) to play in Summer Olympics, since Latvia regained independence in 1991. (Our mens ice hockey team has been in Winter Olympics twice, in 2002 and 2006.)

Ice Hockey World Championships, a summary

Latvia - USA 0:4
Latvia - Canada 0:7
Latvia - Slovenia 3:0
Latvia - Finland 1:2
Latvia - Norway 4:1
Latvia - Germany 3:5

After the first two games, it looked like we'll have to fight hard to avoid relegation. Then, it looked like we could make the quarterfinals. At the end, neither of those two possibilities happened. Well, that's how it has been for most of the last 12 years. 11th place, in which we finished, is quite close to the long-term average of our team.

Our hockey federation's goal was to make the top 10 and, before the tournament, they said that head coach's Oļegs Znaroks' job may be in jeopardy if the goal was not reached. Since the team only narrowly missed getting into top 10, I think Znaroks should be allowed to continue.

Vladimir Krikunov, Znaroks' consultant from Russia, suggested that Latvia improves the team by giving Latvian citizenship to some Russian players:

Even Belarus with its well-developed local championships lacks local player resources. In the last years, they have added six naturalized Russians to their national team. [..] Nothing bad will happen if one or two players from Russia appear on the Latvian team.

I'm skeptical on this idea. Importing one or two players from Russia would not hurt, but it might not help that much either. Russian hockey stars have no reason to play for Latvian national team instead of Russia. And IIHF rules against team-switching would prohibit any Russian player who has ever played an official game for the Russian team (even if that was 10 years ago or even on Russian team in Under-18 World Championships) from playing for a different country, even if they obtained that country's citizenship*.

So, we'd be left with importing second-tier Russian players and I really doubt whether those would be able to take our team anywhere higher than the current 11th place. And it's more fun to root for the homegrown players whose games I have followed since they were in junior hockey. I hope they stick with them.

*I was slightly wrong here. IIHF allows country-switching in this case, but only if the player has played in the national championships of his new country for at least 4 consecutive years. From Latvia's perspective, it's equivalent: our national hockey league is pretty weak and it would be very hard to get any highly skilled foreign player to stay there for 4 years.

Latvia-Germany, 3:5

At 2:15am this morning, a substantial fraction of the country was glued to the TV sets for the decisive hockey game between Latvia and Germany. If Latvia managed to tie the game, we would advance to quarterfinals (because of our 4-1 win against Norway one day earlier).

Germany has been a difficult opponent for Latvia recently. I still remember 2002 Winter Olympics (also taking place in North America and also on after-midnight live TV in Latvia) in which Latvia's hopes for quarterfinals were dashed by bigger, more physical German players which succesfully pushed the Latvians out of their way on the ice. I was a bit afraid of something like that happening again.

I was right, but only partially. It looked like Germans were physically stronger and they won most of the battles near the boards. But Latvia scored first and they would find ways to use their skills to beat Germans again later. After 47 minutes, it was 3:2 Latvia. Just 13 more minutes and we could even allow one goal in and still make quarterfinals...

But, then, Germany scored three goals in 5 minutes. 5:3 Germany. The last minutes were full of penalties and included a fight between Latvians and Germans with almost everyone on the ice involved.

Latvia-Finland, end of the game

We lost. 1-2. But if that last shot by Berzins had gone in or something else has gone our way... It was close.

After the hopeless 0-7 loss against Canada, I started thinking that this team was not as good as the one we used to have 5-10 years ago. I might have been wrong. On a good day, they can have a close game with a world-class team like Finland.

Now, two more games against Germany and Norway. If Latvia plays like they did today, we can win.

Latvia-Finland, 1st period

Wow! I've never seen anything like this...

Shots on goal: Finland 36 - Latvia 5.
Score: Latvia 1 - Finland 0.

In more detail:

• Lauris Darzins skates around Finnish goal and puts the puck in the net 1:27 in the game;
• A few minutes later, Latvia makes a mistake clearing the puck while shorthanded and earns delay of the game penalty (meaning we are now 3 against 5 Finns);
• Finns take 10-15 shots on Latvian goal during two minutes that they are 5-on-3. Edgars Masalskis saves us all the time;
• Overall, we've picked up 8 two-minute penalties for every possible minor infraction (including delay of game and too many men on ice);
• I'm quite impressed with our penalty-killing. It's agressive and, when it does not help, Masalskis comes to rescue;
• Overall, Finland is the more skilled team but it's much more equal than I expected.

2nd period to start soon...

On Latvian hockey fans

Many articles have been written about Latvian hockey fans and their devotion to their team. About 1000 of them travelled to Halifax, Canada for this year's world championships. Others are trying to catch 2:15am Latvian time (8:15pm Halifax) games on TV.

The Latvian hockey fever started in mid-1990s when Latvia was up-and-coming team. It made the top-division world championships in 1997 and managed to tie both that year's champion (Canada) and silver medal winner (Sweden) in its first tournament. A bit more and we might playing for medals - so it looked in those days.

Last 4 years have been mostly downhill from Latvia. From our independence in 1991 until early 2000s, we had the same group of players at the core of our team. Now, almost all of them have retired and we essentially have a new team. Fewer NHL players (only one this year and he is an enforcer). Less impressive list of foreign teams for which our players play. And we are not even close to being able to tie Canada again. The gap between us and the leading teams has grown bigger.

But the fan devotion is still there, even though the team is not doing so well. A surprisingly large number of my friends are staying awake for 2:15am TV games. Win or lose - we are with our team.

Ice Hockey World Championships

We won 3-0 against Slovenia last night. For those hockey fans who stayed awake for 2:15am TV broadcast from Canada, it was a nervous experience.

For first 30 minutes, Latvia outplayed Slovenia completely. Once, the commentator misspoke "Latvia has one minute left on its powerful" during a Slovenian powerplay. It was an understandable mistake - Latvia was attacking more than Slovenia, even when we had one less man on the ice.

After 30 minutes, shots on goal were 23-5 in Latvia's favor. But the scoreboard was still 0-0. Slovenian goalie saved him team a lot of times. Our team hit the goalpost at least twice. Our team was awarded a penalty shot, which we missed...

Then, Slovenian defender pulled Guntis Galvins down on the ice with his stick. Our team got the second penalty shot of the game and they finally scored. One minute later, another goal. 2-0 Latvia.

The second half of the game looked less lopsided. Slovenia started attacking more and they got some scoring chances. But Latvia was still the better team on the ice. At the end, it was 3-0, with the last goal going into empty net 28 seconds before the end of the game.

Now, Latvia moves on to the 2nd round and Latvian fans are preparing for one more 2:15am broadcast from Canada (as well as two games at more reasonable times).

Latvian recognized as European Basketball Player of the Year

Anete Jēkabsone-Žogota has been named as the European Player of the Year for 2007 in women's basketball, by a jury of 100 writers, coaches and players from 28 different countries.

In October 2007, Jēkabsone-Žogota lead the Latvian national team into semifinals of European championships, in one of best performances by the Latvian team in any team sport. She averaged 17.2 points per game, the second highest number in the tournament.

During 2007, Jēkabsone-Žogota also won EuroCup Women with Dynamo Moscow and was named the MVP of EuroCup Women. It's a truly impressive list of achievements in just one year!

UPDATE (Feb 8): Jēkabsone-Žogota wins another European Player of the Year award from FIBA Europe!

While I was away...

Ivars Godmanis became the Prime Minister of Latvia, completing the biggest political comeback in post-independence Latvia. He was the Prime Minister once before, from 1990 to 1993. That time, he left the office deeply unpopular. Before the 1993 elections, he was abandoned by most of his political allies who let him take the plame for the economic difficulties of post-Soviet Latvia. Godmanis-lead Popular Front (Tautas Fronte) went from a two-thirds majority in 1990 to 2.62% of popular vote in 1993. It looked like his political career was finished for good.

Godmanis spent some time as a manager in various companies. He then attempted to come back to politics with Latvian Way party... which soon lost all its seats in the parliament in the 2002 election and was abandoned by many of its most prominent members, just like Popular Front was abandoned in 1993. Once again, Godmanis looked like washed-up politician whose time has passed.

Then, Latvian Way merged with another struggling party, Latvia First Party. Together, they managed to get into the parliament in 2006. Godmanis became the minister of interior affairs. Back in the government, he looked reasonably competent. And, when Kalvitis' government fall in the flames of public anger, Godmanis emerged as the person to lead the new government.

We don't know what happened behind the scenes but some journalists were mentioning Godmanis as a candidate long before he was nominated. I saw a newsmagazine predicting Godmanis' nomination on October 17, a day before the famous protest against Loskutovs firing. That was almost a month before Kalvitis officially resigned. Some Latvian journalists have very good sources...

Economically, the slowdown continues. Consumer confidence index has fallen below 50% for the first time. The slowdown is not affecting anyone around me yet, though.

And Latvian U-20 ice hockey team has qualified for next year's top-division World Championships, by winning this year's Division 1B championships. Very good, our adult team needs some good younger players.

Basketball-blogging

Well, it appears that Latvian basketball team is capable of any surprises, including not so good ones.

We were supposed to win Portugal today. Portugal is not exactly a basketball country. Instead, our team was behind for almost the entire game. For first half, they were 3-5 points behind. I was saying to myself: we will catch up. At one point, they did. They had a small lead, for a half-minute or so. But it did not last.

Then, in the fourth quarter, Portugal took a 17-point lead. It was no longer the question who would win. It was the question by how much. If Portugal wins by less than 15 points, Latvia would still have a chance of advancing to the next round if Spain wins Croatia later tonight. If they won by more than 15 points, Latvia would be out immediately.

At the end, it was 77-67 and our basketball team is now waiting for the outcome of Spain-Croatia and pondering how they managed to lose to Portugal for the first time in Latvian basketball history.

UPDATE: Croatia won Spain by one point (with Croatia scoring the winning basket 3 seconds before the game was over) later on Wednesday and Latvia was eliminated. The coach of the Latvian team resigned on Thursday.

We win!

Latvia-Croatia 85:77. First-ever win against Croatia in an official game. Good beginning to Eurobasket 2007!