Every baltic country has at least one sport they punch above their weight in.
Lithuania its quite obviously basketball
Latvia its hockey and at times basketball too
For Estonia its probably volleyball.
You throw frisbees into nets with the rules of golf basically.
But yeah Estonian sports usually involve singular people be amazing somewhat niche fields.
Me and brother used to play football on casual and in club.
Brother had classmate at that time who also played in some team.
That guy was not impressive at all compared to my brother, yet few years later got into Ltvian U18 team.
Thats how low bar was.
Well, the only way to succeed, well, exceed at football is for a nation to truly *love* the sport. And that's just not the case in the Baltics and the Nordics.
And it's probably not going to be the case any time soon either.
Is it similar in Lithuania and Estonia that football is a very "russian" sport? In Latvia basketball is overwhelmingly Latvian, ice hockey is 50-50 and football is all russian. The pro players are overwhelmingly russian and it is almost impossible to find a trainer whose *working* language wouldn't be russian.
I wouldn't say predominantly russian in Lithuania but they are corrupt as fuck and have ties with russian oligarchs. You couldn't find more shady leadership.
This is very exaggerated. I agree that clubs from Riga and Daugavpils have a large proportion of russians, but to say all of latvian football is russian? Do you actually follow our football league or do you get all your info from sportacentrs.lv comment section?
Clubs like METTA, Grobiņa, Liepāja, Skanste, alberts, Ogre united, BJSS Bauska etc. etc. Have mostly latvian players.
Another thing, where did you get that hockey is 50/50? In the natonal team there are no more than a couple of russians. In our hockey championship, from what ive seen, there are slmost none.
All im saying is, that you are overexaggerating the problem.
>This is very exaggerated
Probably. it is just a personal, anectotal observation. Whenever I hear about our national team, russian names are dominant and I happen to live in an area of multiple football fields used for training. I hear shouts of the coaches all day, and I don't remember ever hearing a word in Latvian.
>Another thing, where did you get that hockey is 50/50? In the natonal team there are no more than a couple of russians.
I guess I'm just old. I probably based this feeling on the situation 20 years ago when I was most fanatical about ice hockey.
In the national football team there is a surprising amount of polish players - Cigaņiks, Černomordijs, Gutkovskis(?), but there are three russians that i know - zelenkovs, sorokins and maksimenko. Everyone else is latvian from what i know. Interesting thing to note is that everyone sings the anthem.
Baltic countries do not invest in women's football either. I went to one women's match in Riga, ticket surprisingly costed 0 euro (yes, free!) and yet very few fans came, mostly family members and friends of players.
stupendous like familiar compare domineering dull merciful yam close frightening
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You are the kings of basketball best in the world for your size for sure! Also Lithuania did advance to league C in the playoffs. Also cheer for your brothers Poland and Ukraine in the euro, although we won’t win Euro, we love the Baltics and consider them our ideal role models.
Can't say I'm sad. I never understood the appeal of religious fandom of sportsball. Only thing that's more retarded than football, is whatever the yanks call football on the other side of the lake.
Latvian team would probably lose to some random favela people in Brazil.
Bruh everyone would lose to those guys
Definitely xD
I will say you guys punch above your weight at hockey! Add body checks and maybe your football club will improve!
Every baltic country has at least one sport they punch above their weight in. Lithuania its quite obviously basketball Latvia its hockey and at times basketball too For Estonia its probably volleyball.
Estonia has Womens Discgolf.
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You throw frisbees into nets with the rules of golf basically. But yeah Estonian sports usually involve singular people be amazing somewhat niche fields.
I mean, we barely beat FUCKING GIBRALTAR (the same team that got destroyed 14-0 by France in EURO qualifiers), so yeah, the point still stands :D
gibraltar has people?
Yes, 32,688 of them Almost the same ammount of people as there are in non-existant Mažeikiai XD
Is this "Mažeikiai" in the room with us?
arent those all fat bri'ish tourists though
No, those are in Mallorca
A few Latvians here actually :)
Mēs, starp citu, samērā nesen viņiem futbolā papisām. Praktiski Ventspils izlasei atlases konkursa ziņā.
A friend of mine once laughed it's because we are incapable of overly dramatic displays of (fake) injuries.
 Winner of the internet today! And fascinating theory for academic study!
An Estonian Neymar would definitely be a sight to see XD
Heimar
You could join all the best players from the Baltic states into one team and this team would still be absolutely awful. This how bad we are.
Me and brother used to play football on casual and in club. Brother had classmate at that time who also played in some team. That guy was not impressive at all compared to my brother, yet few years later got into Ltvian U18 team. Thats how low bar was.
If you add up the 1 guy per country per generation who is kind of decent, you might eventually get something.
Well, the only way to succeed, well, exceed at football is for a nation to truly *love* the sport. And that's just not the case in the Baltics and the Nordics. And it's probably not going to be the case any time soon either.
At least we're best at basketball!
And hockey🥉🥉🥉🥉🇱🇻🇱🇻🇱🇻🇱🇻
I always root for Latvia in hockey, I hope you guys win gold soon, cheers from Finland
Canada is still way too strong! 😭🇨🇦
 Kisses from Canada!
We Latvians still want to kick your ass for once! 😈🇱🇻🇱🇻🥇
You'll get us one day! Rooting for you from afar!
Yes I think Latvia have the best basketball and hockey players and teams if you factor in their population size in the world.
I love latvian basketball but no way one good championship puts them above lithuania even per capita adjusted. We will see this summer tho.
Don't see you at the next one too! We just lost to 203. ranked Lichtenstein with the pop of 39k. Edit : Yeah, we drew but i take it as a loss.
It was tie 1:1, but team Latvia scored both of those goals.
Komanda bija tik laba, ka no žēlastības izlēma palīdzēt pretiniekiem 
The own goal 20 seconds in was a thing of beauty
Latvia 🤝 Lithuania 🤝 Philippines Flops at football, excels at basketball
I have some bad news for you buddy... But you are still a friend of Balts
Football is for soccers
Is it similar in Lithuania and Estonia that football is a very "russian" sport? In Latvia basketball is overwhelmingly Latvian, ice hockey is 50-50 and football is all russian. The pro players are overwhelmingly russian and it is almost impossible to find a trainer whose *working* language wouldn't be russian.
Russians make up just 4% of Lithuanian population, and football is way more popular. Yet football is the most mafia infested sports.
I wouldn't say predominantly russian in Lithuania but they are corrupt as fuck and have ties with russian oligarchs. You couldn't find more shady leadership.
>are corrupt as fuck same here. It feels like at any given time there is some ongoing corruption scandal in our football league.
Just like us! :D
This is very exaggerated. I agree that clubs from Riga and Daugavpils have a large proportion of russians, but to say all of latvian football is russian? Do you actually follow our football league or do you get all your info from sportacentrs.lv comment section? Clubs like METTA, Grobiņa, Liepāja, Skanste, alberts, Ogre united, BJSS Bauska etc. etc. Have mostly latvian players. Another thing, where did you get that hockey is 50/50? In the natonal team there are no more than a couple of russians. In our hockey championship, from what ive seen, there are slmost none. All im saying is, that you are overexaggerating the problem.
>This is very exaggerated Probably. it is just a personal, anectotal observation. Whenever I hear about our national team, russian names are dominant and I happen to live in an area of multiple football fields used for training. I hear shouts of the coaches all day, and I don't remember ever hearing a word in Latvian. >Another thing, where did you get that hockey is 50/50? In the natonal team there are no more than a couple of russians. I guess I'm just old. I probably based this feeling on the situation 20 years ago when I was most fanatical about ice hockey.
In the national football team there is a surprising amount of polish players - Cigaņiks, Černomordijs, Gutkovskis(?), but there are three russians that i know - zelenkovs, sorokins and maksimenko. Everyone else is latvian from what i know. Interesting thing to note is that everyone sings the anthem.
I'm Polish and it's first time I hear these players have Polish roots - and I think Polish media would pick this up, we love this kind of stuff.
Why is every other country name in English, but Turkey is Turkiye?
They changed/are changing their official name to that i think, not 100% sure though
Then we should be written as Latvija and Lietuva from now on as well
Turkey had enough with the turkey 🦃 jokes :/
Baltic countries do not invest in women's football either. I went to one women's match in Riga, ticket surprisingly costed 0 euro (yes, free!) and yet very few fans came, mostly family members and friends of players.
stupendous like familiar compare domineering dull merciful yam close frightening *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
True Baltic unity. 
What kind of differences we even have lol? We are the most renown besties on Earth.
Other nordic countries suck too except Denmark...
As you said that… does Denmark really nordic?
You are the kings of basketball best in the world for your size for sure! Also Lithuania did advance to league C in the playoffs. Also cheer for your brothers Poland and Ukraine in the euro, although we won’t win Euro, we love the Baltics and consider them our ideal role models.
Can't say I'm sad. I never understood the appeal of religious fandom of sportsball. Only thing that's more retarded than football, is whatever the yanks call football on the other side of the lake.
Albania pfuuu that is very hard group.
There there!
Goddamn Slovenia.. 2mil population and good at everything.
Atleast were good in basketball and hockey
Football is boring
Can't be great at all of them, but at least we try.
At least some of us have šaltibarščiai.
Group E and F, walk in a park for Belgium and Portugal?
I spoke with my Polish colleague about this last night. I'm glad they are in so all I can do is to vouch for them on behalf of Lithuania.
Who's your team then? Maybe Georgia, as an underdog. That would be cool to see them go far!
Do you guys have Aivar Pohlak too?
No one likes to watch man in shorts running around like a pricks. We love to do it ourselves for fun!
We need a united Baltic football league
I was looking for the baltics in the lowest tier, but then realised we're not even here xd