Latvia defeats Estonia 274:242

TALLINN - In 54 out of 101 soccer matches held on June 22, Latvia defeated Estonia, scoring 274 goals overall against the Estonians' 242.

The Estonian and Latvian soccer associations got the idea of arranging soccer games between Latvia and Estonia last autumn.

"Our idea was to promote soccer as a sport and also develop Estonian-Latvian relations," said Mart Tarmak from the Estonian Football Association.

"Some events are initially meant only for getting into the Guiness Record Book, but we do not really care about that. However, if the book wants to list us, we have nothing against it," said Tarmak.

He also said both sides are satisfied with the results and are eager to arrange the next 100 or more games in 2005.

The series of games took place mostly in stadiums in southern Estonia and northern Latvia, with some matches held in the capitals, and one - between border guards - was held at the Estonian-Latvian border in Valga.

The most interesting were the games between non-professional teams, who played merely for fun. The 101 games involved professional clubs, chess players, policemen, MPs and government ministers, firemen and journalists.

The most spectacular wins were posted by the Daugavpils' municipal police team, who smashed their colleagues from the Estonian town of Valga 12-2 at the Daugavpils stadium, and the brewery Latgales Alus' team, which beat the Saue town soccer squad 13-6 at the same venue.

Estonia's parliamentary team, reinforced with some heavyweight (in every sense) Cabinet members such as Prime Minister Mart Laar and Environment Minister Heiki Kranich, beat their Latvian counterparts 2-0.

None of the ministers scored though. Both goals were registered by Juri Kavel, a young MP from the Pro Patria Union party.

Show-business types also played. The Estonian rock band Blind beat Brainstorm 5-2 at Parnu Beach.

The Bank of Latvia scored only once in a friendly match with Hansabank, losing 3-1.

Hansabank players said before the game that the Latvians were going to be tough opponents, and also pointed out that the Latvian national bank's team was younger.

"Unfortunately nobody from the board of directors is on Hansabank's soccer team," said Noormets.