Latest news with #DanielsBalodis
The Courier
29-05-2025
- Sport
- The Courier
St Johnstone trio called up for international duty
St Johnstone trio, Victor Griffith, Daniels Balodis and Adama Sidibeh, have all received international recognition despite the disappointing end to the Perth club's season. Centre-back, Balodis, has been called up by Latvia for their friendly against Azerbaijan on June 7, which will be followed by a World Cup qualifier against Albania three days later. Griffith decided to turn down the chance to join up with the Panama squad during the March international break, opting to stay in Scotland and focus on his comeback from an ankle injury. He is currently in a training camp back home. Panama have a busy spell of fixtures – two World Cup qualifiers and then the Concacaf Gold Cup. The final squad for those games won't be announced until the start of next week. Sidibeh has been recalled by Gambia after missing out on a few squads. They play two friendlies. Meanwhile, Aaron Essel and Andre Raymond could face each other in the third-place play-off of the Unity Cup on Saturday, taking place at Brentford's stadium. Both Ghana and Trinidad and Tobago lost their semi-finals. Essel started the game but was taken off injured halfway through the clash with Nigeria.
The Courier
14-05-2025
- Sport
- The Courier
Uche Ikpeazu urged to remind Hearts fans how effective he can be with St Johnstone
Daniels Balodis knows how challenging it is to shackle St Johnstone team-mate, Uche Ikpeazu, on the training ground. He's got a broken nose to show for it. And the Latvian international is hoping the powerful forward's old club, Hearts, get a taste of Saints' new-found frontline physicality. 'Uche is a strong striker,' said Balodis. 'He helps our style a lot. 'It's hard to play against him and I'm happy we have him in our team now. 'He is making it hard for other defenders, creating some chances for us and getting some moments. 'It's an important game against Hearts and hopefully he can score for us against them. 'He was very apologetic to me when my nose was broken. 'I just said: 'No worries.' It's part of the game and it happens. I know that he didn't want to break my nose! 'It was just unlucky.' The medical advice to Balodis was for him to wear a mask in matches for a few weeks. But the centre-back decided one game, the Scottish Cup semi-final against Celtic, was enough for him. 'I didn't like it,' he said. 'It might have been a little bit risky to play without it for a while but I prefer that I can give every concentration for the game. 'So, I chose not to play with it on. 'There is the vision aspect, and also just the feeling on your face – it's not quite right. 'You cannot head the ball totally properly with the mask. 'Headers are very important for me. 'There have been some moments when it has been a bit sore. 'I got one in the mouth just below my nose. It was a hard kick, against Motherwell. 'It hurt but luckily it wasn't my nose.' As the last fit centre-half available to Simo Valakari, Balodis knows that there is extra responsibility on his shoulders to keep the players not used to the position right. 'Of course, I am trying to help every team-mate who is on the pitch,' he said. 'The whole team is working hard to defend, not just defenders but midfielders and strikers. 'That's football these days. 'It's a dirty job, it's hard work but it's so important for the team. 'We got the job done on Saturday and we have kept it going. 'Now we have the next job to get done. 'Everything is coming at us quickly and we are looking forward to it. 'We have to think the same way as before – in every game we go for the win. 'We need these points.' That Saints have sold out their full allocation of tickets for this game shows that they haven't lost faith in the great escape. 'The fans are unbelievable,' said Balodis. 'We can feel their support in this hard situation. 'In the last game, it helped us get the result that we needed. 'It is our aim that together we will get another good result.'
BBC News
11-05-2025
- Sport
- BBC News
Watt hails 'enormous' win as Saints retain survival hope
Midfielder Elliot Watt believes the "do or die" 2-1 victory over Ross County shows St Johnstone possess the character retain their Premiership against the Dingwall side would have confirmed automatic relegation to the Championship but Daniels Balodis' first-half header and Watt's second half winner reduced the gap on Don Cowie's side to just three points with two games remaining."Our character has been questioned a few times and rightly so," Watt told BBC Scotland."I've been in the changing room for three or four months now and I've never once seen the lads heads drop or anybody throw a towel in or give up."Everybody's fighting and everybody wants to get the club out of this situation."Today was do or die and we've shown an enormous amount of mental strength to get over the line."St Johnstone's next step is a trip to face managerless Hearts on Wednesday. Watt's winner delivers fresh hope that they can produce an unlikely escape and finish the season off bottom place."People are doubting us, but it's all irrelevant," he said. "It's all outside noise. As long as we know within the the changing room that we can get out of this situation."I said it to to a couple of lads during the week that if we can just win, the belief that gives us going into Wednesday, it's enormous. "It gives us a confidence that we probably haven't had for a while. We can't get too carried away. This means nothing today if we don't go back it up at Hearts with a result."
The National
27-04-2025
- Sport
- The National
Premiership boss defends players despite team's league struggles
Saints suffered a poor start to the Scottish Premiership post-split fixtures with a 3-2 loss at Motherwell. Now they face back-to-back home games against Kilmarnock and Ross County, with the Dingwall side the closest in realistic reach, six points away with four matches to play. Saints will soldier on through their schedule with one recognised centre-half, Daniels Balodis. Sven Sprangler and Sam Curtis accompanied him in a back three at Fir Park, while Taylor Steven and Josh McPake formed a left-flank alliance in their first Premiership starts of the season. Valakari is set to ask more of them in unfamiliar roles in a desperate bid to avoid the drop. 'I feel for my players,' said Valakari after the defeat away to the team he made more than 100 appearances for. Read more: 'I cannot criticise them. You cannot just swap and change your backline all the time and believe that you can be so solid. 'It doesn't work that way. But all our players who went there, playing in different positions, they gave everything. 'Sven at the back; Taylor is not a full-back. Motherwell attacked with power, the strikers played the game of their life. 'But our players were pushing and pushing for a third goal to get something out of the match.' Valakari will use the week ahead to prime his players on how best to use Uche Ikpeazu. The towering striker, out for a year with knee problems, made the second substitute outing of his comeback at Fir Park. Ikpeazu formed part of a double change as on-loan Burton midfielder Elliot Watt featured for the first time in two months. Watt scored Saints' second goal with a fine finish from the edge of the box and Valakari said: 'It was a great goal from Elliot. With Uche, we all see how he can change the dimensions of our game. 'But we have a little bit to learn; that we can't all the time just kick the long ball. We need to get a bit closer to create good moments with him.' Motherwell moved above Hearts into the safety of seventh place. However, manager Michael Wimmer is far from finished with his desired improvements for the season. The German, who has won three and drawn two of his eight games in charge, said: 'This is no time to be lazy or satisfied. 'It's not my style to look behind or in front in the league. My style is to work with the players, to develop the players, to improve our game. 'We have four more tough games. We want to collect as many points as possible – and also to improve the playing style. We have to keep working. We don't stop this.'
BBC News
08-04-2025
- Sport
- BBC News
Saints goalkeeping hero eyes great escape
Andy Fisher hopes St Johnstone's stunning 1-0 win over Celtic will be the catalyst for achieving Scottish Premiership Daniels Balodis scored with a header in the fourth minute at McDiarmid Park before 27-year-old goalkeeper Fisher pulled off a string of fine saves to ensure shock win, which was the Perth club's first victory over Celtic since 2016, moves Simo Valakari's side to within five points of second-bottom Dundee with six fixtures who arrived on loan from Swansea in January, said: "It's massive. I'm incredibly proud of everyone - the players, the staff, the fans, everyone behind the scenes."It shows we've bounced back from last week (a 3-0 loss to Hibernian). That wasn't the result we wanted or the performance we wanted."But we came out and got a clean sheet and got a win against Celtic, which shows we can beat anyone. Everyone wrote us off before the game. To get the win is like a bonus three points in a way."It gives us a better chance to now hopefully go out and get another three points and claw back a bit of that points difference going into the split."There's still belief within our squad we can stay up. Next week [away to Dundee United] is a big game, it's a must-win."
