RIGA — Latvia have looked less than convincing in winning their only two Olympic warm-up games over lowly Denmark 5-3 and 1-0.

In the first game the result always looked as though it would go in Latvia’s favor. With few of their foreign players being released for the fixture, the team very much resembled Dinamo Riga, although the team did not display the same quality that we have come to expect from Dinamo Riga over the past two months.

Not surprisingly, given their large presence, Dinamo Riga players featured in all of the goals, but it was Herberts Vasiļjevs who was the best player for Latvia on the night, managing to score Latvia’s second goal.

Dinamo Riga coach Julius Supler limited the number of players he released to play in the following match on Thursday night, meaning it was very much an understrength Latvian team who lined up for the second game.

The understrength team failed to enthuse fans with just 2,055 turning out for the match, producing an eerie feeling in an almost deserted Arena Riga. The hockey was not much more promising than the crowds with the first two periods failing to produce any sort of excitement. On the odd occasion that any pressure was placed on the goalies they proved more than able at handling the task at hand.

The beginning of the third period was no more promising with the biggest cheer coming at a hint of a fight in the seventh minute. The deadlock was finally broken in the 17th minute when Jānis Sprukts was on hand to clean up Miķelis Rēdlihs’ blocked shot.

It is hard to see what Latvia coach Oļegs Znaroks gained out of the two games with no one standing out. Znaroks would have admittedly had some difficulty enthusing his troops against lowly Denmark but he still would have expected much more than what he received. About the only comfort for Znaroks was the absence of up to five front-line players who were not released from their North American clubs for the game.

The limited international window means that Latvia will have little opportunity to work together again as a team before the Winter Olympics in February.