Latvian Renārs Rode coaches Bulgarian second-tier football club Fratria
Latvian football specialist Renārs Rode is in his second season as head coach of Bulgaria's second-division club Fratria, which aims to reach the top flight. The team is fourth but has just lost three games in a row.
Latvian football specialist Renārs Rode is in his second season as head coach of Fratria, a club in Bulgaria's second football division, officially based in Varna. The club is aiming for promotion to the Bulgarian top flight this season. Rode described his experience to Sportacentrs.com commentator Edmunds Novickis on the Patreon platform.
Standing and recent results
Fratria is fourth in an 18-team league, having collected 22 points in 13 games early in the season. Lately, however, the team has lost three matches in a row, including games in the Bulgarian Cup. It is the first time this has happened under Rode at the club. The latest league defeat was 1-2 against Etar, who sit 14th and are only five points behind Fratria.
Rode says the situation is not critical: there were losses early in the season before too, after which the team improved. In his view, only the first of the three defeats was truly poor. The next game is on Monday, away to Dobrudzha, who are second from bottom.
The goal: the top division
The second-division winner is promoted automatically, while the second- and third-placed teams enter a play-off. Last season Fratria missed the play-off zone by a single goal. The current league leader is the reserve team of CSKA Sofia, which cannot be promoted, so several other clubs are actively chasing a place. Rode notes that the table is very tight.
The club and its squad
The club is young and has existed for only a few years. It has no training base of its own, and sessions are held at three different venues, although a new base is being built and an office has opened in the city. The president is a businessman from Russia who left the country 20 years ago. The squad is mostly Ukrainian and Bulgarian, as the sporting director is from Ukraine. Rode's new assistant is from Turkey.
Rode is 37. Before coaching, he played in the Latvian Virslīga in more than 170 matches, as well as in South Africa, the Czech Republic, Ireland and Malaysia. As an assistant he worked under Jurģis Kalns at Valmiera and at Visakha in Cambodia.
