The history of Latvia’s national football team began not with triumph, but with an honest draw. On 24 September 1922 in Riga, Latvia played its first official international match against Estonia, and the game ended 1–1. Latvia’s first national-team goal was scored by forward Edvīns Bārda — one of the three famous Bārda brothers in interwar football. That afternoon, a young state gained another voice — in the stadium, on the score sheet, and in supporters’ memory.

After the War of Independence, Latvia rapidly built not only diplomatic and military institutions, but sporting ones as well. The football team became one of the most visible ways in which the young state entered international life in everyday terms, not only through treaties and diplomatic notes.