Dainava

Vytautas Lukša came back to Alytus in 2021, a veteran of Lithuanian football returning to a club he had once known. FK Dainava Alytus, the descendant of a line running back to 1935, had collapsed under financial strain in 2014. Two years later a group of local footballers from the amateur side FM Auska joined forces with an ultras group calling itself Dzūkų tankai, and out of that merger came DFK Dainava — a name carried over, not a legal succession, from what had gone before.

The rebuilt club took its time reaching the top flight. It was Fabrio Maggione, an Italian coach, who took Dainava into the A Lyga for the first time in 2021, and it was Sergejus Kuznecovas who won them the I Lyga title the following year, securing an immediate return after relegation. By 2024 the club had reached fourth place in the A Lyga, its best finish yet.

Home games are played at Alytaus miesto stadionas, a ground with just under 3,750 seats and no standing areas, split between an open east stand and a covered west side. The team plays in red shirts with dark blue shorts and socks, and is known locally as Dzūkai, after Dzūkija, the region around Alytus.

None of that history carries the weight of the fixture with FK Sūduva of Marijampolė. Both clubs represent the south of the country, and their meetings are known as the Pietų Lietuvos derbis — the derby of southern Lithuania.