Levadia U19 beat JK Tabasalu 3:0 in the Esiliiga B regular season on Sunday. The result keeps them top of the table after twenty-two matches. Tabasalu remain eighth, still with a gap to close.
And here's the thing about youth football — you notice the patterns. Levadia scored twice inside the first half. Gurin found the net at twenty minutes, then Bogatov made it two at forty-one. By then the visitors had already started to look comfortable, sitting back and hoping for a reprieve that never came.
The third goal arrived at the death, ninety-plus-three minutes in. The scorer isn't listed in the data, but the finish sealed a comfortable evening for the hosts. Tabasalu had nothing to show for their efforts, not even a consolation.
Levadia's form has been mixed lately — a five-goal away defeat to Tallinn Kalev and a narrow win over Pärnu JK Vaprus U21 in their last outing. To be fair, Sunday's performance was more controlled than recent displays. They didn't panic when Tabasalu pushed forward, and they didn't need to.
Tabasalu's recent results tell a different story. They beat Tallinn Kalev 3:1 in August, but before that came defeats to Tampere and Legion. The consistency isn't there yet, and this result adds to the frustration. Eight points off the leaders after twenty-seven games is a long way to go.
The gap between first and eighth is now twenty-one points. Levadia have one foot in the promotion conversation, while Tabasalu are still fighting to establish themselves in the middle of the table. Sunday was about maintaining momentum — and that's exactly what happened.