Opening
Tomorrow's Baltika match is dedicated to Neman. A good reason to remember that the region does not end beyond Kaliningrad, just as a broadcast does not end after the first disputed refereeing decision. It has towns you have to drive to, looking out of the window past forests, fields and old houses, before you understand that the region is in fact much wider than it seems from the centre.
Neman used to be called Ragnit. Even before the knights there was a Prussian fortress here, Raganita, standing on the high bank of the Memel, the old name of the Neman. Then came the Teutonic Order: the fortress was destroyed, rebuilt, renamed and turned again into a point of strength on the northern border.
