I do agree Sparta is better than last year and should be good enough not to embarrass themselves in Europa League this time around. Season opener is done. Jablonec 2 - 0 Bohemians - Matousek (who Slavia loaned out to Jablonec) scored both goals. If he continues at this pace he'll wind up playing about as often for Slavia as Schick did for Sparta. Didn't see the match, but from highlights the touch and composure on the first goal were impressive. Maybe now that he and Dolezal are on the same team, Silhavy will see clearly which one is a better call-up choice. Edit: Highlights
Yeah, he always looked like that for Pribram too but somehow couldn't hit an open goal the couple of months with us. Not sure he fits our team, but definitely talented.
And you were right that we are looking international for defenders, supposedly we are close to signing Ghanaian defender and former Inter Milan Youth player Issac Donkor: https://www.dailymailgh.com/exclusive-slavia-praque-close-in-on-donkor/
While Matousek was productive last season, the fact he calmly chipped an on rushing keeper is definitely a sign of development. Last year he would have just blasted that. I wouldn't be surprised if Slavia cancels this loan before the window ends. It's always taking a chance when someone's never played a higher level than Serie B and Romanian league, but definitely seems like a player with potential if true.
First match by one of the contenders. Plzen 3 - 1 Olomouc Plzen looks better than last season and all their goals were good quality especially Kopic's (3 assists by Cermak who looks much improved). Krmencik is fit again though hasn't recovered form but Vrba said post-match this is the deepest side he's had. Still think 1)Slavia 2)Sparta 3)Plzen is the order, but I suspect each team is equal or better than last season.
Sparta 0 - 2 Slovacko Oof... a debacle of a first match for Sparta as they lose at home to a team expected to fight against relegation.
While my instinct is to fully enjoy the schadenfreude, I don't want to go overboard until we play our opener.
It's still very early, but our central defense had a big mistake in the first five minutes though still 0-0. Really miss Deli already and need to make sure we keep MNN and sign a real Deli replacement. Since then we are mostly in control but no great chances.
This team is still on summer break... Soucek just played a nearly perfect throughball to Zlin on a lazy back pass. Kudela woke up just enough to make the last-ditch challenge. I think Zlin's goalkeeper just caught the ball outside the box, but no call... actually on replay he caught it with hands in the box though his body was outside. Fairly impressive body control.
I definitely think this new striker Yusuf needs to be the #9, his hold up play is valuable and was a big upgrade on Van Buren. Defense is still a disaster, and I'm not comfortable with a 1 goal lead. Kolar for his part has done better than normal in goal. Hovorka and Zmrhal should never start, and Olayinka isn't far behind on that list. Stanciu needs to hurry up and get acclimated.
Ugh, Zmrhal has blown 2 1-v-1s with the keeper today... This one was so late it didn't matter. Good to start with a win, but that was ugly.
Not sure I'd be so alarmed by a narrow victory, Zlin is a decent team and generally a tough away match to start the season. Still sounds like of the big 3 that Plzen had the best start.
It looks like Slavia is losing their other key defender this week, unless they move quickly to sign adequate replacements I think their chances at Champions League are now less than 50-50 regardless of opponent.
I'm a new fan and I realize that even a big Czech club is a career jumping off point rather than destination, but I'm very disappointed with our club management that they didn't try to improve Deli and MNNs contracts last season. They are much harder players to replace than Soucek and more important than signing Stanciu. In all the time the club worked on that we let two of our best players get poached for nothing. We should have enough money to sign one good replacement, but it takes time to adjust and our defense will surely be worse this season.
I would probably feel the same as a Slavia fan, but both Deli and Ngadeu-Ngadjui arrived back when the club was recovering from being more or less broke and didn't have the luxury of putting large release clauses. Also both were cheap signings with little previous success, so you basically have to hope the scouting can find the same. Zbrojovka began the season traveling to Vlasim much like last season, although this time we managed to leave with an away point instead of losing. Would prefer a win of course, but still feel good about promotion chances. In the first division, Liberec - Plzen was a rather dull match, but Plzen managed to make the most of their limited chances in a 1-2 away victory, Kopic is definitely on form. Krmencik is struggling to get back into it, he looks physically fit but just readjusting to the match. If he gets back into I think Plzen can put a strong title challenge in this season compared to last.
Much better from Sparta today against Jablonec, and another goal by the supremely talented Adam Hlozek. I realize he's still a new signing but they should probably drop Kozak in favor of Tetteh or Graiciar, he missed an easy chance early and seemed too slow for this level. Absent of finishing the other forwards are much more well rounded.
Managers are beginning to complain that the summer break was too short, which it was. While I like the extra matches of the super structure the league has done an awful job with scheduling around it.
@Slavia_do_toho several reports that Slavia is about to sign a 22-year-old Tunisian CB Nassim Hnid. Seems like a player with potential. Also, in general for people looking for an English language source for Czech football, there is a very active new twitter source: https://twitter.com/@czechfooty
Zmrhal just scored that one great goal he does every 15 matches or so to try and make us forget he's usually worthless. Teplice look bad, but also we look a bit better.
The first match of the day was an interesting upset. Bohemians 3 - 0 Mlada Bolselav. The home team went with 3 U-23 players upfront and it seemed to work. Lovely chip by Van Buren in the Slavia match, but Teplice look like a 2nd division team.
Why does Teplice have such a big and modern looking stadium? It seems to be mostly filled with Slavia fans.