Slavia v Plzen is set to kick off shortly. Still an eight point difference between the two after they both won their midweek games. I think Plzen are slight favourites here and for the sake of the title race, I do hope they win, but Trpisovsky always seems to get his players to rise to the occasion no matter what team he fields. My prediction is 2-1 for Plzen.
That such an anticipated match would finish 0-0 was kind predictable. 7 Matches left with an 8 point gap its hard for me to see Plzen making up the gap. I think the time off helped Slavia as they started the spring very mediocre but they seem to be a slightly better now. That combined with the fact that there just isn't enough quality in the rest of the league makes the current lead insurmountable even with the superstructure.
Brno have 9 matches to make up 6 points against Pardubice for the automatic promotion. I think on current form we'll definitely finish top 3 to have a promotion playoff.
I was surprised and a bit let down by Plzen's approach. They looked like they were playing not to lose rather than to win from the start. A victory here would've definitely put pressure on Slavia, but I agree that an eight point gap after this result is too wide to close. This is what continues to impress me the most about Trpisovsky. It's pretty remarkable what he was able to bring out of this team in the Champions League considering they were supposed to be notably weaker after last summer's departures. Even currently with players like Provod and Holes that performed well on Sunday despite only recently becoming first team players. Not to mention Zima who had only played I think twice in the league before coming to Slavia and is now a regular in that defence. It's no secret that he'll coach the national team one day and I'm very much looking forward to seeing what he could do at that level.
It'll be a grand experiment for sure. My only concern about how he manages a club vs national team is that he won't be in control of a players physical conditioning which is probably the aspect of Czech league he's done the most to modernize.
This condensed schedule is hard to keep up with. Slavia dropped 2 points with a fairly lackluster performance (though extremely exciting match) 2-2 draw in Ostrava while Plzen produced a comprehensive 3 point win at home vs Zlin. 6 pts is the difference now with 6 matches remaining (1 regular season and 5 Superstructure). The other big news is that Sparta (who were lower mid-table a few weeks ago) have hit a run of form and are now in 4th. They don't really have any realistic goal other than 3rd place and Europa League, but it could be something to build on next season. In 2. Liga, Pardubice pulled out a crucial result vs Dukla. They are closing in on guaranteed promotion, and frankly they deserve it with how they've done all season (as much as I hoped Brno could catch them we started poorly). Brno has a local derby vs Lisen tomorrow. The first derby was a great match with a big crowd (obviously not happening this time), and since then we've only made it more personal by taking their manager.
Lisen 1 - 2 Brno This match wasn't as close as the final score really.. Brno is big enough for 2 teams and a having a derby was the only benefit of not getting promotion last year. I am confident we will finish in the top two, but just don't think Pardubice will drop enough points for us to over take them.
Not a good look for our league... https://twitter.com/JDavid_Beauguel Jean-David Beauguel experienced racism when playing in Olomouc. Basically no fans are allowed into the games, and with everything going on in the world, and yet they still decide to be racist.
Unfortunately only allowing a few hundred ultras probably just amplifies that kind of stupidity. Every club in the country still has these idiot factions in their supporters section. I'm glad that Beauguel is speaking up even if it is embarrassing for the league/country. Also seems like Plzen (both fans and team) are being supportive, which is good since just a few years ago they had a more or less "only Czechs and Slovaks succeed here" policy unofficially. .
Regular season is over, so the super structure groups are set: Title Group Slavia Plzen Sparta Jablonec Liberec Ostrava The usual suspects of recent years except for Banik Ostrava taking the last spot. While this is called the "title group" only two teams have a chance to win the title and have also guaranteed spots in Champions League qualifying. The rest are playing for Europa Leauge. Europa League playoff: C. Budejovice Bohemians 1905 Slovacko Mlada Boleslav The pleasant surprise is newly promoted Ceske Budejovice who put together a strong core of veteran players with some younger talent around them. Relegation Group Olomouc Teplice Zlin Karvina Opava Pribram Olomouc is safe, but the rest is a battle between teams that all more or less deserve relegation if you look at their goal differentials. Would be somewhat unfortunate if Zlin and Opava fell as they actually have decent support. Reminder 16 position is automatic drop while 14 and 15 will play 2. Liga's 3rd and 2nd place teams in a playoff. For 2.Liga it definitely is looking like 1. Pardubice, 2. Brno, but its a very open battle for 3rd place.
Lisen managed a draw with Pardubice, so Brno can cut the gap to 4 pts with a win against Hradec Kralove tomorrow.
Hradec Kralove 1 - 1 Brno A late equalizer by the home team means that we are still 6 points behind Pardubice and just don't see them dropping enough points to catch up.
The biggest match of the superstructure is today, Slavia hosting Plzen. If Plzen wins it moves them to within 3 points, if Slavia wins (or draw honestly) they have won the league.
Slavia ahead with 10 minutes to go. Sevcik with the neatly placed finish after a counter attack in minute 69.
FT Slavia 1 - 0 Plzen Slavia have officially won the league with 3 matches remaining, their 3rd title in 4 seasons. I do think that unless Slavia reinforce a few of the positions they ignored last winter ahead of next season that Plzen should start out the favorites.
Well deserved for Slavia who were the class of the league from start to finish. It's really impressive when you consider just how different their current team looks versus last year. Trpisovsky is without a doubt the best current Czech manager and Ondrej Kolar is definitely worthy of a Most Valuable Player award. I think they still do need to make some reinforcements going into next year, whether it be from signings or recalling players on loan, but they also have some interesting young players that could potentially fill those voids. I do think the title race next year will be much tighter and I'd probably also say Plzen would be slight favourites going into next year, but I think Sparta could emerge as contenders as well. They've been in much better form under Kotal and if they can manage to keep Kanga, buy Hancko permanently, and maybe buy one of Krejci or Pavelka (though I'd say Krejci is more a priority assuming he'd play left back), they'd look pretty solid next season. As awful as Kozak can be, he's still shown that he can be a proven goalscorer in this league and I honestly expect (or hope really) that Hlozek will have a breakout season in terms of production (assuming he isn't sold yet or at least remains on loan from his new club). As amusing as their struggles have been in recent years and the fact they still have a prominent group of disgusting racist supporters, it is hard to want to see them do well, but I do hope for the sake of Hlozek and Karabec's development they can return to European football and play at a higher level in the league. I'm hyped about Hlozek, but I'm even hearing that Karabec, who is a year younger, may even be better... Exciting nonetheless and it does seem that more younger players in general are appearing in the league.
I have my doubts that Sparta can hold on to Hlozek much longer, and it's reported for a while that Dortmund are monitoring his progress. Even so they definitely improved as a team as the season went on, and Karabec looks very much like another major talent. That said, I also continue to wish them nothing but misery, in part due the continued presence of vocally racist elements in their supporters section (although unfortunately, far from the only Czech club with this problem). I think Plzen have an advantage going into the off-season, partly because I don't none of their core players seem to be on the radar of international clubs at the moment (although it wouldn't surprise me if a lower-to-mid table Bundesliga team gives Kalvach a look next transfer window). Slavia still have positions to reinforce from last winter and I really suspect that Kolar will be moving abroad by end of the next window.
A lot of news the weekend, although unfortunately the biggest was that Marian Cisovsky, who played in the Champions League twice with Viktoria Plzen and the Slovak national team, passed away after 6 years of battling ALS. Ceske Budejovice, who had a very solid season for a newly promoted team, were eliminated from the Europa League playoff and soon after their captain (and former national team captain) Tomas Sivok stated that he would be retiring. Brno has temporarily moved into first place in the 2nd division after a 6-1 destruction of Viktoria Zizkov, but Pardubice have 2 matches in hand.
I had kind of forgotten about Cisovsky until this very unfortunate news broke. Though I do remember how big of a story his initial diagnosis was and how moving Plzen's subsequent title win in 2014/2015 was. Cisovsky played alongside the late Frantisek Rajtoral and David Bystron in Plzen's 2011 Champions League defence. Such a tragic run of events to have occurred these past years. I think the league being disrupted due to Covid really ruined Budejovice's momentum, a team who probably overachieved, but capitalized on a good run of form in the fall/winter. While he didn't have as an impressive club pedigree, I'd rank Sivok up there with Ujfalusi and Rozehnal as the best central defenders the national team has had. I believe Milan Baros and Michal Kadlec are now the only active players to have played in the Bruckner era, but I'd imagine their playing days are nearly all but done.
Milan Baros also retires after a long and inconsistent career especially at the club level. The top goalscorer at Euro 2004, and a legend for Banik Ostrava and Galatasary.
The last big question of the season really is Promotion and relegation, and unfortunately it is the one that Covid-19 is having the biggest impact on. Trinec are seemingly in the clear and are slowly playing through their backlog of matches in the 2nd division, but now Karvina who are in the relegation group have had 3 players diagnosed putting a delay on the relegation group. In general the problem seems to be that the virus is still spreading in the Silesia region due to to mining activity, and in smaller city clubs its not that hard for spread to reach a team. Since only 1 team gets auto-promotion/relegation that means that in addition to remaining league matches there are still 2 playoffs that need to happen before the next season commences.
FK Pardubice won the 2. Liga taking the guaranteed promotion spot. First time a team from Pardubice will be in the top flight since 1969. They will be playing their matches in Mlada Boleslav (most likely) next year as there new stadium is being built. They lead the league since the 5th round of the season, so completely deserved even if Brno has more style points. I'm confident Brno would advance through a playoff.
Liberec grabbed that final European spot defeating Mlada Boleslav. Still not sure how the schedule will work. So again the only open issue is promotion - relegation, and the league has really made a mess of it probably for corrupt reasons. The only thing guaranteed is that Pardubice are promoted. There are still two rounds of the Relegation group in the first division scheduled, but due to the Karvina outbreak the soonest it can resume is July 23. The deadline for finishing the league at all is August 2. In addition there would need to be a playoff between the 14 and 15 (tbd) position teams of the first division with the 2 and 3 position teams of 2.Liga (Brno and Dukla). So we have 3 possible outcomes: 1) Everything resumes July 23 and finishes as normal including the promotion/relegation playoff 2) the league resumes in late July and completes the season, but there is determined not to be enough time for a playoff. In this case the will relegate 15 and 16, and promote Pardubice & Brno. 3) The remainder of the league is called off, Pardubice is promoted, but since the league isn't allowed to finish they won't relegate anyone or permit another team be promoted. The first division plays with 17 teams next year and they figure something out. The last idea is ridiculously stupid, but its being pushed heavily by Pribram's heavily connected and corrupt owner. They are currently in last place, and very likely to be relegated in the case of options 1 or 2.
Apparently they decided to go with option 4 for next season. Next season the first division will play with 18 teams, due to the lack of a promotion/relegation playoff Brno and Dukla will be promoted for finishing 2nd and 3rd. Only one team will be relegated from the first division. This is probably the most fair outcome considering the circumstances, but its going to be a bloated first division next season (prior to the superstructure I believed we should shrink the first division). Strange times call for strange solutions and this is better than punishing teams for matches they couldn't play. Of course the most important part of this: ❤️❤️❤️ Máme radost? V příštím ročníku budeme po dvou letech znovu hrát @fortunaligacz! ❤️❤️❤️ pic.twitter.com/ei6BmbOJdm— FC Zbrojovka Brno (@FCZbrojovkaBrno) July 17, 2020
Opava are reporting a positive Covid 19 case 6 hours before the final round of the Relegation group was set to be played. This means the league will be cancelled essentially, no teams will be relegated and only Pardubice & Brno will be promoted bringing next seasons team total to 18. The timing and team reporting the case makes this more than a little suspicious. The team that is basically getting screwed in this is Dukla, although realistically they were quite far behind Pardubice and Brno so not sure they really deserved promotion. I can say quite definitely that Pribram and Opava deserved relegation.