Slavia has decided to cancel Jan Matousek's loan back to Pribram, they had originally planned to let him stay to finish out the autumn half of the season.
Plzen signed Joel Ngandu Kayamba from Opava, but he will remain in Silesia until the winter break as it was too late to register him for Champions League. Solid player but doesn't change the fact that Plzen had an extremely underwhelming transfer window and still needs to begin rejuvenating the squad.
Liberec will sign Newcastle's Rolando Aarons on loan for at least half of the season in what has to be one of the more surprising signings of the season. It sounds like recommendation from Dubravka + decision to set our transfer window a week later than most bigger leagues made it happen.
A nice though not very informative article about how attendance is up this year: https://fotbal.idnes.cz/fortuna-lig...-dtt-/fotbal.aspx?c=A180912_135644_fotbal_jic If it wasn't for Opava playing there matches in Brno in front of 900 people (still makes no sense at all), we'd perhaps have a chance at the largest average attendance in independent Czech history. We're still talking about league-wide average of just over 6200, but around the early 2000's the averages were usually in the low 4000s and even a few years high 3000s. The highest league average in Czech history (not going back into the Czechoslovak days) was 1996/7 when the average was 7,125. This was also the year where 45000 attended the Brno - Slavia match and teams like Petra Drnovice existed.
One match remaining in week 8, and it's the biggest one of the week as 5th place Ostrava will host 4th place Sparta in front of a sold-out crowd. Other results so far. Bohemians 0 - 1 Zlin Pribram 1 - 0 Sigma Olomouc Viktoria Plzen 1 - 0 Opava Jablonec 0 - 3 Mlada Boleslav Dukla 2 - 0 Slovan Liberec Teplice 2 - 1 Karvina Slovacko 1 - 3 Slavia Main talking points: -Dukla with their first win/points of the season after hiring a new manager. -Slavia still looking comfortably ahead of the league -Plzen need a (controversial) penalty to beat Opava at home, their lack of depth/squad rotations for Champions League could cost them points in autumn -Zlin's success combined with Jarolim's failed tenure prompted some people to reassess past criticism of Bilek. I standby my criticisms, his tenure was at it's best adequate (same really with Vrba), but I do think he's doing a great job at Zlin and has become a better manager now that he actually has some experience.
FNL (aka 2. Liga) is off to a somewhat surprising start. Most people presumed that Brno and Jihlava would be the main contenders to bounce back up, but the 2 favorites are currently mid-table. 1 České Budějovice 15:07 18 2 Hradec Králové 10:04 17 3 Ústí nad Labem 14:10 16 4 Prostějov 9:06 15 5 Varnsdorf 5:03 15 6 Pardubice 15:09 14 7 Jihlava 13:08 14 8 Brno 17:14 11 9 Vítkovice 12:13 11 10 Sokolov 7:12 8 11 Vlašim 12:14 7 12 Žižkov 11:15 7 13 Chrudim 9:15 7 14 Znojmo 8:14 6 15 Táborsko 9:14 5 16 Třinec 6:14 4 I can only really speak to Brno in detail, and the short story is our defense is completely awful. We have one of the best attacking teams in the division (actually looks like we are in fact the top goal scoring team), but we give up a lot of really cheap goals. Still a lot of time left in the season. Looking at the goal stats maybe we can just buy Varnsdorf's defense. They have somehow managed 4 wins and 3 draws with only 5 goals.
Plzen's, 3rd Champions League group stage in 7 years begins today, regardless of how they do that is quite an achievement for Czech club (for comparison the last Czech team that is not Viktoria Plzen to participate was Slavia in 2007/8). They will take on CSKA Moscow. Their past 2 campaigns they managed to finish 3rd and join the Europa League competition in Spring. The last time they achieved 3rd place with a dramatic winner in their final group match against... CSKA Moscow. No idea what to expect from them this time, they have been a very inconsistent team so far.
Still 0-0 at 25 minutes in but Plzen have the best chance of the match when Krmencik was saved by Akinfeev and a follow up went wide. It seems like they have the initiative at the moment, even though they are playing a fairly conservative formation with 2 defensive midfielders.
20 minutes remaining score is 2-1 Plzen gave up a goal early in the 2nd half then withstood about 15 minutes of pressure. Game is evening out a bit more now although Plzen still need to be careful and take their chances when they get them. Edit: 10 Minutes left, not much has changed. Plzen still holding on, both teams have substituted off their primary goal scorers. Now start of 5 minutes stoppage time, a potential equalizer was called back for a foul on the build up.
FT Plzen 2 - 2 Plzen conceded a penalty late in stoppage time. They started brilliantly but fell apart after conceding an early 2nd half goal. This was the most important match for having the inside position for 3rd place, and a very rough way to blow it.
Slavia and Jablonec will start Europa League today, both taking on French teams. Jablonec will travel to Rennes, while Slavia will host Bordeaux.
Introducing the #UCLfantasy Team of the Week ⚽️👊*Based on top point scorers pic.twitter.com/jsqq7mL9y2— UEFA Champions League (@ChampionsLeague) September 20, 2018 Krmencik is on the "team of the week" for Champions League. Plzen may wound up being wise to reject that late bid from Bordeaux, if he can get a couple of more Champions League goals his sale price could go up to 10 Million+ in Winter. To be honest, Limbersky, as much as I still dislike him for the drink driving nonsense, was Plzen's actual MOTM as he created both goals. He's a bit of a jackass, but a talented jackass. Plzen still need to rejuvenate, their dependence on so many players over 30 really showed when they faded in the 2nd half (although their experience also showed in the first, so it's a double edged blade).
Rennes 2 - 1 Jablonec, the winning goal being another stoppage time penalty. Jablonec did exactly what they are doing in the league for the most part, look like a team that should get a result but then find a way to blow it. That said if they play like they did they should be able to pick up some results in this group. Travnik was by all accounts very good, he should probably be at a better club.
Slavia have completely dominated Bordeaux, but only have a 1-0 lead to show for it at half. They need a 2nd as cushion against the inevitable 90+ minute penalty
Slavia win 1-0, they should have scored several more and if they want to advance far they need better finishing.
League roundup so far in a week with some high scoring and lopsided results: Mlada Boleslav 5 - 1 Slovacko Opava 2 - 0 Teplice Karvina 4 - 1 Pribram Zlin 1 - 2 Ostrava Olomouc 1 - 0 Dukla Sparta 4 - 1 Liberec Saw a bit of Opava/Teplice and Sparta/Liberec Definitely see why Plzen signed Kayamba from Opava, he looked above the standard of a small club like Opava. Teplice are a weird team they have 2 of the most promising young players in the league in Zitney and Kral that will be either abroad or at a big domestic side soon, plus a great league striker in Vanecek (although he's already agreed to move to Scottish sides Hearts in winter). The rest of their line up is at best an average 2. Liga side. Sparta absolutely hammered Liberec in a uncharacteristically confident performance by a team that has started very inconsistent. Tetteh finally found his finishing touch and Stanciu can be one of the leagues top players on his best days. The big match of the week though were the two surprising contenders Zlin and Ostrava. As a Brno fan I instinctively hate Banik, but the league is better as a result of their resurgence as they have a large fan base when successful.
Slavia's forwards are having a rough year injury wise. Tecl just left with an injury joining Olayinka, Skoda, and Van Buren. Looks like Matousek will be playing false 9 for the interim. Then again most of their goals come from midfield anyway.
Slavia 1 - 0 Bohemians 1905 Slavia's midfield, especially Zmrhal, still just doing enough to compensate for all the injuries up front, but they need an established scorer at forward. It showed again as it did against Bordeaux where they should have easily won by 3 goals.
Plzen are being run out of the stadium by Jablonec at the end of the first half. Travnik another big performance with 2 goals, wouldn't be surprised if he draws interest from abroad soon. Assuming Jablonec keep it up in the 2nd half, they will have victories against Slavia and Plzen. Very inconsistent team though, they also have a loss to Opava and a big loss to Mlada Boleslav...
Opava are apparently close to being sold to French investment bank operating out of Dubai. They also are hoping to end the stadium exile in Brno by late October.
Last week the story was that Sparta finally figured it out and Plzen are too old (this part is true) and in complete disarray. This week: Plzen 1 - 0 Sparta Both of these teams have been very inconsistent all season, but will be in the champions group on talent alone. Slavia still looks the best team overall.
Ostrava beat Slavia 2-1 in front of a packed house in Ostrava. This means at the 1/3 point of the main season Slavia and Plzen are still neck and neck, and there are 5 teams separated by just 4 points at the top of the table. The rise of Zlin and Ostrava making a much more interesting season. I'm expecting Jablonec to ultimately pull away from mid-table to get the 6th and final spot for the Championship Group.
Plzen's U-19 team defeated Roma's 3-4 today in the UEFA Youth League. There is a bit of buzz around Tomas Kepl, the Plzen U-19 striker that has scored 3 goals in two Youth League matches. Some Plzen fans seem to want him on the A team already, and believe he could be Krmencik's successor. I highly doubt that the senior team will quite equal that result later.