Groundhopping24

Having already visited First Vienna and Spartka Trnava, there would still be two other games to attend on the Sunday, which I’d be spending in Bratislava. The second part of the day would involve Slovan Bratislava, but first a trip to the southern part of the city to watch FC Petržalka – formerly Artmedia Bratislava, but more on that later.   I’d been staying in a flat somewhere in a place called Toryska (booo!), which was only around half an hour via bus – buying a 24 hour ticket is fairly straightforward via the IDS BK app, and only around three euros. The bus would cross the Danube toward the southern part of Bratislava - not the most scenic or picturesque, but pleasant enough.   I arrived with around 45 minutes to spare, though given it was a Sunday morning, there was very little else to do other than sit on a bench near the stadium and continue making my way through the excellent Calcio by John Foot – a superb history of the Italian game up to 2007 which I'd high...

The 18 th instalment in this series sees the first Slovak league game, rather unbelievably given my newfound proximity to the western part of Slovakia at least, not to mention the Sopranos-referencing name of this blog series including Slovakia.   This weekend, however, would see a first in that regard, though not a first Slovak ground – Žilina’s ground holds that honour from March last year, as I watched Slovakia’s Under 21s beat Northern Ireland’s Under 21s 2-1. Things would, however, be a lot more complicated than I would have liked or anticipated en route to Trnava.   I’d left Vienna around 9am, hoping to get to Trnava fairly early in order to explore the town and see what it had to offer. Unfortunately, the wind had some alternative ideas, meaning the train had to return to Vienna having only made it to the outskirts of the city – I’m not 100% but it was probably a tree on the track somewhere.   Attempt two would happen an hour later, and would arrive i...

With a week off in which to spend more time travelling, it provided the perfect opportunity to attempt a four-game, two-country weekend (technically three if you include travelling to and from Brno). This weekend would see a Friday night in Vienna, a Saturday afternoon in Trnava, and a double header in Bratislava on Sunday. More on the latter three games in future blogs though. First, Vienna…   Having finished work around 10:30, I packed my few belongings and headed to Benesova to catch the 2pm bus down to Vienna. The plan was to take in a game in Budapest on Monday too, but funds were regrettably lacking in the days prior to payday.   I was reminded again just how vast the city was, especially in comparison to Brno. I took the tram to my hotel, which was essentially a hostel with a boarded up bed (advertised as a ‘pod’), which also had a few bugs on the floor. It served a purpose though…   Kick off wasn’t until 8:30 for whatever reason, which gave me plenty o...

Last weekend’s groundhop was a rare solo venture on a Friday night, primarily due to a weekend of various work commitments. Given those commitments, I was unable to stick around in Jihlava for too long, though the brevity of my visit to both the city and the stadium didn’t diminish its impression on me.   I headed straight from work to Zvonařka to catch the bus to Jihlava – a journey of around an hour and a half that seemed to fly by. To my delight there was still plenty of daylight to appreciate the glory of the Moravian countryside as it turned into Vysočinian (that’s probably wrong but please humour me) countryside. The bus even went past the ground of third tier side Velké Meziříčí – a club I hope to tick off in the not too distant future.   I’d made it to Jihlava with just over an hour until kick-off, and instead of heading to the nearest pub, I went for a little stroll instead. Given the bus station’s proximity to the ground, it made sense to check out the surround...

After a week’s absence, it was a return to Czech football at the weekend, though it was to be a 2 nd visit to the famous Ďolíček – one of Prague’s most charming stadiums. Before it played host to Zbrojovka Brno’s trip to Pardubice back in October, which confusingly was in Prague some 100km away. This time it was to be Bohemians playing host to Zbrojovka.   The last visit saw a 3-1 win for the away side, and more of the same seemed a tall order given Bohemians fairly strong start to the season, and by all accounts their style which is touted as difficult to break down (if you’re not Sparta that is, who dispatched of them 6-2 the previous week). That said, they were in a bit of a difficult spell, and Zbrojovka were on the back of a solid performance and win over local rivals Banik Ostrava.   The day would begin bright and early with four of us – David, Sam, Fraser and myself – making the trip east to the capital, with obscure references aplenty throughout the journey – ...