16 Czechoslovakians #18 Spartak Trnava

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 in Petržalka on a crowded headache of a train, meaning a short bus ride to the main station would be in order.

 

I met up with my American Bratislava-based pal Alex and we headed toward Trnava, albeit later than initially planned. We more or less had to head straight to the ground on arrival, but thankfully it wasn’t too arduous a trek. We would have time for a quick craft beer and explore of the town after the game thankfully.

                

The 19,200 capacity Anton Malatinský Stadium was excellent, and certainly befitting of its status as national stadium. As with many grounds in this part of the world, it was perhaps too big for league football, but on European nights and international nights, it’s perfect. Spartak Trnava fans were vocal and boisterous throughout, as were their surprisingly well travelled opponents from Podbrezová, which wasn’t exactly a short trek away.

 

As for the game itself, it was as one-sided as you might expect, with the hosts 3-0 up by half-time courtesy of Abdulrahman Taiwo, Samuel Štefánik and Roman Procházka. Podbrezová threatened a comeback after the break, and enjoyed the better of the play, even scoring six minutes into the second half through Christophe Kabongo.

 

That resurgence was killed off once and for all when Taiwo grabbed his second – after which point the floodgates were open for Spartak to enjoy the spoils of inflicting a heavy defeat on their opponents – Procházka grabbed his second, before substitute Jakob Paur completed the rout.

 

It was the perfect introduction to Slovak football – more of which you can expect to read about over the next few weeks, with groundhops to Petržalka and Slovan Bratislava also enjoyed during this weekend. Not to mention a trip to Skalica the following weekend.

 

Before we move onto the history of Spartak Trnava then, here’s a schedule of what you can expect from Groundhopping24 over the next few weeks:

29/3: FC Petržalka

5/4: Slovan Bratislava

11/4: MFK Skalica

19/4: Sparta Praha

 

Who are ya?

Nicknamed bíli andeli (white angels), with a badge and kit that looks suspiciously resemblant of Bournemouth, Spartak Trnava were established in 1923 via the merger of ŠK Čechie Trnava and ČsŠK Trnava. They’ve played at the Anton Malatinský since their inception, though the stadium has undergone a lot of modernisation efforts since its construction, hence the modern feel.

                

 

As well as being the historical location of Big Sam’s only England game, the ground has hosted plenty of other remarkable moments. Following the merger, the club initially played in blue-yellow colours, before adopting white kits in the 1960s – hence the nickname that currently makes little sense given their black and red colours.

One of the club’s earliest games was a controversial 14-0 loss to Bilbao on a tour of Spain, France and Portugal in the 1929-30 season – it was reported as a 4-7 loss to spare the club’s blushes, but the Ministry of Foreign Affairs caught wind of the real result. Subsequently, Rapid Trnava (as they were known at the time) were banned from playing abroad for the next two years.

 

During the early years, the club had finished respectably without challenging the status quo of the dominant Bratislava clubs. The club did drop out of the league in 1945, but they made an immediate return a year later. They would change their name to Spartak Trnava in 1952 – a moniker they’ve held ever since.

 

This name change didn’t bring stability though, with the club jumping between the first and second tier of the Czechoslovak system during the 50s and 60s. Since this time in their history, however, the club have remarkably only dropped down to the second tier once in 2001, when the league was known as the Mars Super League. Even then an immediate return was made the following season.

 

The club finished 4^th in 1960, which saw them qualify for the Central European Cup, where they would defeat Roma 2-1 on aggregate. Defender Juraj Kadlec caused some controversy during this trip when he left the club to study and become a priest in the Vatican.

 

Anton Malatinský’s era would begin in 1963, and would bring the club’s first titles in 1968 and 1969. This would continue through the seventies, with three successive titles won from 1970 to 1973 – Spartak were a tour-de-force as far Czechoslovak football was concerned.

 

Alongside their five Czechoslovak league titles, Spartak have also won the Czechoslovak Cup five times, as well as the Slovak Cup on 7 occasions – one of which was as recent as 2021-22. That said, it would take another 45 years for Spartak to gain another league title. Their 2017/18 success has seen the club win their only Slovak league title to date.

 

As for European football, their history is certainly notable, with the club more or less ever present in a European competition from 1967 to 1976, where they had seen off the likes of Anderlecht, Hertha Berlin and Marseille, though were never able to make it past the Semi-Final, as in 1969 when Ajax came from 2-0 down on aggregate to advance to the final.

 

In the modern era, the club have rarely ventured beyond the qualifying rounds into the group stages, though they did manage to finally break on through to the Europa League group stage in 2018-19, having seen of Slovenian side Olimpija Ljubljana 3-1 on aggregate.

 

Despite victories against Anderlecht (1-0) and Fenerbahce (1-0), two defeats to Dinamo Zagreb and another to Fenerbahce away would see them finish in 3^rd place. Of course this was before clubs could drop into the Conference League, so their run regrettably would end there.

 

As for this season the club seem to be in an excellent position, with 3^rd place and a cup final looking increasingly likely. Perhaps another crack at a group stage could be very much imminent for the white angels of Trnava.