16 Czechoslovakians #22 Sparta Praha

With the first quarter of the year behind us, I decided to bring in the month of April with yet another trip to Prague. Previous readers of some of my other blogs may recall some unfortunate encounters from previous trips to the capital (check out the Slavia blog for more on that), but this trip would thankfully be less problematic.

 

It was to be a solo trip in this instance too, which gave me a bit of time to have a walk around some parts of Prague I’d been yet to see. Namely Letna, which was a lovely spot to just sit and read for an hour as I bided my time before kick-off. On arrival, I’d chosen to walk from the station to Sparta’s ground, gradually taking various spots in along the way.

            

I made the initial mistake of choosing an Italian restaurant which was an obvious tourist trap, but it filled the necessary hole. I took in all the usual sights, not venturing too far off-the-beaten track on leaving the Italian place behind.

 

That said, I’d walked quite some distance alongside that to and from the station, and it brought back memories of last year’s trip to Prague in which I’d walked to the top of Petrin Hill. This time I decided not to do anything so strenuous, but it was nice to be reminded of how beautiful Prague is when it comes to scenery and walking.

 

I got to the ground fairly early to avoid any unnecessary queues, and paid 300 korun to watch Zbrojovka inevitably lose to a side that can probably spend Zbrojovka’s entire budget on one player. Regrettably the big fixtures inevitably bring out the worst in some parts of the fanbase, but on the whole, the atmosphere in the away end was excellent.

Sparta also did their bit, despite some bizarre looking tifo. I’d put them on par with Slavia in terms of how good the atmosphere was. That said, the stadium is fairly indistinct in comparison to the other Prague sides – whether it’s the traditional, rustic charm of Bohemka, or the wooden rooves of Slavia. With Sparta, it could be any ground in Europe, which I guess is neither a positive nor a negative.

 

Rather surprisingly, out-of-form Zbrojovka took the lead through unstoppable Czech goal machine Kuba Řezniček (at the time of writing, he’s on 19 goals). That was to only be a fun three minutes though, as former Brno man Ladislav Krejčí levelled as the away end were still in celebration mode.

 

It only took another four minutes for Jan Kuchta to turn the game on its head completely, but what a seven minutes to be a Zbrojovka fan that was! Tomáš Wiesner added some gloss to the scoreline after half-time, which surprisingly was to be the final goal in the game. Zbrojovka didn’t disgrace themselves in the slightest, much like against Slavia.

 

Defeat it may have been, but it shows that the team are more than capable of giving the big guns something to think about at least. With a new manager at the helm following Dostalek’s departure, anything is possible for Zbrojovka under Martin Hašek.

 

Who are ya?

Sparta are probably the first name you think of when Czech football is mentioned. Well, it’s either them or Slavia for the casual football fan. Of course there is so much more to Czech football than these two Prague clubs, even in Prague as these blogs have looked to touch upon.

 

That said, Sparta’s history is still as fascinating as anyone’s we’ve covered so far. Founded in 1893 some 129 years ago, Železná Sparta (Iron Sparta) – also known as Rudi (the Reds/Maroons) are the most successful club in the Czech Republic. They even boast some European silverware; namely the Mitropa Cup on three occasions. Not to mention making the semis of the European Cup in 1992, and the Cup Winners’ Cup in 1973.

 

They hold the record for domestic league titles through both Czech and Czechoslovak competitions with 36, as well as 27 domestic cups. At the time of writing, they find themselves in an enthralling title race with their city rivals Slavia, whom they shared the spoils in a thrilling 3-3 draw last week at Letna – a 93^rd minute own goal levelling things for Sparta.

 

As for their early years, three brothers Vaclav, Bohumil and Rudolf Rudl wanted to set up a sports club. They initially wore black jerseys with the Spartan S on the front, though this changed when the club president Dr Petřík saw the red jerseys of Woolwich Arsenal in 1906.

 

Even in the early stages of their existence, they would come to dominate the Czechoslovak League after the First World War until around 1954, which would see their last title for another ten years.

 

The team then dropped to the second tier for the first time in their history in 1975, but perhaps unsurprisingly they bounced back immediately and haven’t dropped down since. They wouldn’t win another title until the 80s, though the decade did bring five in a row up to 1991.

 

Their dominance would continue into the 21^st century, particularly when it came to reaching the group stage of the Champions League, which they did on seven occasions from 1997 to 2006. Their best performances saw them reach the 2^nd group stage in 1999-2000 and 2001-02.

 

In terms of players produced, the club is responsible for some of the household names of Czech football – your Petr Čechs, your Tomáš Rosickýs, your Karel Poborskýs. You’d imagine there to be plenty more where that came from too. Though there is more to Czech Republic than Prague, it’s certainly a hotbed of football that perhaps understandably dominates much of the footballing landscape.