Groundhopping24

  Prague - a city I was fairly close to moving to once my planned move to Portugal was thrown up in the air by visa related jeopardy. As Portugal's doors seemed to close, Czech Republic announced a decision to open theirs, which meant I'd applied for jobs in Brno, Prague and Ostrava. If not for the job in Brno being the most solid choice, I probably would have opted for a move to the Czech capital. That said, I've often told people it's a place I love visiting but couldn't live in, much like London to a certain extent. I guess you could say it suffers from Capital City Syndrome, which is not necessarily a bad thing, but it brings certain issues. In any case, I hadn't been to Prague for anything other than work or travel purposes since probably a year ago, so a late November weekend seemed the perfect time to make up for that. A couple of good friends offered to put me up, so I travelled down on Saturday morning with the intention of enjoying a cultur...

A home away from home - a phrase often associated with comfort and a certain extent of joy. However, for SFC Opava, it is very much the antithesis of this idea. Following the tragic and unprecedented floods that dominated Central Europe back in September, Opava were one of the unfortunate victims of the devastation. One could argue there are more tragic losses than that off a football stadium for at least the first half of a season, but the upheaval means Opava have been playing their home games across the Czech Republic. Now  žlutomodří  (the yellow-blues) have played at the likes of Kromeriz and Jihlava - two cities that are nowhere near Opava's home in Silesia. Borrowing Piast Gliwice's stadium in Poland would have been more convenient.  At least this week, Opava will 'play host' in some sense of the word in nearby Hlucin - a town that at least in the region, almost serving as a district of nearby Ostrava some 6km away. With the rest of the Second League having ...

 Two weeks ago, I watched a fifth tier Czech match between two teams that had Tatran in their name, namely Kohoutovice and Rousinov. Despite knowing very little about the origins of the Tatran moniker, it was interesting to see just how many teams go by this name in Czech Republic and Slovakia. In fact, just last week, I witnessed Tatran Liptovsky Mikulas at Zilina B. This week, it's the turn of Banik - a team prefix whose origins are perhaps more easily traceable given that the word translates as 'mining'. Banik Ostrava are probably the first and foremost when it comes to well-know Baniks, but they are far from alone. The second-highest team to carry the Banik name play in the third tier - Banik Most-Sous, who were actually founded in 2020. In the fourth tier, you've also got Banik Sokolov who've suffered a significnt fall from grace (well, the 2nd to the 4th tier) since 2020. There are plenty more scattered around the various fifth tiers of Czech football, though ...