Groundhopping24

This bin certainly knew the score come midday... Back in September of 2023, I had the pleasure of catching a 6am train to Prague for Zbrojovka's away match at Viktoria Žižkov. While the day was excellent with new and old friends alike, the result for Zbrojovka was a poor 4-2 defeat to a Žižkov side who hadn't got going before this encounter. That said, at least it was an entertaining  defeat. Fast forward almost exactly a year, and it's another 4-2 defeat at the hands of Žižkov. I didn't attend this time, but it was nice of them to repeat the game for those that didn't manage the 2023 encounter. This season, Viktoria Žižkov v Zbrojovka Brno happens once again, almost another year to the day. Surely third time's the charm, right? For whatever reason, after my first and only visit so far, I didn't write a blog on Žižkov, though that works to my advantage this weekend. The plan for me is to head up at some point on Saturday and stay with some good friends befor...

For those that only casually observe Czech football, you may have noticed a new team in the Czech Second Tier (the FNL, not to be confused with the NFL). In fact, you may have noticed four new teams in Hanácká Slavia Kroměříž (who were legitimately promoted from the MSFL), Ústí nad Labem (who were legitimately promoted from the CFL, despite not needing to play their promotion play-off against Domažlice), Příbram (who swooped in to take Vyškov's licence), and Artis Brno (who as you can probably tell from the title, have simply changed their name). Although there is a huge issue with Artis Brno, in that they've actually done more than simply change their name - they've changed their entire identity in more ways than one. Back in May of this year, after months of deliberations following a takeover from Czech billionaire Igor Fait, SK Lišeň were no more. Despite some healthy progress on and off the pitch since their promotion to the FNL in 2018/19, the club became Artis Brno....

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 ...

Following on from last week's attempted four-game weekend in Brno, of which only 50% had been completed, Saturday at least brought with it a chance to get a couple of games in on Saturday, both within the city limits. I had mixed levels of excitement for each game given the form of Zbrojovka, but I attended in hope rather than expectation.  The Good: Tatran Bohunice 2-2 Blansko The wonderful thing about football in the Czech Republic is that, particularly in and around the major cities, you can easily get to a couple of games in a day. In this case, the schedule gave me the chance to return to Tatran Bohunice in the South West of the city, as they faced Blansko. As is often the case at Bohunice, the game kicked off at 10.15, meaning a slightly earlier start than usual was required. At this point in my Czech life, I'm more used to the earlier kick-offs. Tatran's ground is undoubtedly one of the most unique in the division, if not the country. The pitch is surrounded by an in...

Despite planning to complete a quadruple of games over the Easter weekend, I could only muster up a pathetic two  - both on Velk ý Patek (Great or Big Friday if you will). That said, I refuse to let that ruin a perfectly amusing blog title referring to a film I’ve never actually seen. In any case, it gave me the excuse to at least highlight the footballing potential of a city like Brno, which is perhaps more of a hotbed than you may realise. I’ll briefly talk about the two games I attended (and the two I didn’t) before going any further, as they don’t warrant too much discussion. The first was a first visit to Moravská Slavia Brno in Štýřice , as they hosted Olympia R áječko. It was an 11am kick-off with a brisk Spring breeze wreaking havoc with my long hair. It was also a pretty drab affair, with Olympia nicking the three points at the death. Frankly the game deserved to remain goalless though. I had planned to grab some lunch somewhere and then take the 12 tram to Komárov to wat...

When looking up Chrudim for this particular blog, auto-translate had amusingly changed the town of around 23,000 inhabitants to ‘I Cringe’. Having asked my student if this is an accurate translation, she had no idea. In any case, it was highly amusing - almost as much as Vlašim becoming ‘my hair’, and Příbram becoming ‘I’m gaining weight’. In any case, it’s clear technology still perhaps has some catching up to do with regard to the auto-translation of towns or surnames, as well as AI. Just take a look at some of the badges here for living proof of that. Yeesh. Up Zzroovvka Brrno I guess. In fact, Zzroovvka Brrno (I’ll go back to their real name next time I promise) were set for a 10.15am KO in Chrudim one Saturday morning, which six of us decided would be a good idea to attend, even in light of some of us attending the previous week’s drab goalless draw at home to Tabor. Something to do, I guess. We did the only natural thing in this scenario and hired a minibus for the sub-two-hour j...