Groundhopping24

 It's been a quiet start to 2026, but then the start of the year in a footballing sense is almost non-existent around these parts. Barring an excellent Spring Break trip to Belgium, I've barely had time or money to burn with random trips to various towns and cities across Czech Republic and Slovakia. Add to that, a newfound weekend hobby involving darts, in which I'll likely be biding my time between various groundhops and darting tournaments going forward. In early February, I had considered a return to Trenčín, but my finances had other ideas. Instead, I'd opted to play in a knockout dart tournament, narrowly losing 5-4 in the last leg despite pulling it back from 3-0 down, and having a match dart. Later on in the month, I'd long planned that to be the weekend I'd tick Jablonec off, but given Zbrojovka will likely be travelling there next season anyway, I opted to stay in Brno and win my first darts match - a highly enjoyable 3-2 success.  With only Zbrojovka...

Arguably the best place to watch a game in Brno!  A couple of week's ago, I had a look at just how sizable the jump from the fifth to the fourth tier was, at least in terms of the South Moravian region. One of said teams in that discussion was Tatran Bohunice, who were one of two teams in the last five years to make the jump to the third tier. Based in the eastern part of the city, Tatran's stay in the third tier was all too brief, as they dropped immediately back to the fourth tier in 2024. Prior to the weekend, however, Bohunice were in an excellent position, with only Artis Brno B ahead of them by a couple of points. Having won a midweek game in hand against Pelhřimov 1-0, it's looking like a three-horse race between Artis, Bohunice and Znojmo for promotion to the third tier, although there are a few teams lurking on the outside who could put a run of form together and trouble the top three.  Looking at goals scored in Divize D, Artis B have scored a staggering 36 in 1...

Sparta Brno Having won promotion from the South Moravian fifth tier last season, it would be fair to say Sparta Brno have adapted reasonably well so far. In many ways, it's fortunate that they occupy one of the six fourth tier divisions in which only there's only one relegation place - Divize D. For whatever reason, only D and E have one relegation spot, which thankfully for Sparta is occupied by a seemingly hapless Havlíčkův Brod who are already seven points adrift without a win going into the weekend's action. But before I go into another return visit to Sparta Brno a year on from my last, I thought it might be interesting to look into how all the previous victors of the JMKP (the South Moravian fifth tier) have made the step up. Just how great is the step up from the fifth to the fourth tier in Czech football? The class of the JMKP - where are they now? 2024/25: Sparta Brno We'll start with the runaway winners of last season's JMKP, and the focus of today's b...

Despite always being against B-Teams in professional leagues and cups, I have to confess having seen two local B-Teams in successive games - Zbrojovka Brno and Líšen. The former earned promotion to the third tier having won their division last season, meanwhile the latter are still in the fourth tier.  To give you a brief overview of the Zbrojovka Brno B game, see my Bosonohy blog from last week - the game was almost eerie in how identical it was to this game. Both games saw a dominant home side somehow find themselves 4-0 down to a more clinical side yet to register a win, before pulling a consolation goal back in return.  The only difference was that Strani hadn't earned a single point, and scored all four goals before  half-time, whereas Bosonohy only went in at half-time a goal down. Even so, it's unusual to see two 4-1 away wins in the same weekend. In today's fixture, Líšen B travel the short distance to fourth tier new boys Kuřim, and so do I from my new ...