Groundhopping24

Views for days...  Don't be misled by the blog's title to believe Tišnov are inherently a bad side - the amateur in question is quite literally included in their name,  Amatérský fotbalový klub Tišnov . That said, Tišnov are yet to pull up any trees in the fifth tier since their promotion in 2024, with the club currently sitting in 12th, five points clear of the drop zone. Over the last ten games, Tišnov have won only two of them - a 3-2 win at Olympia Ráječko, and a thumping 6-0 at home to basement dwelling Moravská Slavia Brno. In fact, their only other win came on the opening day - a 3-1 home win over Slovan Rosice, who themselves endured a terrible start to life in the fifth tier before getting their act together. Despite having been founded as early as 1912, Tišnov hardly boast an illustrious history, essentially floating between the lower echelons of the regional leagues. Since Czech independence in 1993, they spent twelve years in the 7th tier before promotion in 2...

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...

 Those who know me well enough will know I'm a sucker for an amusing auto-translation courtesy of Google. For instance, I've bored people to death with tales of what some of my students surnames were translated as via the web browser: Crookedhead, Hobby, and perhaps my favourite of all, when I covered a class with a student named Richard the Poodle.  Rest assured that isn't limited to just students or names, but also towns and football clubs - for example, I've had Rosice auto-translate to dew, Svratka auto-translate to vomit, and my favourite of all, Dosta Bystrc-Kninicky - a club in the fifth tier - translate to Enough Quick Witted Bookworm.  Now it was the turn of Olympia Ráječko, for whom the village they represent has somehow managed to give me two excellent translations. As you'll gather from the title of this blog, they are Little Paradise or Little Tomato - choose your fighter carefully young warrior... In any case, it was to be the final part of an eventful...

 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 ...

"Forget it Marge; it's Cocktown!" Okay, so hear me out. This isn't some kind of pornographic spin-off of the usual blogs, as I'm sure you'll be over the moon to discover. It's just that the kohout  in the name of this Brno district, Kohoutovice, translates as rooster, or cock.  Much like in German, the Czechs use their word for rooster to also describe a tap. Perhaps appropriately, the hosts were something of a leaking tap defensively last week at Svratka Brno - well, not actually Svratka but their temporary home in Brnenske Ivanovice - as they lost 5-1 in a game I had planned to go to before deciding to take the weekend off instead. Or rather, my finances had made that decision for me. The focus today is once again on the JMKP and this Clash of the Tatrans. If I could remember how to make a trademark symbol, rest assured it would come straight after the word Tatrans there. At the time of writing, there are also plans to take in a brief trip Strani on the ...

Ah, the  Přebor Jihomoravského kraje - everyone's favourite South Moravian regional fifth tier. Ignore the fact it's the only one, but this is the league which - to date - I've spent the majority of my time watching this season.  Perhaps I'm one of few who can boast trips to East Fife and Bosonohy in the same month - how much you can boast about that is another matter. That said, the standard of fifth tier Czech football is what you would expect, though there is almost always some degree of entertainment.  This week's JMKP groundhop was a Saturday morning trip to another club within the city limits of Brno that I'd been yet to tick off the list, Sparta Brno. Having browsed through the results of Sparta Brno last season, I'd noticed both games between Sparta Brno and my former local side, Svratka Brno, had ended in six and seven goal thrillers respectively. I tempered my expectations, expecting it to finish goalless, though as you can see from the title, ther...

After last week's escapade to Mlada Boleslav, this weekend I decided to stay in Brno. Or rather my financial situation decided for me. That said, it was the perfect opportunity to document some of the grounds I haven't yet blogged, such as Dosta Bysrtc this week, Sparta Brno (who I'm yet to actually visit) next week, and Svratka Brno (my former local side) the week after. Following an unplanned Friday night that ended at around 3am, I woke on Saturday morning somewhat worse for wear, pleased that I hadn't planned a trip any further afield. I was also pleased the game was a 4pm kick-off, rather than the occasional 10.15 kick offs that tend to occur in the lower divisions of Czech football. The journey, as ever, was easy enough - straight on the 3 tram from Jugoslavska to Zoologicka Zahrada. To my recollection, this was my fifth visit, with the majority of other visits being to watch Zbrojovka's B-Team. I saw Dosta back in May as they hosted and got battered 4-0 by an...

Being back in the Czech Republic means having access to Czech football again, which you can see as a positive or a negative, depending on your stance on Czech football. I was quite excited at the prospect of seeing new places (and old), and attempting to write blogs on all of them (if possible), as well as those I see in other countries. I'll probably attend fewer Zbrojovka games, both in terms of the A and B teams, and those that I do cover probably won't be written about. I feel I've covered the club to death since getting to the Czech Republic. I will of course cover any away trips to new grounds, wherever they may be. The first game back would be a local one in the regional fifth tier (Jihomoravsky Prebor) between Bosonohy and Cezava, who I believe are newly promoted to the fifth tier. Not much info exists on them, apart from an article about the Cezava region, which has auto-translated a few place names within to great amusement. Names include, but aren't limited t...

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...