Groundhopping24

Hodonin - a town of oil apparently It's been a rough year health-wise to say the least. Instead of my planned groundhop at Uhersky Brod last week, I spent my entire weekend (and a bit of Monday morning) at Nemocnice u Svate Anny due to, thankfully, what was just a kidney stone. I was relieved to find, at least, that the game I'd planned to attend had finished goalless.  I was also relieved to essentially have the kidney stone problem sorted, barring some appointments in the not too distant future, and some (TMI) mild urinary discomfort for the foreseeable. Given the random illness that ruined my trip to Slovenia in December, and the pneuomonia that I picked up in Romania, I was hoping this would just be a case of things coming in threes, and this kidney stone being the third and final piece of medical nonsense. In all honesty though, it's the first time in my life I've actively considered at least trying to adopt a healthier lifestyle, so hopefully there are silver lini...

 When it comes to third tier Czech side Znojmo, there are questons that need to be addressed. In many ways, the main question I would want to ask is: are Znojmo a rare positive example of multinationalism in Czech football, or are they an absolute basket case of a club? The short Football Cliches approved answer is - it's a bit of both. You only have to look at their squad list on TransferMarkt, as well as the fact they're managed by a Portuguese man named Rui Amorim (no relation to United's current head honcho). The rest of their squad is littered with Lusophone players from the likes of Cabo Verde, Portugal, Brazil, even Guinea-Bissau. A glance at their squad list will show you flags of Finland, Cameroon, Senegal, USA, Ivory Coast, France, and a host of others. They even have an array of dual nationality players - possibly the only Portuguese-Moldovan player in world football, as well as a Finnish-Moroccan and an Italian-Ivorian. Frankly the assortment of flag...

A generous work schedule allowed me a rare midweek Czech game, from which there were two choices, both of which were in the MSFL (the regional third tier). I could either watch Zbrojovka's B team at Srbska as they played host to Blansko, or I could head to Start Brno for a third time, as they played host to divisional new boys Strani. I opted for the latter for convenience reasons, as well as the chance to see a team I've only seen a few times rather than the same old Zbrojovka. I took the 9 tram from Namesti Svobody to the end of the line at Lesna - a peaceful and quaint part of the city that feels more than the mere 15 or 20 minutes away from my apartment nearer the centre. Once you get to the stop at Certovka Rokle (the Devil's ravine), usually you can just follow the exceptionally loud music that Start Brno play before the game. Good luck if you ever want to get a conversation going by the speakers is all I'll say. Of the two previous visits, my first was two years ...

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...

As with last week’s trip to Chrudim, this weekend brought with it another amusing auto-translation courtesy of third-tier outfit Slovan Rosice. Where Chrudim had generated ‘I cringe’, Rosice automatically translates to ‘the dew’. How accurate is it? Not the foggiest… Okay, bad jokes aside (impossible in many ways), this was to be one of few trips to watch a third-tier game, given that the weekend brought with it the inevitable March international break. So I spent it in Rosice, still glowing from Jamie Reid’s debut international goal on Friday night. The mighty dew would play host to struggling Uhersky Brod, though only five points separated the two teams prior to kick-off - 16th to 18th are relegated from the MSFL, with Uhersky occupying 16th and Slovan up in 13th. So while neither were on course for the second tier anytime soon, it still had the potential to be an interesting match-up. That said, their last match-up ended goalless in Uhersky Brod back in August. Otherwise it’s a fair...