Groundhopping24

One of  Košice's many fountains. In many ways, Czech and Slovak football are incredibly similar, perhaps unsurprisingly given the joint history of both nations. One reason I point this out, however, is that until very recently, neither second city had a club in the top flight, or at least neither city had a stable, prolonged presence in the top flight. Zbrojovka Brno have famously yo-yo'ed between the two, where FC Košice have technically only existed since 2018. From a legal point of view, FC Košice are a new club, though they are the unofficial follow up of VSS Košice, founded in 1903 and dissolved in 2017, at least as far as the fans are concerned. As a result, promotion to the First League in 2023 meant that Košice finally had a team in the top flight for the first time in almost a decade. It goes without saying that the new iteration of Košice don't have a lot of history, but to summarise it briefly, their first season saw them get promoted immediately from...

 Think of Ukrainian football, and it's like your first thought is Dynamo Kyiv or Shakhtar Donetsk and their multitude of Brazilian footballers who sound like middle-aged British blokes (Fred, Kevin et al.). Maybe some of you recall the Europa League final of Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk and Sevilla in 2015, in which the Ukrainian side were edged out 3-2 in Warsaw by their Spanish opponents.  In any case, it's unlikely that Polissya Zhytomyr are your first thought, or perhaps that, like me prior to researching this blog, you even really know who they are beyond the name. And while that is likely to remain the case as long as Shakhtar and Dynamo continue to trade league titles (only the now defunct Tavirya have won a title beyond those two since the formation of the league in 1992), they're a club that should certainly be gaining some attention as they make their way through European qualification for the second season running from almost nowhere. Polissya refers to the region in wh...

  Let's rewind to 1st May 2024, and not just because it was my last day as a 28 year old on God's sweet Earth. No, in fact we must head east to Kosice, where Ruzomberok and Spartak Trnava will fight for the 2024 Slovak Cup. For Ružomberok, it was the chance to end an eighteen year wait for a Cup, whereas for Trnava, it was a chance to hold onto the trophy they'd beaten fierce rivals Slovan Bratislava to in the final for the last two seasons. Ružomberok did come close in 2020, with an Alen Ozbolt penalty stopping them from getting their hands on the trophy, instead giving it to Slovan Bratislava. But perhaps in 2024, things would finally be different for Ružomberok, who were relative underdogs in terms of league position and standing, as well as other factors like town and club size. The only top flight side they'd seen off en route to the final was DAC Dunajska Streda, whereas Spartak needed to see of Košice, Michalovce, and Podbrezova.  That said, Ružombero...

  Back in April 2023, I took my first of what would be three trips to Trenčín via the convenient FlixBus from Brno, though the fact the FlixBus back wouldn't be 'til the following day meant a night in the city, as for whatever reason I didn't feel the need to look for any trains back that evening in lieu of the absent buses. That said, I wasn't complaining given that during that weekend, it quickly became one of my favourite Slovak cities and somewhere I would return to. Firstly there's the magnificent castle, visible from the stadium depending on where you happen to be sat. I couldn't see it from there on my second visit back in September of the same year, which was actually to take in a Trenčín game, but I've had the pleasure of visiting the castle itself and experiencing the majestic skyline from the great height that the castle sits upon.  The first visit was for a game between nearby Dubnica nad Váhom and Košice, which the away side duly won 1-2, with b...

WELCOME TO MATCH! As soon as I stepped off the train at Zilina station well over two years ago now, I knew I'd end up with a special connection with the county. Though my plans to move to neighbouring Czech Republic were still a month or two off, I could make a strong case for it being the city in which it all began. While sat in Zilina's aptly named Hotel Slovakia (it's a hotel in Slovakia - why not?), a good friend of mine mentioned a teaching job in Brno. If I'm being brutally honest, this was a point in my life in which it felt as if everything had slipped away - I'd lost my girlfriend some months before the trip, and I'd felt chained to a country that was somehow becoming more and more miserable and impossible for us Milennials as the days and years flew by with such reckless abandon. Something had to change. I applied for a job at a language school, thinking nothing of it, especially following the countless rejections I'd received on the basis of lacki...

(Stadion Pasienky - former home of Inter Bratislava) A couple of months ago, I took a look back at the first season of football in the Czech Republic as an independent nation, following the dissolution of Czechoslovakia, and where those sides are now . It was a mixed bag, with mainstays like Slovan Liberec, Banik Ostrava and the two big dogs of Prague experiencing a relatively smooth three decades. The same couldn’t be said for the likes of Dukla Praha, Zbrojovka Brno, and many others for whom Czech football has been a cruel mistress. That said, what about the other side of the border? Have things been as tumultuous for those participating in the first independent Slovak league of 1993/94? Well, let’s dive straight in and find out, shall we? Before diving in, however, it should be noted that the split has been a regular fixture in Slovak football since its maiden season, with two groups of six closing proceedings. Essentially, the format was as it currently is today, which makes things...