Groundhopping24

Another long weekend brought with it the potential for another groundhop in a new town. In this instance, a second tier game offered the chance to visit a town known for its fashion industry – Prostějov. The town is also home to one of Czech Republic’s best athletes in tennis star Petra Kvitová.   This weekend, they would play host to Opava – a side just south of the Polish border. Both sides have endured a fairly mediocre start, though at this early stage, things are still fairly tight. A couple of wins for either side could see them shoot up the table.   Opava will be looking to arrest a torrid run of three defeats, where the hosts will look to build on some impressive back-to-back league wins against Karviná and Líšeň. The formbook only points in one direction, so prediction-wise, I’ll opt for a 2-1 home win, which would break the unwanted 0-0-5 record that Prostějov have against Opava. Getting to Prostějov We left Brno hlavní nádraží on the 11.18, which got to ...

After last week’s lack of blog, it was good to be back at a game in one of the top two tiers, even if it wasn’t to be played in Pardubice itself.   Given the limited capacity of their own stadium for the top tier, Pardubice have to play their home fixtures at Bohemians’ ground in Prague during the first part of the season, meaning Ďolíček would be quieter than usual.   The cruel irony is that Pardubice may only get to play half a season in the top flight in their actual stadium given their dreadful start. Relegation seems to grow more certain with every passing game, with only two wins to their name so far. Given that Bohemians' ground is a little on the rustic side, one can only imagine how interesting Pardubice's ground is.   It would have been nice to actually visit Pardubice’s ground for this game, but a first trip to Prague since moving to Czech Republic would suffice. I’d say there’s always next season, but perhaps not…   As for the form book, Zbroj...

The wonderful world of Czech football often means you can take in a couple of games a day, and this week was no different. The plan was Vyškov in the morning (this time I’d head to the correct ground having failed before), and Zbrojovka’s huge game against Sparta in the afternoon.   This week, Vyškov would host Varnsdorf, with the two sides occupying 4 th and 3 rd respectively. The away side would make the long trip from the German border town hoping to continue their solid start, but of course Vyškov were keen to do the same.   Home seems to be where the victories are for Vyškov, with only one defeat to table topping Líšeň at this early stage. Varnsdorf meanwhile have just the solitary away win to Jihlava this season. With last week’s prediction proving a disaster, I’ll go for a 1-0 home win.   After the game The prediction wasn’t far off, with the hosts emerging 2-0 winners thanks to goals from the electric Burundi international Bienvenue Kanakimana and ...

Having already visited Brno’s highest placed club in Zbrojovka, as well as Start Brno of the fourth tier, this weekend would allow for two more ticks within the city in the form of Tatran Bohunice (4 th tier) and SK Líšeň (2 nd tier). Given that these blogs focus on primarily the second tier and up, our focus today is on the latter, who've started the season like a house on fire.   Having taken in a relatively entertaining 1-1 between Tatran Bohunice and Tatran Ždírec nad Doubravou, we took the tram to Nové Sady and grabbed some lunch at Bogota Restaurace. It was basically a chicken Kyiv with a little bit of ham and cheese. The coating didn’t want to stay on, and the chicken was pretty dry, but it filled a hole at the very least.   Before taking the tram to Líšeň, we went for a couple more beers at the Oktoberfest in the main square – the honey ale and banana beer certainly hit the spot. Come around half two, we made our way to the end of the line on the 8 tram. ...

  Long-time readers (or someone that just so happened to read my second blog about MŠK Žilina) will be aware that despite visiting MŠK Žilina’s stadium, I didn’t actually see them play. Well this week’s blog will be working in a similar vein, only this time it’s a trip to Austria Wien’s ground to watch *checks notes* Qatar v Chile? Okay then…   I’ve attended some random fixtures over the years (a goalless draw between United Koreans of Japan v Kabylie at Bracknell Town in June springs to mind), but this fixture would take its rightful place amongst the strangest. From Tring Athletic at the start of the month to watching the World Cup hosts (booo! etc) in Vienna at the end, life moves fast these days.   The Road to Qatar (Austria Wien) I’m writing this on the Wednesday after the game, which is thankfully a national holiday in Czech Republic. This played a huge part in the decision to attend, as getting back late wouldn’t be too big an obstacle.   We pick...

  The Road to Brno The great thing about this week is already being in Brno, although given my earlier attendance at Vyškov, I did actually need to hop on the train back to Brno, followed by one of the abundant supply of trams. Easy peasy.   I have to admit to arrogantly assuming all would go to plan before Saturday and writing the above in advance. In actual fact, things did not go according to plan. At all.   My plan had been to attend another game for a blog next week, given the international gap. That game was supposed to be MFK Vyškov v SK Prostějov, but some idiot (me) forgot to check that MFK Vyškov definitely played in Vyškov rather than nearby Drnovice. It wasn’t all bad though, as I still managed to watch MFK Vyškov U19s play out a 1-1 draw against SK Hodonin U19s. What is life if not a lesson though, eh?   The nonsense didn’t end there. As nice as Vyškov was, I had to get back to Brno. Regrettably the RegioJet train was delayed. By an hour....

On Thursday, I arrived into Brno to start probably the most exciting chapter of my life and career. As I write this on Saturday night, I’ve barely had a moment to take a breath, but I wouldn't have it any other way.    On landing, I had one eye on the first of many Saturdays I would spend at various Czech, Slovak, Austrian or Polish stadia (and beyond of course). This Saturday was to be Trinity Zlín v Zbrojovka Brno, and also my first time in with the away fans at a Czech game.   The Road to Zlín A journey that is a lot simpler and quicker by road, the rail and bus route to Zlín takes a bit of a ‘round the houses route so to speak, passing through Břeclav on the Austrian border, right the way back up to Otrokovice, where we’d change trains for the final leg to Zlín.   Once in Zlín, I was struck by the behemoth of a power station, as well as the numerous tall buildings that I hadn’t really come across anywhere else in the Czech Republic so far. The cooli...