A day like any other. Which means that just when you should start doing something important, like finishing the script for the next episode of Happy Monday, the phone rings and someone wants something from you again.
But in the end, picking up this call was the right decision. On the other end of the line came Tomáš Vaclík, the goalkeeper of the national football team, the Greek champion Olympiakos Piraeus and, by the way, also the Footballer of the Year 2018. And if you think logically, what could a football star want from an aging political commentator who played his last competitive match in the Hanspaul league on autumn 2009, the answer is easy: Good advice. And a little bit of luck.
Czechia–Portugal
- When: Saturday 20:45
- Where: Fortuna Arena, Prague
- What: Nations League, League A, Round 5
Tomáš Vaclík remembers very well how the underrated team got the better of me when I appeared in the audience of Budapest’s Ferenc Puskás Stadium in June 2021 and literally pushed the national team to a 2-0 victory over the favored Dutch in the round of 16 of the Euro. (For the sake of fairness, it should be added that Tomáš Vaclík also took part in this with several interventions.) So I understand why the team wanted to have me in the stands during the autumn League of Nations matches in Prague against Portugal and then also on Tuesday in St. Gallen in the match against the home team of the Swiss.
Recordings & Chargers
Photo: List of News, List of News
Zuzana Hodková and Jindřich Šídlo.
Jindřich Šídlo, the author of the satirical program Happy Monday, together with the presenter of SZ Byznys Zuzana Hodková went to two matches of the Czech national football team against Portugal and Switzerland. The political commentator and presenter follows Tomáš Vaclík, Cristiano Ronaldo and other football personalities and captures her experiences in a series of unconventionally conceived videos.
Such a request is hard to refuse, even if you really have a lot. And especially when they send you a car with a driver. With a driver who fully understands football and has played something in it: for example, three Euros, the Champions League final, in which he famously beat AC Milan in a fascinating match for Liverpool in 2005, or six years in the Premier League.
The way I think about it, we have a lot in common with the driver Vladimír Šmicer. We are roughly the same age, we both always did better going forward, we scored a few important goals, and in the 1990/91 season we both played for A dorost on neighboring pitches in Prague’s Vršovice. I for Vršovice 1870 and he for Slavia Prague. Only he then moved to league A Slavia, with whom he won the league title in 1996 after almost half a century, and I to small football competitions on the dusty pitches of Prague.
Vladimír Šmicer knows a lot about Portuguese football. At Euro 1996, where the Czech team sensationally reached the final, he started in the starting line-up for the first time in the quarter-final against the Portuguese, which was decided by Karel Poborský with his famous lob. And eight years later, in Portuguese stadiums, Vladimír was a member of the team that only bad luck and a poorly defended corner in the semi-final with the Greeks deprived them of a well-deserved European title.
We covered everything, thanks for the ride. And also, for example, the goal to make it 3:2 to the Dutch in the last minute of Euro 2004 – although, to be honest, I could probably do it too from a step into the void.
“Probably yes,” Vladimír Šmicer agreed. “Just getting to that place. And to that team.”
What is Vladimír Šmicer the taxi driver like? What do you think about the end of Cristiano Ronaldo’s career? And how do you get to the Portugal match if you don’t have tickets? Watch the video at the top of this article to find out.
The partner of the Recording and Charging video series is Hyundai, the official partner of the Czech national football team.
