Roman, the match was not the most beautiful, but you have three points. How did you see him?
Against Třinec, they are always fierce matches, today it was the same and we are very happy for the 1:0 victory. Třinec is a quality team, so a win over them can advance us and help us to the next phase of the season. And my goal? David Tomášek tried to shoot, he missed and the puck got to their defender. I was lucky to be behind him so I managed to pick up his stick. Then the only option was to make a back loop to the goalkeeper into a counter move, which worked out perfectly.
Why is it that under the new coach it suddenly works?
Mr. Hořava has great respect among the players. Everyone steps as he says. When there is a change of coach, everyone knows that it is a raised finger. That was one thing that kicked us off. Mr. Hořava came, who is an excellent coach, and suddenly it seems that things are starting to turn around a bit. Today’s victory is also very important. We were struggling at the bottom of the table, we lacked confidence. Now we’re hooked. You can see it in the matches, but it’s about the everyday work we do.
You lost 1:2 in Trinec two weeks ago. Was it a different Sparta today?
Did something changed. A new coach came, we played at home. That’s also a difference because you have people helping you. Matches with Třinec are always balanced, it’s a fight for blood. Most of the time it was leaning towards them, but today, God bless us.
| View of trainer Miloslav Hořava |
|---|
| “I think the results are better than the game shown. We are of course satisfied in this respect. But it is also due to the fact that we have two excellent goalkeepers in the goalkeeper position, which really does a lot. However, it was a very difficult match against Třinac, because Třinec is a great team. I don’t want to say that we were worse, but Třinec was better organized and we made up for it a bit with combativeness. In the end, luck favored us.” |
It seems that the path to success is little weakening and also an excellent defense, because under Hořava you conceded only three goals in four duels.
Power plays are extremely important in matches, so we try to avoid fouls, especially unnecessary ones. We had a problem with that at the beginning of the season. It won’t help you much if you’re playing six or seven nerfs a game. Some guys don’t play, others a lot. That’s what we focus on. And the number of conceded goals at the beginning of the season was also related to that. We used to have a lot of exclusions, which was our problem. It works now.
So is confidence key?
Exactly. Today we won for the fourth time in a row, everything is picking up, heads are clearer, we believe in each other more and it’s starting to work. We must continue to do this, but there is still a lot of work ahead of us.
