However, the 4th minute of the match showed that the Spartans entered the same river twice and finished the rest of the match without the expelled Sadílek. Paradoxically, it was the moment that destroyed all the pre-match plans of the team from the north of Bohemia. The Glazers entered the match with the idea that they would actively attack somewhere on the border of their own half and would switch to quick counterattacks.
However, at the moment when they were outnumbered, it was possible to take advantage of this advantage. At least in some moments try to hold the ball and develop a scoring opportunity with a gradual attack. However, it was absolutely evident that once the ball was on the Teplice players’ boots, they didn’t seem to know where to go. It was mostly followed by a long kick to the pair of Yasser – Fila.
Frustrated and bored Sparta
Nevertheless, Teplice managed to be dangerous in the first half. Frustration was gushing from the Sparta players due to the minor fouls that the glazier used to interrupt any attacking attempts by Sparta. Although Chaloupek received a yellow card in the 8th minute for his first foul in the match, which is quite incomprehensible to me, the referee suddenly changed the meter and more cards did not come for a long time.
At the same time, in the 32nd minute, Bílek should have clearly seen a card for a foul on Ryneš, and in the 38th minute, Ryneš should have seen a card for a foul on Bílek. The frustration of the Spartans increased, Kuchta was completely cut off from the opponents, Kairinen seemed not to enjoy Teplice’s strong play. There was also an exchange of positions between Haraslín and Birmančević, but nothing affected the attentive defense of Teplice.
When Fila threw the ball past Krejčí in the 43rd minute and fired at the goal, someone surely remembered Krejčí’s red tackle after a foul at Fila in Teplice. Some fans partly blamed Teplice’s goals conceded on keeper Grigar, but for me this unconverted run by Fila was the biggest mistake of the match. Radosta had another great opportunity in the 5th set minute, and shortly after the change of sides, another Teplic goal followed.
The fateful alternations of Teplice
On the Teplice side, substitutions followed, which significantly decided the fate of the match. The very good attacking duo Yasser – Fila left the field, and with them the apparently injured right wingback Bílek. So Gning, Vachoušek and Urbanec got on the field.
Especially from Gning, who scored two goals at home to Sparta last season, interesting solutions were expected in the transition to attack. In this season, the young Vachoušek also got a lot of space, and despite the unconverted penalty against Slavia, he played several very good matches. The experienced Urbanec returned after about four months of injury. However, the first match in Jablonec did not go well for him at all, and that is probably why he only started from the bench against Sparta.
It’s hard to say who performed worse among this trio of substitutes. However, with the arrival of substitute players, it seemed on the pitch as if Sparta were playing a power play. The attackers of Teplice did not hold a single forward ball, they did not win headers, the balls bounced off them in all directions.
That Urbanec again
The performance of Urbanka was a separate chapter. One minute after entering the field, he scored a significant goal for Sparta’s equalizing goal. Although his teammate Křišťan was showing him in the middle of the pitch to pick up the running Haraslín, he inexplicably started against Ryneš, who then found a completely free Haraslín with a simple pass. He then sent the ball to the goal with his typical shot, and since Grigar only knocked it in front of him, Sparta equalized.
Still in the match, Urbanec had a chance to find a completely free teammate on the back post with a cross, but the cross did not reach him. In the 85th minute, he then kicked the goal by about five meters from about twelve meters. If this player had an identical twin, that would explain a lot, because his performances in the last two matches do not even remotely resemble the player who played for Teplice recently.
Maybe I’m being too hard on Urbanac, but I haven’t seen such poor individual performances in the top Czech competition for a long time, if we leave aside the České Budějovice squad. I myself will be very curious to see if he can get up to match pace in the preparation and add to the performances with which he sometimes flashed in Teplice. However, even if he wasn’t exactly shining, he was at least steady and sure.
Sparta went for the victory despite the exclusion
Since Teplice lost the offensive phase of the game from the 70th minute after the substitution, Sparta could quite logically give up on their own defense, not deal with the missing player and throw everything into the attack. Panák was no longer on the field, L. Krejčí moved somewhere on the edge. The wait for the leading Spartan goal began. Teplice handed over one ball after another. As I described once, the forwards Gning and Vachoušek did not hold a single ball, all headers resulted in a ball for Sparta. There was no question of any attempt at a slower play and combination on the part of Teplice. Nothing but Sparta’s goal could have followed. Although I would not completely agree with the referees’ committee, because I saw Kuchta’s foul on Knapík (a punch to the face) before Olatunji’s goal.
On the other hand, I think that if you play the way Teplice played from the 60th minute after the substitution of Fila for Gning, you simply cannot take away points from Sparta. Unfortunately, this drop in team performance after the first substitutions in the second half has already become a rule and is far from caused by the quality of Sparta. In the last 12 matches, Teplice scored only two goals out of eleven in the last 25 minutes of the match. However, this is a topic for a separate article.
All that remains is to state that although the spectators at Letná saw an interesting match thanks to Teplice, Sparta deserved to win in the end, because they wanted to win from the very beginning. Not even the early dismissal and misery and frustration surrounding the first half from Sparta’s point of view changed anything. The Spartans sensed well that their opponent was not looking for a win, and that was an offer they could not refuse.
