She started the preparation with a win against a tough opponent, which will surely give her enough confidence for the rest of the preparation, but all the eleven thousand fans who arrived to support their team at the Epet arena probably expected something else. The visit, truly unprecedented for a warm-up match, created a great backdrop and drove the home team to victory.
The fans were attracted not only by the friendly game in the autumn part of the season, but also by the curiosity of how the new reinforcements will perform. Brian Priske took the match as a fitness test after the Christmas holidays, so we had the chance to see 22 players split their performances on the pitch equally. And Markus Solbakken and Indrit Tuci were not missing among them. However, this test was affected by the intervention of Denis Vavro, who apparently forgot that it was a preliminary match.
There is lightning on Letná, thunder is beating wildly
After the last meeting of these two units, another nourishing battle was expected. Sparta fired up to beat Copenhagen in revenge for their Champions League preliminary round exit and Copenhagen honing their form at Manchester City. From the beginning, it looked like that on the pitch as well. Open football was played, Victor Olatunji burned chance after chance until he got through on the third try and sent Sparta into the lead. A situation that should have graded the further course of the match. Everyone was looking forward to the test of the strength of the defense in the composition of Krejčí – Panák – Vydra. However, it should not have been a total short circuit on the part of Denis Vavro, who probably had a brain eclipse when he ran into his compatriot and teammate from the national team, Lukáš Haraslín, from behind.
Referee Szikszay did not hesitate, sent Vavra to the showers and did not allow the team from Copenhagen to add players to the field to the full number, although Sparta’s implementation team also agreed with this proposal. At this point, a friendly match turned into a one-sided affair. Copenhagen, playing at ten, crawled in front of their goal and the Leten team constantly attacked to the full. The original thoughts of trying out a tough game against a team that has quality offensively evaporated like steam over a pot. Weeks of planning, preparation and one player’s blink can ruin everything.
I wouldn’t want to sit in the booth of the visiting team and listen to what Vavro had to hear from the coach. It’s fortunate that nothing serious happened to Haraslín that would rule him out for the rest of the season. After all, even he himself did not understand what his teammate from the Slovak national team had done in the post-match interview. In any case, hopefully Vavro will learn from this and will no longer embark on similar adventures at City.
Solbakken’s premiere at number one
In the first half, the line-up combined of stable players from the basic team and substitutes entered. I rather expected that in the first half Brian Priske would send the strongest line-up to the field and in the second half he would give a chance to the players of the second row, but his intentions were completely different. In the basic lineup, we could see not only Solbakken, but also Wiesner, Mejdr or Vydra. The last named didn’t have much space to show his qualities in defense thanks to Copenhagen’s red card. Despite this, his performance can be evaluated as positive. Above all, he tried to support his team’s offensive from his position.
Many fans were curious about Markus Solbakken and it must be said that he fulfilled their expectations. He started alongside Laci and there was no sign of either of them playing their first game together. He tried to come up with penetrating passes, he went for balls to play and he also put in a very nice performance in defence. If his performances increase with the number of games played in the red jersey, we have a lot to look forward to.
But what the first half also showed was the fact that some players had not yet managed to switch from x-box to real football. Or rather from FIFA amateur mode to professional mode. It probably won’t surprise anyone that these players were Mejdr and Wiesner. Mejdra’s effort was devalued by his technical skills and the loss of almost every ball he got his hands on was glaring. Although Wiesner started on the left side, where he has almost no experience, it did not have a major impact on his performance. Losing balloons together with inaccurate recordings and running into completely incomprehensible spaces only confirmed that no matter where he plays, the level is still the same. Two adepts to move to Zlín fighting to stay in the league.
Tuci didn’t shine, but there may be potential in him
A completely different eleven went into the second half. Youngsters Ševínský and Večerka got their chance, and a second reinforcement – Indrit Tuci – appeared on the pitch. The young defenders didn’t have much of a chance to shine as most of the second half took place on the other side of the pitch. However, when the opponent created a chance in Sparta’s half, both boys showed a very solid performance with promise for the future.
Tuci started in attack with Birmančević and Kuchta. Logically, Kuchta played from the side and Tuci appeared most often at the point. The Albanian came to Sparta with the fact that he is a similar type of brat to Kuchta. Physically fit, used to circling opponents and making their play uncomfortable. But that didn’t turn out to be much, and Honza Kuchta took over this function according to his custom. Nevertheless, Tuci does not have to be a step away. His choice of place in the box was really interesting and thanks to that he participated in the second goal of Prague. Unlike Solbakken, who fit into the team immediately, more time will be needed here.
But Angelo Preciado’s performance was also interesting. He tries to support the attack in a big way, he tries to go one-on-one and create chances for his teammates. However, he lacked a lot of defensive ability in the match against Copenhagen. During an opponent’s attack on his side, he often did not keep up at all and at the slightest sign of contact, he fell to the ground in an attempt to call for a foul. Preciado certainly needs to stabilize his performances and balance defensive and offensive activities. But so far it seems quite uneven.
