Danish assistant Lars Friis thought that he led the Sparta footballers from the position of head coach in today’s 28th round of the first league at Bohemians 1905. Because of the punishment for four yellow cards, the defending champions were without head coach Brian Priske. Friis admitted at the press conference after the 3-1 win that he missed communication with his compatriot on the bench.
“It was an honor to lead Sparta. I was a head coach in Denmark before, so it wasn’t new. But I’ve never managed such a big club, so it was good. But it wasn’t much different from other games,” said Friis, who coached Viborg and Aalborg.
Priske was missing on the bench. “Usually we talk together about how the match looks like, how we can adjust the tactics a little or who will substitute. We discuss details in defense and in attack. We talk a lot. The communication aims to make us better even during the match. This time it was but a bit of a special match that we managed, and that’s what it’s all about,” said the 47-year-old Friis.
After more than a quarter of an hour of the match, he called the players to him during the treatment of the home striker Milan Ristovski. “It was a moment when we weren’t at our best in the match. We played up, down and maybe we invented too much, which resulted in a higher number of mistakes,” said Friis.
“We tried to calm the team down and reset a bit. We reminded the players what they did well and wanted them to go back to what worked at the beginning of the match. The five minutes before our speech was a little too wild for our taste,” said Friis.
The “kangaroos” took the lead in the Prague derby after a goal by Lukáš Hůlka, but the visitors turned the tide at the turn of the halves thanks to Martin Vitík and Veljko Birmančevič, who added the insurance in the 74th minute. The defending champions lead the table by two points ahead of Slavia, who have Sunday’s thrashing in Pilsen to their credit.
