In the first round, Slavia’s lead over Sparta narrowed to five points, the fight for the title can still be very dramatic.
The match in Pardubice (1:1) was not very successful for the defenders. With ten rounds left in the regular season, anything can happen.
Slavia realized that they have to be constantly on the lookout, that they won’t just go for the league crown.
On the other hand, her pursuers are well aware that they have to win every match to put Slavia under pressure.
And it won’t be easy at all, everyone will want to pull out on them, no one will give up in advance.
The match in Pardubice was certainly affected by Oscar’s early dismissal, the guests played in a weakened state and with the setup of both halves for almost 85 minutes.
You can defend for such a long time, you can even score a goal, but you have to see what quality Pardubice have and how much they wanted to use this advantage to gain at least one point.
They had a huge motivation against the favorite. There is no need to explain at length that as time increases, not only physical, but also mental fatigue comes, when it is much easier to lose concentration and score a goal.
Although Karviná outshot Pilsen at home, sending 19 shots, guests only eleven, and kicking four corners (guests only three), lost 0:2. It was a fool’s game for her.
In the fall, she also showed a bold offensive game and was rewarded for it with a point gain, winning away from home as well. Now she failed against Victoria.
If I were coach Marek Jarolím, I would say to the players: We prepared honestly, we definitely didn’t fail in the game. Unfortunately, it didn’t work out. Let’s move on from this performance.
It is an advantage for Karvina that at first no one counted on her much, but she deservedly found herself in the top six. And I only praise that she wants to continue to be equal to the best, she regrets every match she doesn’t get points.
Against Pilsen, she only failed in the finish, in which the opponent showed much higher quality.
The two-time king of the Gunners, then still in the service of Slavia, the shooter Václav Jurečka, returned to our league in the Ostrava jersey. I was really looking forward to it.
I’ve been watching him since he started playing in the league in Slovácko, and he really impresses me. He never lets anything go, goes into everything, and is a team player.
Already in the first match, he showed that he can be very beneficial to Ostrava. He assisted on one goal, scored the second himself in a 2:2 draw, and got into other chances as well. However, he will be extremely valuable to the entire league.
After a long pause after a serious injury, Olomouc’s Jan Kliment scored a goal, his shot knocked down Hradec Králové. I wish him very much.
He, too, is a striker I watch closely. Not only a shooter, but also a natural team leader. Above all, let him stay healthy. Olomouc will play Ostrava in the next round, I’m curious about their duel.
The biggest defeat, 0:3, was scored by Prague’s Dukla at home in the derby with Sparta. There is certainly no shame in losing to her, any point gain is taken as a windfall, but based on how she performed on the court and how she performed in the winter transfer window, I think she will fight to survive until the last round. She will have a lot to worry about to save the league.
There was no name that sounded good on Juliska. It is possible that coach David Holoubek and the entire implementation team have evaluated that they will bet on a young team, which should above all boost morale with the return of former support Marko Hanousko, that they believe in the players. We will see how the players sit together in the next matches.
But to have fourteen points after twenty rounds and hope that you will quickly pick up five or six more in the next matches in order to detach yourself from the bottom and have some reserve, is very difficult.
However, we will see where the teams in the vicinity will move – Slovácko, Ostrava, Mladá Bosleslav and Bohemians. No one is certain.
I was not at all surprised that so many goalkeepers performed excellently, they also made famous saves. They just proved that they can decide matches.
If Pardubice coach Jan Trousil declares that goalkeeper Jindřich Staněk was the opponent’s best man, and that’s why his team didn’t win, it only proves what a part he had in the result. Thanks to his above-standard performance, the guests resisted the pressure of being outnumbered.
And Staněk, our representative number one, was far from the only support. Aleš Mandous held up Pardubice a lot, Austrian Florian Wiegele was literally bulletproof in the Pilsen goal in Karviná, Ostrava’s winter reinforcement Martin Jedlička even caught a penalty against Slovácko, which was not badly kicked at all. And there would be others. At the same time, I consider their greatest advantage to be that they deliver such performances stably.
I’m also glad that the competition between them is growing, we’ve always had excellent goalkeepers and we still do.
