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~ Laurence's football travels

Football: Wherever it may be

Daily Archives: October 4, 2012

By appointment to Officer Michel

04 Thursday Oct 2012

Posted by laurencereade in M

≈ 5 Comments

Tags

Banick Sokolov, Banik Most, Brüx, brown coal, Czech Republic, David Vaněček, european footballer of the year, Jakub Dvorák, Josef Masopust, Panelák, sachsenhausen concentration camp, stadion Josefa Masopusta, Zybněk Vondráček'

Saturday 29th September 2012 ko 15.30

Czech 2 Liga

KF BANÍK MOST 0

FK BANÍK SOKOLOV 3 (Vaněček 24 Vondráček 39 Dvořák 59)

Att 525

Entry 60 Czk

Programme 5 Czk

Badge 50 Czk

Barbeque Spiced Sausage 35 Czk

From Kladno it wasn’t a long drive to Most, but we did get the chance to leave the world of motorways and faceless “Service” Stations and travel through small villages seemingly touched only by Tesco for the last 40 years. We headed north, away from Prague and its environs and soon arrived in Most.

Most is Czech for “Bridge” and during the Nazi occupation was renamed “Brüx” a corruption of the German word for bridge, “Brucke.” The town became a plant for fuel produced from brown coal, and a satellite from the Sachsenhausen concentration camp provided forced labour. As a result, the town was on the receiving end of Allied bombing, and was extensively rebuilt post-war.

A result of this is that the town has a very high proportion of its accommodation in the form of panel apartment blocks constructed of pre-fabricated, pre-stressed concrete, known colloquially as “Paneláks.” When I visited the Czech Republic 20 years ago they were an ugly reminder of the Communist era, but the Most Paneláks have seen extensive redecorating, and have proved to be ideal for the rolling out of large-scale broadband in the town.

In the midst of all this lies the Stadion Josefa Masopusta named after the town’s most famous footballing son Josef Masopust, who it has to be noted, only played youth football for Most! He did, however win the European Footballer of the Year in 1962. The Stadium, like Kladno in the morning, reflects Most’s stint in the Czech top flight in recent years. The drop to the second tier has made the all-seater capacity of 7,500 unnecessary, but the despite the low crowds, there was a real vibrancy about the place, despite the faded green seats.

That was mainly due to the Most “Ultras,” who have taken on programme production, and the running of the club shop, a garden shed behind one goal. A barbeque was ready for half-time, the bar did a roaring trade, and the band of “Ultra’s to my right in the main stand, shouted, sang, and banged drums for the entire 90 minutes. They deserved far better than the performance they got from their team.

A goalkeeping howler gave David Vaněček the opportunity to open the scoring with an easy header, and that lead was soon doubled when Zybněk Vondráček’s thunderbolt shot from 35 yards provided the highlight of our tour, let alone just the game. After the break Jakub Dvorák’s low shot put the game far beyond Most who looked bereft of ideas. We felt rather sad for the friendly Ultras, they deserved better. Still, another excellent tick, and so we made for the border, filling up the car again, once again making use of cheaper Czech prices.

We crossed the border, but as soon as the lights marking the change of country had disappeared behind us, an unmarked car screamed past us. In the rear window the lights flashed “Polizei! Stop” and we were led off the main road, to a secluded lay-by. Two plain-clothed officers showed us their ID,  and explained they were German border police and we were asked for our passports for checking. They asked what we were doing, so we explained our weekend, to a look of disbelief, not good when that look is on the face of a border guard! We were asked firstly whether we had cigarettes and alcohol, we had neither, and then Andreas was asked whether we had drugs or weapons too!

When that answer was in the negative too, Andreas was asked how he knew 4 Englishmen. That meant a long story involving Lee, and a St Pauli T-shirt, and the officer clearly came to the conclusion that our tale was so far-fetched it had to be true!He let us on our way, but not before Andreas asked him for the final score from Stuttgart (he didn’t know) and for a recommendation for a restaurant as we were hungry! He did recommend a restaurant, and when we arrived there, we mentioned him to our waitress. She responded, “Oh , Officer Michel, he comes in here for his Cappuccino!” You really can’t get a better recommendation than that!



Away fans


Czech Point

04 Thursday Oct 2012

Posted by laurencereade in K

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

Czech Republic, FK KOLÍN, František Kloz, Jan Novotný, Marek Tóth, Pavol Orolín, SK Kladno, Stadion Františka Kloze, vignette, Česká Fotbalová Liga

Saturday 29th September 2012 ko 10.15am

Česká Fotbalová Liga

SK KLADNO 2 (Orolín 62 Tóth 76)

FK KOLÍN 1 (Novotný 60)

Att 275

£1 = 29 Czk

Entry & Programme 50 Csk

Badge 40 Csk

Teamsheet Free

It seems that if you own a SatNav, the world ends at Germany’s eastern edge! Lee had brought his SatNav for the weekend’s driving, but the Western Europe map installed, did not include the Czech Republic. We’d printed off maps from the internet, but when Lee upgraded the car so the 4 of us could give Stuttgart-based Andreas a lift, the built-in SatNav proved to be a godsend. It had ALL of Europe included, so long as you understood enough German to operate it!

From Regensburg it took around 90 minutes by autobahn to reach the Czech border. The first port of call was buy a vignette, allowing use of the Czech motorway system for a week. It’s advertised at €16, but here’s a groundhopping top tip, pay in cash, in Czech currency, as its cheaper. It seemed to us that paying in Euros acted as an ignorance tax. We stopped for fuel too, as that’s cheaper on the Czech side, and made our way via Plzen to the small city of Kladno, around 25km north of Prague. It had been 20 years since my last visit to the Czech Republic, and whilst the motorway was a massive improvement, the only other change I could see was the rash of Tesco stores in every town. I didn’t find out whether my clubcard was valid here!

Kladno is very much an industrial place, still with the factory in its centre, typical of the former Warsaw pact countries, with the big chimney distributing smoke to the suburbs. The Stadion Františka Kloze is part of a larger complex including ice hockey and tennis. It reflects the club’s past playing in the 1-Liga and 2-Liga for the majority of its existance, before being relegated to the amateur ČFL, or 3rd Division Bohemian League in recent years. There are 3 sides, all seated but the dominant feature is the main stand, towering above everything else, built as it is above the changing rooms and clubhouse.

František Kloz, incidentally is the club’s most famous player, spending most of his career at Kladno. He scored 179 goals in the top flight, and played for his country 10 times, before being killed fighting the Nazis in May 1945.

We strolled round to the far side to watch the first half, I mean you just have to take pictures with that stand as the backdrop don’t you? Sadly the 5 of us spent most of the time taking pictures of the ground as the game was dull. I managed to source teamsheets, and badges for those interested by using my few words of German, and the club were sufficiently impressed by my efforts to give me a club lanyard!

Fortunately the game did liven up for 15 minutes, enough time of the visitors to open the scoring with a superb 25 yard free kick from Jan Novotný, only for Kladno’s Slovak forward Pavol Orolín, on loan from 2-Liga Bohemians of Prague, to equalise with a low shot two minutes later. Kladno took a somewhat fortuitous win later on when Marek Tóth’s thumping shot proved to be unstoppable.

We were just pleased to have ticked off an excellent ground, and for 4 of us, collect another country-point. It was also the only time we had a leisurely drive between grounds. Of course if you know me, I like to be busy.




Novotný’s free kick

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