Onwards, Zbrojovkans

Week 4: FC Zbrojovka 1 - 4 Jablonec

Football. The smell of grass. Screeching turnstiles. The hussle and bussle of the crowd. Anticipation.

One cup for beer, one cup... just in case.

Now back in the swings of things. Fourth game of the season and Brno are perched a comfortable third in the season following an impressive 3-2 away at Plzen - which is comparable to someone like Stoke winning at the Emirates. Jablonec, however, currently sit top of the table. A mammoth clash; scenes not seen in this town since Oliver Stone's Alexander was shown in the cinema. And, as with the movie, there was more than one bad performance here today.

At this level, and given my short attention span, I find it hard to pick out a stand-out player week in, week out. There's always the player that stands out due to their boot colour, their physique, their mullet. Yes, they draw attention to themselves. If one is just not a good player, leave the white boots at home. See Konchesky, Paul as a recent example.The only standout performance I've seen in this part of the world was by Aldo Baez, a diminutive Argentine playing  for AS Trencin in the Slovak Corgon Liga. He was dark-skinned, five foot seven and wore Tim Henman boots. Damn good player, though.

My camera lasted one picture. Didn't quite have time to capture anything else.

At this level, and given my short attention span, I find it hard to pick out a stand-out player week in, week out. There's always the player that stands out due to their boot colour, their physique, their mullet. Yes, they draw attention to themselves. If one is just not a good player, leave the white boots at home. See Konchesky, Paul as a recent example.The only standout performance I've seen in this part of the world was by Aldo Baez, a diminutive Argentine playing  for AS Trencin in the Slovak Corgon Liga. He was dark-skinned, five foot seven and wore Tim Henman boots. Damn good player, though.

Today, though, one of my buddies is picking up on the abject woefulness of the Zbrojovka left-back. Thoroughly rotten. I hadn't noticed. I think it is David Pasek; I'm pretty sure it's the number three but I'm not too focused. I'll make a note for next time. I think the whole team has been shocking. It went from beating Plzen away, to this. This is a humbling. I don't think Jablonec were particularly remarkable, but Zbrojovka lacked everything today. On the positive side, 6200 fans turned up today and the matchday staff coped much, much better. Minimal queues, plenty of staff. On the downside, a lot of those fans won't come back following the on-pitch efforts.

Super Kick-Off

New Season - FC Zbrojovka 1 - 1 FK Teplice

All journeys start somewhere. I didn't steal that from Terminator 2. Sarah Connor isn't a philosopher; that's why she's in the nuthouse. This journey may (or may not) take me across the Czech Republic; hoping to see what the season holds for my new local team, FC Zbrojovka Brno - or Arsenal Brno FC, as a rough translation. I will touch on the numerous similarities later.

As a mini background, Zbrojovka finished fourth in the Czech second division last year, but scored promotion due to two of the top three teams failing to meet the high standards of Czech first division stadia regulation. The boys from Brno found themselves promoted, and once again mixing it with the likes of Banik Ostrava, Sparta Prague and Viktoria Plzen come August 5th.

And came August 5th. A scorching day in the Kralove Pole part of town; home of the last bastion of Moravian footballing excellence - Stadion Srbska. Marvel, you must. Having entertained crowds of 600-700 for most of last season - a season marked by a sluggish start followed by a 15(ish) game unbeaten streak - no one was prepared for the 5700 faithful that turned up to welcome FK Teplice to town.

And the lack of preparedness was the main talking point of this game. Hour long queues for beer (and klobasa); drunk hooligans sporting Millwall garb, people pushing up and down stairways for 90 minutes. All part of the education.

The freeloaders get the best view.

See here? There's a bar in the background with a balcony with a view over the pitch. A select 'club' in more ways than one.

Desperately short-staffed - dogs doubling up as stewards to tame the masses. 

All-in-all, an eventful day at the football. The game finished one each (with Teplice taking the lead before half-time, forcing Brno to come back all guns blazing). This may or may not have happened; I had to wait in line for beer [pivo] in 30 degrees for over an hour. It's good to have football back.