Spring is Brewing

Winter. Long, cold, dark, and in the telling absence of local football, boring. Thankfully, the re-emergence of the football season after a three month hibernation officially marks the beginning of spring. Well, not officially.

In some ways, the winter break was a welcome hiatus from a run of four defeats in five. Things were looking promising in the middle of October; two home wins and an away draw at Olomouc ensured a healthy, better-than-expected league position. However a torrid run of form saw Zbrojovka plummet from fourth in the league to mid-table. Still, a better position than one might otherwise expect for a team that scrapped into the top flight.

Matchday Programme for the Czech literati

Today, we welcome FK Viktoria Plzen to Stadion Srbska. The football club are famous in their own right, having won the league two seasons earlier, and entered the group stage of the Champions League 2011/2012, accompanied by Barcelona and AC Milan and gave a fair account of themselves. What should not be overlooked is that Plzen had to play their homes games in Slavia's Prague's stadium, which is an hour away. More recently, they humped Napoli 5-0 on aggregate in the Europa League.

Plzen is otherwise famous for beer; being the home of Pilsner Urquell - a mighty fine beer. It's quite a trek from Brno, but definitely on my 'to do' list. And today we'll start with beer - well, after the pre-game drinks. There's been a few changes following the football barren winter. The signage at the stadium has been updated, and there's a range of merchandise to mark the centenary of what was to become Zbrojovka. The beer has also gone up to 70 Kc!

Action shot; it's clipped onto my jacket pocket.

Although my sensibilities were momentarily offended, rest assured there is a non-greedy corporate explanation. In an attempt to keep littering down (from plastic cups), the team has introduced these recyclable beer cups, produced by www.nicknack.cz. It's a 40 Kc deposit, and it has a funky clip so that you can hang your drink on a pocket while you applaud the footballing masterclass in front of you.

Now, onto the football. As life sometimes dictates, one of the best games of the season, coinciding with the winter break just so happens to be moved to Monday evening, just to savour the anticipation that little bit longer. There were 6224 other tortured souls ending the wait.

I had watched Plzen on TV once this season, and they completely outclassed Sigma Olomouc. That said, Zbrojovka recorded an impressive win in Plzen in the second week of the season. The winter break in itself can be unpredictable. Plzen did overcome Napoli without any competitive match practice, and in the last campaign Brno only lost one game in the latter half.

Brno took an early lead, with the ball falling to the edge of the area and the number eight managing to force it through a pack of bodies. Plzen equalised before half-time, and ended up winning 3-1. Truth be told, slightly disappointed with the football on show today, but I am so glad that the show now goes on.

Post-match shenanigans. Or Yahoo-ery.