Howdy, I will be spending a lot of time in Prague soon and will miss my visits to Stamford Bridge on Saturdays. I want to start supporting a Prague team so I can go to the games on the weekend. Can anyone suggest a team? I am not a glory hunter, I just want a first division team that plays nice football. I was thinking Bohemians because I like the Kangaroo motif ( not a great reason but hey ). What under achieving team needs another fan? All suggestions most welcome.
Bohemians is worth trying. It has the "best" fans. There is a nice story : http://www.cbw.cz/phprs/2007071602.html ... -phpRS-all http://www.radio.cz/en/article/92314
Hi Rangoon, Get a taster of Czech football. Live tonight at 8.05pm on ITV4 - Arsenal v Sparta Prague. Hope you have this channel.
Thanks for letting me know the game is on ITV4, they usually only show the Tuesday night games. Want to see if Repka takes his revenge on Fabregas :x I cannot see anything but an Arsenal victory unless Lehman is in goal and then anything could happen.... Bohemians look like a cool club, interesting history. What about Slavia and Sparta? In communist times was one the army club and one of them the railway workers club or something similar as it was in most E.European countries or was it not like that in what was then Czeckoslovakia? Anybody know about these things?
History of Sparta soccer club on wikipedia official club pages History of Slavia soccer club on wikipedia official club pages As far as I know, neither was a military club. Military clubs for all sports had "Dukla" in their names. Also neither was a railway workers club. Sparta used to have "CKD" in its name (Sparta CKD), but CKD stands for Ceskomoravska Kolben-Danek (CKD was an engineering company). Czechoslovak state railways = CSD (now CD - Czech railways).
The Czech football club Slavia Prague has made it into the Champions League for the first time. Slavia reached the lucrative and prestigious competition after beating Ajax over two games; following a 1:0 win in Amsterdam, the Czech side achieved a 3:1 aggregate score with a 2:1 victory in Prague on Wednesday night. Slavia's opponents in the group stage of the Champions League will be known following a draw on Thursday. Sparta Prague have not qualified for the competition, after losing 5:0 to Arsenal on aggregate. A former Sparta player, Tomas Rosicky, opened the scoring in Wednesday's second leg in London, which the home side won 3:0.
The next Slavia's opponents are Arsenal FC, Steaua Bucuresti and one of the double FC Sevilla - AEK Athinai, see the report(in czech).
I think it is a reasonable draw for Slavia. They have avoided all the favorites for the cup. Arsenal would be my favourites to top the group but without Henry, who knows? How bad would it be if Arsenal knocked both Prague clubs out of the competition :evil:
Good question. Not sure about other sports really. I love Rugby but doubt there is a team and Ice Hockey, well I just don't know much about it. I know you guys take it pretty seriously. How does it work over there? League system and European competitions as in football? What team do you support? Are ice hockey clubs affiliated to the football clubs ( Slavia, Bohemians etc ) or totally independant? Fill me in a little bit I might become a convert. Are the fans passionate about their teams with songs about players , rival teams etc or is it different? Lot's of questions I know. As I said, I know nothing
It's a problem Nice football match is more an accident than a rule in Czech football league I'will suggest you also to try the ice hockey. There are national leagues in Europe, but there isn't something like Champions league for ice hockey teams. There is an international league called Euro hockey tour which consists of four tournaments (one in Czech, one in Finland, one in Russia and one in Sweden) of national teams. Every year (in the spring) takes place a World ice-hockey championship. Our "extraleague" beggins in a mid of September.
The Czech Republic has a rugby league. However, I'm not sure of the quality as I haven't watched it. http://www.rugby.cz/ I believe this fall they have the KB Cup - extraliga. Sparta and Slavia both have teams in the competition.
Six months ago, I knew nothing about ice hockey either but now I'm an enthusiatic fan of Slavia. I find it so much more exciting than football - it's faster and in my opinion, more skilful. My father was Czech and for me, it's the most 'Czech' thing I do here. Supporting Slavia has the advantage of having Saska Arena as the home ground. It was built for the World Championships in 2004 and is the best stadium I've ever been to - wonderful facilities including more than enough loos for everyone! I'm not sure what connection there is between the football and hockey teams apart from the names but I do know that you'd never get a Sparta football fan supporting HC Slavia! You're either Slavia or Sparta! My father supported Slavia and my cousins in Olomouc tell me that Sparta were always regarded as the 'Communist' team. All I can say is that whenever I have been to ice-hockey matches at T-Mobile, Sparta's ground, there are always a lot more riot police in evidence and you only have to read what has been happening at Sparta football matches recently to see the uneviable reputation both fans and players are getting for themselves. For example, Czech Television had to turn their crowd microphones off at the weekend match because of the racist chanting from the crowd and CT have said that they are considering whether or not to televise future home Sparta matches. (I'm sure that will attract howls of protest from sensible, well-behaved Sparta fans!) I hope that has whetted your appetite for hockey!
During my trips to Prague, I have had the opportunity to see both Sparta and Slavia hockey teams at their home stadiums. They have distinctly different "flavors" and are both great fun. I always sat on the "home" team side and cheered for the "home" team - met lots of super fans and really enjoyed the games. Going to a local game is a real treat that I would recommend to any visitor who has even a marginal interest in sports - it will enrich your "feel" for the area and give you a better idea of what the people are really like. When I told people here that Slavia had a better stadium than our former Stanley Cup Champion Lightning have in Tampa (and it is a pretty nice facility), they didn't believe me - then I showed them the pictures.
Glenn, I really do believe that you have done more in Prague than most ex-pats, particularly Americans, who have lived here for years - certainly the ones I have met anyway!
Inspired by Glenn's example, we went to Sparta's match against Znojmo at T-Mobile last night. It was definitely a different atmosphere. The stadium is much older and tattier than Saska and the crowd seemed more like a football crowd than Slavia's - more young men, fewer women. Those riot police were there again, sitting at the Znojmo end - as there were only about 50 Znojmo supporters, I presume they were there to protect them! But they had better music, a better MC, and better interval entertainment - a young ice skating pairs couple did their routine. Although they were obviously massively outnumbered, the Znojmo fans certainly kept their end up and had the best drummers I've heard at a hockey match! Didn't do them much good, though, Sparta won 2:1; not a deeply exciting match... We're going to Kladno tomorrow - only about an hour from Prague by bus - to see them play Slavia. Slavia do toho!
