Feb 24, 2013 - Gambrinus Liga - Sigma Olomouc 2 Slavia Prague 1

February 24, 2013
Gambrinus Liga (1st tier)
Sigma Olomouc 2 Slavia Prauge 1
Attendance: 5,000
Admission: 90kc (uncovered seating)

I have been following Sigma Olomouc ever since 1999, and I once went to a lot of home and away games.  When I moved to Prostějov in 2007 I still followed Sigma quite closely.  However, since about 2010 I have slowly been drifting away from Sigma because I end up going to see my local side play home and away.  I would say I don't support Sigma anymore, but I definitely still follow them closely.

With the break in lower league football continuing until late March, I took the opportunity to watch the 1st round after the winter break in the Gambrinus Liga . The Sigma-Slavia match was my first I have attended at Andruv Stadion since the summer of 2010.  The first thing I noticed walking up to the stadium was the slight rise in costs.  Tickets were now 90kc for uncovered seating, and 120kc for covered.  When I moved to Prostějov I remember that the uncovered seating would go for 50kc.

The other thing I noticed was the that northern stand with the steep seating was closed.  Apparently, it was closed because of a health and safety risk.  The city and the club feared that the steps on the stand could become slippy during the match from ice.  Since the stand is extremely steep, this was probably a wise decision.  Unfortunately for me, I was not able to sit in my usual spot high above the pitch.  Instead, I had the sit in the south stand which was rebuilt a few years ago.  The view is still pretty good, but nothing like the northern stand, which I would recommend to anyone wanting to see a game at Andruv.

Slavia normally brings a healthy sized following for away matches, so this meant a large police presence.  I would say Slavia had between 100-150 supporters at the game, which is certainly respectable for a Sunday 17:00 kickoff.  Of course this meant that the main shop in the train station was closed for 'technical reasons'.  This happens whenever a team plays in Olomouc that has a large following.  The Slavia supporters were quite loud to begin the match, but quickly quieted down after Sigma took an early 2-1 lead.  Perhaps it was because I was sitting at the other end of the stadium?  They just didn't seem to have the vocal passion.  In the 2nd half they had a fantastic display with flares and some sort of banner (which I couldn't read).  The flares were met by a public address announcer who reminded the crowd that flares weren't allowed.   Obviously, the supporters (for Sigma and Slavia) who wanted to bring flares into the game didn't have any problems.

The Sigma supporters were decent.  They seem to have grown in numbers of the past few years, and look to be more organized. They also seem to be a little more 'family friendly' and concentrate more on creating an atmosphere around the stadium.

The match was certainly an interesting one, considering the long winter break.  Slavia came our fast and scored early on, but Sigma scored two goals before the 20th minute.  It was all the scoring in the game and Sigma won 2-1.  Slavia were unlucky not have scored a goal in the second half, and deserved to get a point from the game.

February 17, 2013 - Plumlov 4 Břeclav B 11

February 17, 2013
Jižní Morava a Zlín - krajská liga mužů
Plumlov 4 Břeclav B 11
Attendance -35
Admission - 20kc

Plumlov is a small town about 10km outside of Prostějov and ever since 2006 they have played in the 4th tier of hockey in the Czech Republic.  Since the town does not have an ice arena, they play their home games in Prostějov.  Usually, this means a crowd of 20-75 people with a good number of them supporting the visitors.  

I try to get to 2-3 Plumlov games a year, because the hockey is not that bad for the level.  Unfortunately, most people in Plumlov and Prostejov just do not care.  

On Sunday, Plumlov hosted Břeclav B in their last home game of the season.  Going into the game, Plumlov had won only 5 games all season, while the visitors had won just 2.  Based on this, you would have though the game  was going to be close, but this was not the case at all.  To the joy of the 4 travelling supporters, Břeclav showed their dominance early on and cruised to a win.  The Břeclav B players had an annoying habit of hooting like owls after every single goal.  Yes, even after the 11th goal they were still doing this.  Poor, poor, poor, but what do you expect from a team that had just won their 3rd game of the season?

Jindřichov na Moravě

Jindřichov na Moravě is a small town of around 1,300 in the region of Šumperk.  It was 

established in 1862 as a centre for milling.  Olpa Jindřichov currently play in the 

Olomoucký Kraj 1 A třída, skupina A where they sit in 11th place out of 14 sides.

The club was formed in 1947.  Last year, they were promoted from 1 B třída, which is 

the 7th tier of football in the country.

A record European win for Sigma Olomouc

 

What do the two clubs of Sigma Olomouc and PFC Velbazhd Kyustendil (Bulgaria) have in common?  For one, they were both formed in the same year, 1919, and they played each other in the 2nd round of the 2000 Inter-Toto Cup.  The 2nd leg resulted in a record win for Sigma.  Two Sigma players scored four goals each, and a mediocre crowd showed up.  What more could you ask for in the Inter-Toto Cup?  This is what the competition was all about, and I for one wish it was still around.

First of all, it is important to give a brief background of Velbazhd Kyustendil, because they are an unknown for most people outside of Bulgaria. Kyustendil is a small city of 45,000 people tucked away in the south-western corner of Bulgaria, not far from the Macedonian and Greek border.  There are more than 40 mineral springs in the city of 45,000.

As mentioned previously, the football team was formed in 1919, and enjoyed their greatest success during the early 1990's and 2000's when they spent a number of years in the Bulgarian top division.  This good run of form was rewarded in 2000 with a short dip in the Inter-Toto Cup, and in 2001 when they lost in the Bulgarian Cup final 1-0 against Litex Lovech.

During this time period, arguably the biggest name to have played for Velbazhd Kyustendil was Illian Stoyanov.  From 1996-2000 he appeared for the club 88 times, and was a member of the Bulgarian national team having played 40 times for his country from 1998-2010.  Another big name was Mihail Mihavlov scored 33 goals in 64 games for the club between 1997-2000.  Overall, he played 167 times on three different stints with Velbazhd scoring 85 goals.  Both of these players were key to the success Velbazhd achieved in 2000, 2001 and their appearance in the Inter-Toto Cup.

To get to the 2nd round of the Inter-Toto Cup, both sides had to play in the 1st round.  Velbazhd defeated University College Dublin on away goals (3-3), while Sigma Olomouc slipped passed Araks Ararat 3-1 on aggregate.

1st leg - University College Dublin 3 Velbazhd 3

I started following Sigma Olomouc in the summer of 2000, a few months before I was set to go to the city to study.  So, the team that played against Velbazhd for me has many memorable names.  The first leg in Bulgaria ended 2-0 for the hosts.  For the return leg, a rather small early July crowd of 1,370 showed up.The line-up for Sigma Olomouc was as follows -

Kamensch - Kovář, Ujfaluši, Kováč (75. Rozehnal), Kučera - Špiláček (60. Kobylík), Zbožínek, Barbořík, Urbánek - Vlček, Zdráhal (61. Kaspřík)

The first half ended 2-0 for Sigma on goals by Vlček in the 3rd minute, and Kovář in the 11th minute.  Sigma incredibly scored 6 goals in the 2nd half to make the final score 8-0.  Stanislav Vlček and Michal Kovář each scored four goals. Even more incredibly, the Romanian referee called four penalties for Sigma (they scored all of them).  The visitors also received two red cards.  It definitely wasn't their day.

Sigma Olomouc went to defeat Croatian side Slaven Belupo in the 3rd round; Czech side Blšany in the semi-finals before finally losing out to Udinese in extratime (2nd leg).

Jan 5th, 2013 - 1. liga - Olomouc 5 Most 6 (OT)

Jan 5, 2013
1. liga (2nd tier)
Olomouc 5 Most 6 (OT)
Attendance - 1310 (apparently)

I hadn't been back to Olomouc to watch hockey since I went to see Prostejov play a few years back.  A game in which Prostejov won 3-1, but sadly were relegated at the end of the year.  Back in 2000, I was a student in Olomouc, and lived in the city for a short spell in 2002, so the city once meant a lot to me.  However, now I call Prostejov home, and it is really home for me.   With all that being said, I decided to go back to Olomouc to watch some hockey, because nothing else was going on in the area that day.

When I walked into the arena, it seemed that it hadn't changed at all over the past few years.  I could still see a Coca-Cola advert (from 2002) which someone painted over 'Coca-Cola goes better with world domination, F*ck off USA.'  The paint had been scrubbed off, but you could still see what was written. The arena was built in 1948, and really has a classic old Czechoslovakian arena feel to it.  It is compact, and the fans are right on top of the play.  According to the newspaper report, 1310 people were there, but it seemed much less.  Either way, it was loud!  It is a perfect arena when there is a sold out crowd of 5,000 people.

On this night at least, Olomouc had a small supporters section of around 60-100 people.  I would have expected more, but then again, they were playing Most.  Not the 'most' attractive opponent.  There wasn't any away support, which wasn't a real surprise considering the distance between the two cities (375km).

 Olomouc were challenging for first place, while Most were near the bottom.  This was supposed to be a classic mis-match, but it certainly didn't finish that way.  At the end of two periods, Olomouc was winning 4-1, but somehow Most came back in the 3rd period to tie the game 5-5.  They eventually won 6-5 in overtime for an unexpected victory.