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May 12th, 2008
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Forever second

Spring swoons becoming a regular event for Slavia Praha

By František Bouc
Staff Writer, The Prague Post
April 30th, 2008 issue

ČTK
Slavia players walk off after a disappointing loss to low-ranked Viktoria Žižkov at home April 26.
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There’s a tired joke in the Czech soccer community that goes like this: “Do you know how to get Slavia ahead of Sparta in the top division’s standings? Simply turn the newspaper upside down.”
The joke has become a bitter reality for the Slavia community in recent years. For the second time in a row, Slavia entered the spring portion of the top-flight Gambrinus liga with a comfortable five-point lead over its crosstown rival, Sparta.
But then, only nine rounds later, Slavia lost its advantage and fell to second place in the league. With three rounds remaining in the Gambrinus liga, Slavia is now four points behind Sparta.
Although Slavia still has a chance to win the league this season, such a victory now seems like a utopian dream to the team.
“It looks like the league is cursed for us,” said Slavia captain Erich Brabec.
Indeed, Slavia has been repeatedly unable to finish off a successful fall campaign to win the league’s season. Since 1993, Slavia has won the league only once, in 1996. Nine times it has finished as the league’s runner-up and, in all nine cases, it finished behind Sparta.
As seems to be happening this year, during its nine second-place seasons, Slavia led the league three times after the fall, only to lose its lead in the spring.
“Players can hear and read everywhere that they might win the title,” said Slavia head coach Karel Jarolím. “It outs huge pressure on them that they cannot handle.”
Champions lament
Although complaints about players’ inability to handle pressure have been worn out from repetition, Slavia was expected to become more shock-resistant this year after participating for the first time ever in the Champions League, Europe’s top club competition.
Slavia qualified for the tourney last summer, beating the Dutch club Ajax Amsterdam to move into the Champions League’s group phase. There it played powerhouse clubs such as Arsenal, FC Sevilla and Steaua Bucharest.
Although the Prague players traveled home from Arsenal’s Emirates Stadium after losing a
7-0 debacle, experts said that the team gained valuable experience that it would be able to use in the fight for the Gambrinus liga title.
The Champions League appearance also helped the club make enough money to pay off its outstanding debts and reinforce the team with six new players over the winter break.
Ironically, Slavia’s decline this season seems to have begun after it took a 1-0 lead in the derby game against Sparta March 31. The goal’s scorer, David Kalivoda, then pulled his jersey over his head in order to celebrate the goal. This cost him a second yellow card and ejection from the game. Slavia was unable to hold the lead and the game ended with a 1-1 tie.
“That bizarre moment could well have been decisive,” Jarolím said.
In the following rounds, Slavia’s players earned recognition as penalty killers — and not in a good way. Despite having five penalty advantages in four games, they wasted four of those penalties.
“This is also due to the mounting pressure,” Brabec said. “All that could go wrong for us went wrong.”
Brabec himself failed to score on a penalty in an April 26 game that saw Slavia upset by lowly Viktoria Žižkov 3-0.
Jarolím tried to restore a winning atmosphere to the soccer team by taking the players to the final game of the Extraliga hockey playoffs, where Slavia’s hockey team outplayed Karlovy Vary in mid-April, winning the national title.
“We went there to absorb the atmosphere,” Jarolím said.
However, it seems the soccer club will not be capable of following the example set by its hockey mates. And Slavia fans will most likely have to turn their newspapers upside down again if they wish to see Slavia ahead of Sparta.

František Bouc can be reached at fbouc@praguepost.com


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