Red card

Defending champion Sparta Prague is once again leading the league table, albeit only one point ahead of Slavia after a heavy defeat in Pilsen 0:4, but it absolutely dominates in another category: the number of expulsions.

On the ground of the West Bohemian team, she has already recorded the eighth red card in the penalty statistics, Pardubice (five), followed by Mladá Boleslav and Teplice (both four) are behind her in the number of offenders. On the contrary, Hradec Králové and Viktorie Plzeň do not yet have a single one.

“It’s a shock for me,” says Vlastimil Petržela, the former coach of the Letenské team (autumn 1996), who is afraid of the high number. “Unbelievably undisciplined,” he shakes his head. “It’s not a coincidence,” adds former representative Milan Fukal.

Tailor for the third time

In the match in Pilsen, which ended with the demolition of the Prague team, captain Ladislav Krejčí was sent off in the 62nd minute, for the third time (!) this year. Already warned with a yellow card in the last minute of the first half, he drove sharply into the striker of the home team Tomáš Choré, and the referee Dalibor Černý sent him to the dressing room.

To some, this verdict seemed wrong. “She was strict,” considers coach Pavel Hoftych, who sat on the benches of several first-league teams and now works as a sports director in second-league Viktoria Žižkov. “But referee Černý gave cards even for small fouls,” he points out, that he kept the same meter in an effort to keep the match from falling apart.

Milan Fukal, former defender of Sparta and national team selection, has a different opinion. He considers the card to be downright useless, stupid. “The sick man had his back to the goal, he couldn’t threaten it, he will go there,” he wonders at the actions of the Spartan captain. “Just don’t let him turn,” he offers a simple solution.

The referees’ commission did not deliver a fundamental opinion, calling the intervention borderline. It depends on the judge’s assessment, it says in the rules. And VAR, which is supposed to correct significant errors, did not intervene.

Sparta went to ten with an unfavorable score of 0:2, conceded twice more without their leader and suffered a shameful debacle 0:4.

The most punished team

With a complete overview, Sparta leads in this category. Even though the expert committee marked one red card as erroneously awarded – Victor Olatundji in the 11th round in Hradec Králové, it cannot be claimed that it was against the referees. “In the previous rounds, in the case of Pešek or Ryneš, she escaped punishment,” Hoftych discusses the matches.

After all, she picked up sinners in other competitions as well, Jaroslav Zelený was expelled in the MOL Cup quarter-final in the derby with Slavia in the spring, and Matěj Ryneš in the Europa League against Turkish Galatasaray for a blow to the face.

Spartan exclusions in the current year 2023/2024

Ladislav Krejčí (Teplice–Sparta 1:1, 5th round)

The Spartan captain took the escaping home striker with his hands for a 1-0 lead. He saw a yellow card, he was sent off after the intervention of VAR. Teplice equalized.

Adam Karabec (Sparta–Karviná 3:1, 6th round)

With a 2-0 lead, the Spartan midfielder did not hold his nerve and elbowed the opponent who fouled him. He was only cautioned, VAR intervened again. The visitors cut back, but the home side took advantage of their open defence.

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The leader of the competition is the most punished team. “A huge paradox,” Fukal has no explanation. “Most of the time, clubs have trouble with this, they get involved and replace the quality of the game with combativeness,” he explains. It doesn’t suit him very well for a team striving for first place. “Big European clubs avoid it and Sparta wants to measure up to them,” adds the long-time defender of the German clubs Hamburger SV and Borussia Mönchengladbach.

But even this is not a complete rule. In the year 2021/2022, champion Viktoria Plzeň blushed the most.

Matter coach

However, the number of excluded people is alarming. “That’s a matter for the coach,” observes Petržela. “What he tells the players, what he wants from them, how he leads them,” he explains. “Or how they listen to him,” he turns his attention to the ward of the Danish expert Brian Priske.

Fukal is of the same opinion. “I know coaches who are picky about a yellow card, they don’t want fouls in dangerous areas,” he discusses based on his own long-term experience. “It’s for a big internal discussion,” he advises.

He is no longer sitting in the spartan cabin, so he only guesses what is happening in it. “Brian Priske probably doesn’t overlook it, but he probably doesn’t solve it,” he estimates. “It’s not on his agenda,” comes some explanation. “It wouldn’t work for me, you can’t weaken the team like that,” Petržela, who was known for his strictness, stands categorically on this problem.

Although the Danish coach assures that he is discussing the red cards with the team, he has not stopped the trend yet.

Damaged derby

In full, Sparta did not finish even one derby against Slavia. In the fall, when the captains of the home team, Jan Bořil, and the visiting team, Ladislav Krejčí, were expelled after a mutual fight, she did not complain. “Slavia was leading, they wanted to take care of the win calmly, they had no reason to break up the match with some incident,” says Fukal. “In the end, Bořil’s transgression took revenge on her,” she points out.

In the spring cup race, midfielder Jaroslav Zelený went out after a second yellow card before the end of overtime, when Sparta overturned a two-goal deficit, and caught an escaping opponent. A professional intervention that no one blamed him for.

The most expelled in five years

• 2022/2023 Hradec Králové 11 ČK 8th place
• 2021/2022 Viktoria Plzeň 7 ČK 1st place
• 2020/2021 FK Teplice 5 ČK 15th place
• 2019/2020 FK Teplice 8 ČK 12th place
• 2018/2019 Dukla Prague 6 ČK 16th place

However, in the league, Peruvian defender Ángelo Preciado senselessly weakened the team, which had the upper hand, when he retaliated against Bořil’s illegal push. “Foreign players probably can’t imagine what the derby means in our conditions, how it sparks between the Spartans and the Slavists, they don’t get into it and then use unnecessary stupidity to weaken their team,” ex-striker Petr Švancara condemned his short circuit.

Thus, even legionnaires are increasing the number of expelled. “I don’t have good experience with them,” admits Petržela. “Whether here, in Russia or in Slovakia,” he discusses his positions. And he still can’t absorb the threatening number of eight expelled. “Great indiscipline, unforgivable,” he repeats.

2024-03-11 15:41:16
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