Football Sparta is the most successful club in the history of the home scene. However, she has already collected 36 titles and 14 domestic cup trophies before Wednesday’s final.
–
In recent decades, it has been one of the most economically secure clubs in the country. And the largest number of fans, 1.5 million.
–
Nevertheless, she has not played the Champions League for 15 years.
–
For three seasons she has not played in the group even in the European League.
–
And from the “double”, which the team of Vítězslav Lavička won in the 2013-14 season, she waited in vain for six years for a domestic championship title or success in the cup.
–
Bottom line: tradition and economy were not (and are not) at all in line with sports performance.
–
From this list, it is clear why the Spartan community was so delighted with the victory in Wednesday’s MOL Cup final. Finally success!
–
Whoever started cheering for the club at fourteen, got to twenty. Older vintages were not used to such delays with the addition of additions to the Club Hall of Fame. But now, of course, they are happy too. Although perhaps more intensely than the younger ones, they realize that the triumph in the National Cup is nice, but compared to the league titles, which once aimed at Letná on a treadmill, it is still a bit of a substitute.
–
Of course, it depends on the context. And in the last six years, this is simply the club’s greatest success on the domestic scene, which can also pave the way for something very significant, namely a proper return to the European scene.
–
Here, the Spartans still remember two advances to the spring part of the European League. Under Zdeněk Ščasný, they reached the quarterfinals with Villarreal in the spring of 2016, a year later it ended a bit earlier under the direction of the Požár-Holoubek duo and especially worse in the infamous duels with Rostov-on-Don.
–
And then came three outages in the preliminary rounds in a row: with CZ Belgrade, Subotica and Trabzonspor.
–
“Europe” lacks Sparta more than anything else. Even for many of its young players, it would be a blessing to have the opportunity to confront competitively with advanced foreign teams from Europe. That is why winning the home cup is especially valuable for Sparta.
–
This certainly moves her to the third, final preliminary round of the competition. Or maybe straight to the basic group. This is in case the winner of the 2019/20 European League in his national competition would occupy a position that would qualify him for the European League group of its next year.
–
But this place would remain vacant, because the winner of the European League deserves to start in the Champions League for several years for this success. In that case, his vacancy in the European League 2020/21 would go to the winner of the Czech MOL Cup. Well, that’s Sparta.
–
Let us remind you that Sparta gradually reached the domestic trophy via Jihlava, České Budějovice, Baník Ostrava and Viktoria Plzeň. And finally in the final through Slovan Liberec. It was played at his stadium U Nisy and Sparta won 2: 1, when she managed to turn the score around during the match.
–
Coach Václav Kotal, who after the early spring recall of his predecessor Václav Jílek had to teach the fully distributed Sparta the basic alphabet of teamwork, especially in the defensive phase, was able to lift the team from the dust of the average, which was certainly the 9th place during the spring. It looks like 3rd place in the league, now Sparta has won the cup. At the start of the season, she would probably not be completely excited about such a balance, at the end of it the home cup brought her at least partial satisfaction.
–
As we learned, after arriving from Liberec, the team and the cheerful owner of the club, Daniel Křetínský, welcomed the team to Letná. Let us remind you that when the club was still buying for the J&T group in 2004, it planned that Letná will be played if not every year, then almost every year in the Champions League.
–
After an endless series of fundamental mistakes in the management of the club – Sparta has alternated sports concepts every six months for years – now, after six years, he rejoices as a small child from the MOL Cup. Wish him well. In the league, his team loses an abysmal 25 points to the first. And that is the true measure of quality. If sports director Tomáš Rosický will lift her to Letná, it is a question for the coming months and seasons.
–
As for the cup final itself, it also offered several boars. Undoubtedly, these include the banner of Spartan “White Lives Matter” fans, who responded to the global campaign against racism “Black Lives Matter” with the slogan that white lives matter. And they underlined their performance with the flag of the slave Confederacy, considered a symbol of racism.
–
The Spartans of African descent, Costa and Benjamin Tetteh, initially refused to take part in the thank-you note, because of this whole “flagship” in Liberec. Only after removing the banner did they join it.
–
In the Sparta fans sector, after the start of the match, a controversial banner with the words White Lives Matter appeared again pic.twitter.com/1JKGCE6TSG
– Michael Durčák (@durcak_michael) July 1, 2020
–
Costa will probably leave the club in the summer after the end of the contract, according to backstage information, Tetteh is offered options for leaving for France, Denmark or the English Second League Championship.
–
Another African, Guélor Kanga, may have indicated by his participation in the thank you note that he can imagine staying in the club. As is known for the considerable financial demands.
–
In any case, reports of the behavior of Spartan fans with regard to racism have already reached the European media, mainly thanks to the activities of the Pilsen striker Jean-David Beauguel. For example, instead of sticking her head in the sand, it pushes Sparta to solve the situation, more emphatically than just constantly referring to last year’s anti-racist campaign with actor Jakub Štáfek. After all, some of its addressees, due to their ironic tone, could interpret it in their crooked “white pride” in any way…
–
Speaking of players whose contracts end, Martin Frýdek is one of them. During the first half, he did something in the final that could easily have been the last thing he would ever show in a red jersey.
–
And that when he stepped on the lying opponent Tomáš Malínský.
–
Clear unsportsmanlike conduct and a bright red card. That’s how both judges saw it in the video. He didn’t see it that way, though — besides, the less judicious Spartan fans on social media — only one person on the planet. The main referee of the match is Pavel Královec.
–
Although he went to watch the video, he gave Frýdek only a yellow card. And Sparta could continue at eleven.
–
The panel of judges blamed the experienced judge for it, and Pavel Královec said that he now knew he had made a mistake. His comment and explanation of the situation from his point of view can be found here:
–
We can only believe that Pavel Královec will be punished for at least six months’ ban on participating in the Czech top competition for grossly influencing the course of the final match of the domestic cup competition. Which certainly won’t help his international career.
–
But the scandalous decision he made really reminded us of the wild 1990s, when Czech referees sometimes confused their football profession with butchery.
–
Sparta was undoubtedly helped by the mistake of the home goalkeeper Milan Knobloch, who was coached by coach Pavel Hoftych as in the previous course of the cup competition over Filip Nguyen, the club’s number one league player.
–
Undoubtedly, many will evaluate it as a sympathetic gesture. However, I would not like Pavel Hoftych to soon have to explain to the head of the club, Ludvík Karl, why Slovan Liberec did not get into the European Cups due to this nice sports gesture.
–
If Slovan keeps 4th place in the league, he will go to the European preliminary rounds. If they lose their current 1-point lead over Jablonec, Liberec will compete for the European dream with the winner of the double match between Bohemians and Mladá Boleslav.
–
Slovan Liberec deserves a European dessert as a reward for a successful season. But it can still happen that someone knocks him out of his hand.
–
And in Liberec, a possible failure is not forgiven. It is extremely cruel, but it is extremely effective.
—
