REMEMBER: Twenty years since the cup match between Svitavy and Slavia Praha
September 11, 2002: Svitavy – Slavia Prague.
Coach Miroslav Beránek led the Slavists from the bench, and Pavel Kuka earned a hat trick for Prague’s promotion. but from the spectators who were in the audience at the time, they will surely remember the leading goal of the home team from the kick of Radek Ehrenberger, after which the outsider scored just under ten minutes later.
Svitavy will face an attractive opponent who advanced from the previous rounds through Předměřice nad Labem and Chrudim. However, in the championship competition in 2002/2003, they did not succeed at all from the beginning, they had just been reassigned from the Moravian to the Czech divisional group in this period, and in it they had a hard time with its quality. Nine months after the legendary cup battle, they dropped from last place after many years to the regional championship.
September 11, 2002: Svitavy – Slavia Prague.
And what happened on Svitavsk pažite back then? This is how Deník reported about it, then still Noviny Svitavska.
TJ Svitavy – SK Slavia Prague 2:5 (1:3)
The footballers of Slavia Prague fulfilled the role of favorites in the match of the third round of the ČMFS Cup, winning in Svitavy over the local division team by a convincing total of 5:2. However, the home players gave a very good performance and in some phases of the match the difference between the three classes on the pitch was not very noticeable. In contrast to Svitav’s previous appearances in division group C, this time the home fans were satisfied with their team’s performance.
For the presentation of one of the most famous Czech football clubs, four thousand spectators from the entire region came to the stands of the Míru Stadium. Unfortunately, if it were not for the traditional booing of some conservatives in the Czech Republic in the moments when the black Brazilian Adauto da Silva got to the ball, the spectators deserved a discharge. They persistently cheered for their team throughout the match and after the final whistle, they deservedly escorted them to the cabinet with applause.
“From our point of view, the match fulfilled its purpose, I evaluate it positively,” said Slavist coach Miroslav Beránek. “We gave the opportunity to the players of the wider squad and those who are playing after injury. It was essential for them to have match practice. I was satisfied in the first half with the performance of the offensive duo Kuka – Adauto, who played together practically for the first time and were productive. The home division team performed at the limit of their capabilities,” Beránek praised the performance of TJ Svitavy’s team.September 11, 2002: Svitavy – Slavia Prague.
In a similar spirit, other “stitching” officials and players willingly continued minutes, who after the end of the match were literally showered with dozens of small and large car hunters, who signed everything possible. “We are happy that we showed interesting football to the beautiful visitors who welcomed us here. The spectators were certainly not bored,” stated the leader of the Slavist team and former outstanding first league football player Pavel Řehák.
Radek Ehrenberger brought the first goal joy to the stands of the Svitava stadium, filled with excited fans, in the fifth minute. “Martin Kučera pulled the ball perfectly on the left side, gave it to Lukáš Kotas, who found me practically in front of an empty goal,” he wrote in his valuable goal record. He also assessed the whole match positively: “I think we didn’t disappoint, we could have easily scored some more goals. We got the goals after our mistakes, at least four situations could be solved. Overall, it was about something different than in the divisions, the wrestlers use a lot of elbows and holding their clothes,” added the interesting observation of the scorer of the initial Svitava success.
The captain of the Svitava team, Milan Králíček, was also satisfied with the ninety minutes played. “The match certainly lived up to expectations, there was an excellent crowd and people were cheering, even when they were losing. We scored two goals, so the result was like a success.” However, Králíček also recalled that we scored most of the goals in the match when we were alone in front of our own goal, so it could have been much more favorable if we had performed our defensive tasks better.
Milan Králíček was the second successful scorer in the home jersey. With the score 1:5 in the 82nd minute, he placed the ball on the spot kick. “Mostly when I used to kick a penalty, I shot to the goalkeeper’s left hand. Now I thought I would try it on my right hand and I did well. The goalkeeper was jumping to the other side, I was even a little lucky that I hit the post exactly,” said the successful executor.
Goals: 5. R. Ehrenberger, 82. Rabbit from pens. – 12. from pen., 37. and 71. Kuka, 23. Adauto da Silva, 68. T. Došek. Rdecides: Matějek – Kašný, Gallo. OFTO: 3:1. Spectators: 4000. Lineups – TJ Svitavy: Škorpík – M. Zatočil, Králíček, Kabát, Macháček – M. Kučera (62. Boštík), P. Kotas, L. Kotas (64. Schuppler), O. Jelínek (68. R. Jelínek) – R. Ehrenberger, Hýbl . SK Slavia Prague: Černý – T. Šilhavý, Suchopárek, Müller, P. Novotný – Sláma, Bejbl, Kuchař, T. Kučera (61. Vachoušek) – Kuka (79. Skácel), Adauto (46. T. Došek).