Jakūbkov’s other silver MS. Years ago he experienced it on the field, now as a commentator
From the commentary stand in the newly opened arena in Zurich, the Brno floorball player watched as time turned back eighteen years in his fateful country.
“Commenting on the semi was made easier for me by our guys with the game they played, and partly also the Swiss with the game they didn’t play. The second third of the match broke and it was good, it didn’t engulf us so much that we were stuttering with emotions,” said the former Bulldogs Brno player about the match, which the Czechs won easily 11:3.
“Unfortunately, it was similar in the final, only from the opposite point of view. The effort that could not be denied to the boys was in vain,” Jakůbek openly admitted that he watched the final, the first in the Czech version since the championship, when he played in it, in peace.
All in all, however, the World Championship that just passed brought countless experiences and emotions to Jakůbek, and not only because of equalizing the eighteen-year-old silver. It mainly took place in Zurich, where the current TV expert competed twice at the World Cup and played there for the popular Grasshopper Club for eight years. He was even its captain.
“Thanks to that, the whole tournament was very intense for me. When I wasn’t commenting, I was still in contact with someone. I took it as a return to my second homeland. I was pleased that I had something to say to people even after nine and a half years of not playing here,” said the 41-year-old athlete this year.
He remembers well the time when Zurich became his fateful city. The performances at the championship in 2004 also helped.
“Before the semi-finals, the Swiss believed that they had played a weaker opponent in us, they had already seen each other in the final. An article was published that the best Czech player only plays in the third highest Swiss competition. They didn’t take us seriously, but it didn’t work out,” Jakůbek recalls one of his six championships.
Even then, medals were played for in front of a sold-out audience. Czech fans also arrived in Switzerland and were given jerseys by the representatives.
“We started in red, our second set was blue. We lent them here. There weren’t as many of us as now on the weekend, it was even nicer to see individual familiar faces on that island,” recalls the former defender.
The first Czech in Zurich
During the World Cup, the floorball players did not live separately in a “bubble” as in the last championships, they went to the hotel for breakfast among the other guests. “We had an excellent team, the Swiss Sascha Brendler, a joker and motivator, helped us a lot as an assistant coach,” Jakůbek looks back.
Brendler then gave him excellent recommendations for engagement in Switzerland. A few months after the World Cup, Jakŏbek performed well in the Champions Cup with Střešovice, and from the next season he already had a contract in Zurich.
“The Swiss were then oriented towards Scandinavia. I came to Grasshopper then as the first Czech in the club, I was such a rarity. They took two more Swedes with me,” recapitulates the long-time representative.
His resume includes five Super League titles with Střešovice, silver and bronze from the World Cup, and after the legendary Radi Cepko, he was the second player to play more than a hundred games for the national team. However, he was also at the biggest result of the trouble that has ever happened to Czech floorball – and again in Zurich.
In 2012, the Czechs sensationally lost to Latvia there and finished in seventh place with medals around their necks.
“Nine of us played in Switzerland, for a lot of people it was a career highlight. Unfortunately, the form and overall setting did not match, the two worlds of the young and the old did not intersect,” admits the floorball player, whose photo was featured on the posters of cheering fans.
Jakůbek considers the current generation of his successors to be very promising. “Silver will definitely appreciate over time. We can’t wait for miracles, gold from the juniors does not automatically mean gold from the men’s in two years,” he perceives realistically.
Czech floorball is currently ranked third among the countries of the strong four, which also includes Sweden, Finland and Switzerland. “We are third without a debate. The Swiss have a problem, they are behind us, the Finns and Swedes have a huge base. We can’t expect that if we achieved silver this year, it will automatically go to gold,” he added.
The Brno living veteran remembers the feedback after the final in 2004, which at that time also called for an early gold. “And we didn’t even have a medal for four years,” he adds.
He remained connected with Zürich at work even after he finished his floorball season by advancing to the league semi with Bulldogs Brno. He works for the same company where he started as a temporary worker in Zurich in 2005.
“We create software for financial advice. We have offices in Zurich and in Brno, where I head the branch. In Zurich, we are not far from the hall where the championship was played, so I was at work during the day and then went to the matches,” Jakůbek describes his regime.
He goes to play floorball for the veterans in Brno. The men’s last “sharps” games at Super League level are playing for the Bulldogs three and a half years ago in an unsuccessful playoff to stay in the top flight. He went to help the team for one match last year in the first league.
Curiously, he plays for the “old masters” under the banner of Hattrick Brno, the biggest rival of the Bulldogs, who do not have veterans. “I am again in the same defense with Libor Schneider, with whom I started in the league,” smiles Jakůbek.