Two winter friendlies, three goals. Could you have started the preparation better?
It’s nice, I haven’t scored many goals in Budějovice yet. I wouldn’t talk about any extra form yet, there are less than three weeks left until the start of the league. But it’s nice to have something to distract myself from.
Does the entire Dynamo have something to break away from? After a 2:2 draw with Jihlava, you beat Amstetten, the last team of the Austrian second league, 6:3.
Every win is important, especially in our situation. We go to the matches after the load, so the results can be a little distorted. But it’s still true that we want to win so that we don’t go into the league without a single victory. We have new coaches, we are changing the formation and we need to absorb the game automatisms. Adding good results to that is a nice bonus.
How do you actually experience Dynamo’s difficult situation? You are last in the league, the club is for sale and you don’t have a single reinforcement yet.
A lot is said and written about Budějovice, but we try not to deal with it. Maybe it’s a cliché, but we focus on ourselves. Every day in the cabin we repeat to ourselves that we need to be as well prepared as possible for the spring league.
On the one hand, it’s easy to say, but is it really that easy to cut yourself off from problems?
We hear all sorts of things around us, but I really can’t comment on it. Everything is evolving and the situation is constantly changing. I’m already looking forward to going to Turkey on Wednesday, where we’ll all be together and have even more peace to prepare.
By the way, wasn’t there a possibility that you would leave Budějovice in the winter for a more stable environment?
I once read about myself that I should go elsewhere, I was surprised myself. People started calling me and asking what was going on, but the Budejovice sports director Čadek assured me that he didn’t know anything. When I came to Dynamo in August, we were the last. This situation continues and I feel that I have unfinished business here.
Do you feel a responsibility as one of the most experienced players?
Definitely. I don’t want to leave, I haven’t thought about it at all. We could have done better in the middle of the season, but we are dead last and we need to get higher. There is nothing but salvation for us.
Can the fact that you finally have permanent trainers help you? The initially surprising tandem of Jiří Lerch and Jiří Kladrubský was finally confirmed in the position last week.
Sure, this is very important. When the preparation started after the New Year, we didn’t know what was going to happen. I’ve never experienced this before, uncertainty is not good in or out of sport. I can’t imagine that we would do under some coaches, with the fact that someone else could be with the team tomorrow. Fortunately, we don’t have to deal with that anymore.
Did you follow the search for new coaches for Dynamo during the holidays? There was a lot of talk about Karel Jarolím, whom you met in Boleslav and in the national team.
If I count it that way, I would be under him for about the fourth time. (smiles) I switched off over the holidays, I wanted to rest after the mentally and physically demanding end of autumn. I didn’t follow the news, although a rumor always reaches you. I thought to myself that if someone completely new came in during the preparations, he would have a difficult time: if only because it would take him some time to get to know us all. It is good that we have coaches who have been with the team for a long time and have an overview of the players.
Soon you will go to a training camp in Turkey together. Will it be a pleasant change compared to the Czech winter?
Last year in Boleslav, I missed that we didn’t fly into the heat. It’s been freezing in the Czech Republic for the last two weeks and I don’t even need an artist. Three tough games could also help us, we should be well prepared for the league.
And then? What will the spring league be about?
About the head, we are playing for the rescue. It will be a fight, but I will not hide. I expect that there will be pressure on me or on another thirty-year-old Zdenek Ondrášek, but we have to withstand it and help the young guys. We will try to start it right from the first round: the gaps in the table are minimal, it is not insurmountable. There’s still a chance.
2024-01-22 20:31:32
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