CTK
Updated 2 hours ago
Former football goalkeeper Petr Čech has a short and successful debut in the British hockey league. For the defending champions Belfast Giants, he intercepted less than five minutes at the end of the game against Glasgow Clan and contributed to the 5-1 victory. No more goals were scored during Cech’s stay on the ice.
The 41-year-old record holder in the number of starts for the Czech national football team came to Belfast ten days ago to help out from the second division Oxford City Stars. The 2012 Champions League winner with Chelsea started today’s match on the bench as a substitute for Canadian Tyler Beskorowané. The Northern Irish team, who had lost six times in the previous seven league matches, conceded first in the 21st minute, but turned the score around with three goals in the second period and added two more goals in the final period.
At the end of the match with the score tied, according to the BBC, 6,000 fans in the packed Odyssey hall started chanting “we want Czech” and Canadian coach Adam Keefe, whose brother Sheldon coaches in NHL Toronto, granted their wish. At 55:17, he sent Čech into the goal and the former goalkeeper of Chelsea, Arsenal, Rennes and Sparta Prague experienced the premiere in professional hockey.
Čech started to devote himself to hockey shortly after the end of a successful football career in 2019 in the team Guildford Phoenix in the fourth league. Last November, he transferred to Chelmsford, with whom he played in the cup final this year. He left for Oxford in June. He wears the number 39 on his jersey, which was made famous by Dominik Hašek in the NHL.
The next match in the Elite Ice Hockey League awaits Čech’s team on Sunday on the ice of Nottingham.
2023-11-25 22:41:52
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