Pepino wants to forget his previous performance
Zubří surprisingly lost to Nový Veselí at the start and in the last round could not travel to the match against Prague’s Dukla due to the flood situation. It thus had more time to prepare for the derby with Pepin from Frýdek-Místek, which had to suffer a heavy defeat against Lovosice in the second round and in front of its own fans, and thus did not follow up on the sensational win with Pilsen.
In the duel between Wallachy from Zubří and Frýdek-Místek, the home environment has always played a big role. In the last three head-to-head matches, the home team always won. Zubří’s best scorer for now is team captain Dušan Palát with seven goals. On the other hand, Zbyněk Bureš is the most successful in this respect with nine hits.
Pre-match testimonials:
Pavel Přikryl, wing HC ROBE Zubří: “After the unsuccessful first home game against Veselí, we will want to repair our reputation and against Frýdek-Místek we will do everything to keep the points at home.”
Daniel Valo, coach of Pepino SKP Frýdek-Místek: “It’s always difficult in Zubrí. On this board, the home team can torment even the big favorites. Anyway, in this match we will want to make up for the poor performance we showed against Lovosice. We will do our best to get some points from this competition.”
Maloměřice does not expect an easy task in Kopřivnice
Another team that could not travel in the second round due to bad weather is Kopřivnice. She thus has two points on her account for a narrow win with Jičín. In the next match against Maloměřice, he will also be the paper favorite and wants to confirm it with another point gain. After defeats with Kénik and Baník, Majlont is still waiting for his first points.
The Mammoths have never taken a single point away from Kopřivnica and would like to finally break this unflattering record. However, Kopřivnice is very strong on its court and rarely gives away points from it. Jan Mucha and David Růž are the best scorers in the colors of Maloměřice, who scored 24 goals together. In the first match, Kopřivnice had the biggest support in the only nineteen-year-old David Ošmer, who hit the target precisely on eight occasions.
Pre-match testimonials:
Bohumil Pšenica, goalkeeper KH ISMM Kopřivnice: “After a week’s break, we are already looking forward to getting back to the match carousel. The second home game awaits us and the schedule remains unchanged. We don’t want to lose in front of the home fans and I believe that if we build on the good passages from the match against Jičín, we will be successful again. Anyway, we have another very difficult match ahead of us. We respect the strength of Maloměřice, they strengthened interestingly before the season and will certainly be a more balanced opponent with higher ambitions this year. But as I mentioned once, we believe in ourselves. We also believe that we will again have a stormy backdrop behind us, so two points must be the plan. I would like to invite everyone to the hall on Saturday night. After a difficult week, I believe that together we will come up with other ideas.”
Sokol tries to stop the speeding Miner
Strakonice and Maloměřice have carried the Karvin rampage so far in the Chance Extralize. Both teams lost to the champion by a margin of class. Another opponent of Slezan, Nové Veselí, will want to avoid this. In the first round, Sokol narrowly won at Zubří, but at home they lost to Brno by eight goals.
Sokol will try to imitate his performance from last fall, when he was able to draw with Baník in Vysočín. Illia Blyzniuk, who has already scored fourteen goals, made a great debut in Karviná. Nové Veselí also does not regret hiring Frane Blašković, who has the same number of hits as Blyzniuk. The match will be broadcast live by ČT sport Plus a proceeds from this duel will go to support people affected by the recent catastrophic floods.
Pre-match testimonials:
Jan Běloch, head coach of TJ Sokol Nové Veselí: “In the third round, we will face the team of Karviné, who got even stronger before the season. I think he will be extremely strong this season. Stronger than it was in previous years. It means only one thing for us, we have to focus on our performance in order to move forward and be a worthy opponent of Karviné. We have to work with every training session and every match in order to improve and prepare well for the next matches and opponents, who will, after all, be bigger table rivals for us than Karviná.”
Kénik wants a third win
Two games and two wins. If we do not count Kopřivnica, which has one game to spare, only two teams can be proud of this record. Only Brno can keep pace with Karvina, which first dealt with Maloměřice and then Nový Veselí. Prague’s Dukla will travel to the Moravian metropolis, having played one match so far in Lovosice, where they won a point for a 33:33 draw.
The home team has always won the last five head-to-head matches. Will Kénik confirm a great start to the season and win for the third time? The team from Králové Pole will once again rely on the current top scorer of the Chance Extraliga, Alexander Moješcik, who has already scored seventeen goals. At Dukla, Jonáš Josef leads this statistic with six hits.
Pre-match testimonials:
Pavel Hladík, coach of SKKP Handball Brno: “On Saturday, we return to our home hall after two months. In addition, Dukla Prague will come, which played an excellent match in Lovosice. Dukla relies on a quick transition, which is why we are expecting not only a tough opponent, but also a high-tempo match. I believe that our fans will not miss our return to Vodovka, and together we will go for victory.”
Jakub Bosák, left wing SKKP Handball Brno: “Dukla is traditionally one of the strongest teams, but we also want to rank there, which is why we need both home points. Classically, I expect a very fast-paced handball, where a quick transition, either the first or the second wave, will probably prevail, before a gradual attack. I don’t think it should matter that Dukla played only one game. We have more game practice, they have more material to study our game, so it’s fifty to fifty. All summer, including the first round, we were in shelters, which is not what we are used to, but we survived. What doesn’t kill us makes us stronger. Anyway, of course we are very much looking forward to the home hall and the fans who came to support us in Kuřimi and Veselí. I believe we will be happy for the third time!”
Karel Šmíd, goalkeeper of HC Dukla Prague: “Brno is an ambitious team that will want to enter the season successfully. He has two wins so far and we will be looking to break that streak. Our team is young, promising, and winning matches at the beginning of the season will give us peace of mind for the next work. We will put maximum effort into the match and I believe that thanks to that we will get two points.”
Jičín and Strakonice are fighting for the first points
The start of the new year did not go as expected for both teams and they are crouching in the lower levels of the table without a point. The East Bohemians lost unluckily for the first time in Kopřivnice, where they lost a point at the very end of the match. On the ground of Pilsen, they managed to keep up with Talent only at the beginning of the match. Strakonice managed one game this year, in Karviná, where they lost heavily.
This gives both actors a chance to bounce back from the bottom of the table with a win in the next match. Jičín will be the paper favorite to win two points, which has not known the bitterness of defeat in eight mutual duels with South Bohemia. For the time being, Michal Hájko is doing the most in the colors of East Bohemia with nine goals, and Daniel Doškář enjoyed eight goals. On the other side, Adam Nejdl and Martin Němec opened the net four times.
Pre-match testimonials:
Adam Nejdl, HBC Strakonice player 1921: “For me personally, Jičín is a very unpopular opponent, I was injured in the last two matches against him. However, I am going one hundred percent into the upcoming fight. It’s always difficult in Jičín, he has a hard, unpleasant defense, his players run a lot of fights, double up. Perhaps a simple recipe can work for this – to keep the ball in play and thereby outplay the opponent. On the other hand, we must not allow ourselves to be interrupted and lured into the home’s trap.”
Plzeň needs an above-standard performance in Lovosice
The battle between the silver and bronze medalists promises to be an attractive spectacle. Although the Hunters stumbled against Dukla in the home opener and scored only a point for a draw, they clearly dominated the second match in Frýdek-Místek and thus kept in touch with the top of the table. Pilsen was not so lucky with Pepin and took away the defeat. However, the West Bohemians made up for everything in the second match against Jičín, which they won with a ratio of 34:24.
The last time the two rivals met was on November 25, 2023, in the north of Bohemia, where Lovosice rejoiced at the 29:28 win, which now feels a chance again. The new driving force of the team is Danylo Khaian, who has already entered the scoring statistics twelve times. Pilsen’s Daniel Bláha managed to score three more goals, who at the age of eighteen is once again showing his great potential. Šlágr kola is broadcast live by ČT sport.
Schedule of the 3rd round of the Chance Extraliga:
Saturday 21 September HC ROBE Zubří – Pepino SKP Frýdek-Místek (18:00)
Saturday 21 September KH ISMM Kopřivnice – SHC Maloměřice Brno (18:00)
Saturday 21 September HCB Karviná – TJ Sokol Nové Veselí (18:00, CT sport Plus)
Saturday 21 September SKKP Handball Brno – HC Dukla Prague (19:00)
Sunday 22 September HBC Medipoint Jičín – HBC Strakonice 1921 (18:00)
Tuesday 24 September HK FCC City of Lovosice – Talent team of the Pilsen region (17:00, CT sport)
TOP PHOTO: Václav Nováček (Talent team of the Pilsen region)
