Slavia Prague advance to face Ajax in CL qualifiers
08 August: Ajax were the very last team this evening to
finally find out which team they'll be facing in
the third preliminary round of the Champions League. After two
goalless draws, thirty goalless minutes of extra time
and a shoot-out of ten penalty kicks, MSK Zilina had
to bow their heads to SK Slavia Praha, who will now come to the
Amsterdam ArenA on Wednesday 15 August (kick-off time 20.30
CET). The return leg at Prague's Evzena
Rošického Stadium is scheduled for Wednesday 29
August, at 20.30 CET.
The 'Czecho-Slovak affair', between two teams that once had
the same nationality, was nerve-racking. Slavia Prague were
rather fortunate to grind out a
0-0 result in Slovakia a fortnight ago, as star player
Smicer was red carded. In Prague it was mostly one-way
traffic, but it seemed like it was going to be the evening
of Zilina's goalkeeper Kuciak, who kept his team upright
for 120 minutes and saved one Slavia effort in the penalty
shoot-out. It was, eventually, not enough to make up for
Zilina's two misses from the spot:
4-3 to Slavia - and the Czechs advanced.
So, Ajax will return to Prague, the city they visited last
season for a UEFA Cup road game against Sparta, the Czech
capital's most famous powerhouse. This time, Slavia
await. Ajax are the clear favourites, but that was also the
case against FC København, last year. The Amsterdam club
can absolutely not afford such a devastating nightmare at
the doorstep to the multi-million circus of the
Champions League again. It should be easy for Ajax to pump
themselves up for the encounter, if only because Slavia's home
jersey looks a lot like that of Feyenoord...
The Club
Slavia Prague, officially named SK Slavia Praha, are
historically the second most succesful club in Czech
football, directly behind their local rivals, Sparta.
Slavia fans, in their turn, are proud of their club's
great tradition and history: Slavia (founded as - hold tight -
Sportovní Klub Akademický Cyklistický
Odbor Slavia Praha in 1892) is an even older club
than Sparta (of 1893) and belong to the oldest
football clubs on mainland Europe. More Slavia pride: ever
since their very first official game of football on 25
March 1896 they have worn the same home jersey, the right half
red, the left half white, with a red point-positioned star on
the chest. A 'world record', as the club's official
website proudly claims.
The official honors of the 115 year-old club include 17
domestic league titles (Czechoslovakia and Czech Republic),
seven domestic cups and, the club's greatest international
triumph, the Mitropa Cup of 1938. The Mitropa Cup was Europe's
first major international trophy. It is also known as
the Central European Cup and at the time it had the status of a
Central European Champions League. After World War Two, Slavia
had one more era of domestic and international glory, which
more or less coincided with Ajax's 'Van Gaal era': they won the
Czech title in 1996 and made it to the semi-finals of the UEFA
Cup. The Czech Cup was grabbed in 1997, 1999 and 2002, each
time by beating rivals Sparta in the final.
In 2007, however, Slavia Praha are in dire straits. The
club's financial worries have everything to do with the fact
that the Champions League seems cursed for Slavia. Do Ajax have
a 'Copenhagen trauma'? Imagine how Slavia must be feeling about
Champions League qualifiers then... The upcoming Ajax
games are Slavia's sixth appearance in the preliminary
stages of the Champions League. The five previous times it
went wrong.
Many Slavia Prague players played for the national team, and
many had great careers in European football, but a Slavia
profile would be incomplete without the name of Josef 'Pepi'
Bican (1912-2001), the club's all-time hero and one
of Europe's most prolific goalscorers of all times.
According to the official Slavia website and according
to 'Pepi' himself, Bican scored more than 5,000 goals during
his lifetime. Although this is unlikely to be true, he did
score an amazing 643 league goals and more than a thousand in
all games put on record.
The Roster
Today, there are not too many names in Slavia Prague's squad
that will sound familiar to the average non-Czech follower of
football. The team's by far biggest star is 34 year-old veteran
midfielder Vladimir Smicer, of Liverpool fame (he scored a goal
or them in the Champions League final of 2005). He is the
'father figure' in an otherwise very young squad. Slavia don't
have too much money to spend and rely on young players, such as
18 year-old defender and Czech U-21 international Marek Suchy
and midfielder Dusan Svento, a star in the Slovak U-21
team.
Foreigners, other than Slovaks? There are a few in the squad
of head-coach Karel Jarolim, such as Croatian defender Ante
Aracic and Gaúcho, a not-so-productive Brazilian
striker.
The return leg against MSK Zilina, by the way, was observed
by Ajax boss Henk ten Cate and his assistant Alfons
Groenendijk. They will know more about Slavia Prague than we
do. They will also have noticed that the undisputed 'Man of the
Match' was 21 year-old forward Stanislav Vlcek, a central
figure in almost every Slavia attack against
Zilina.
The Stadium
SK Slavia Praha was founded in the Prague district of
Vinohrady and the Eden Stadium is normally their home. However,
'Eden' is currently being re-developed. The new ground
will have a capacity of 21,000 and will open its doors in
2008. Check the English version of the Eden's official website if
you're interested.
Where will Ajax play on Wednesday 29 August, then? Ajax USA
is not quite sure... According to the match report on
UEFA.com Slavia vs Zilina was played at the Evžena
Rošického Stadium, "a multi-use stadium
adjacent to the enormous national stadium of Strahov",
according to
Wikipedia. The capacity is 19,336 and Wikipedia confirms
that it is currently the home of Slavia Prague. However,
according to the English pages of the official Slavia
website the club actually play their home games at the Strahov.
Oh well, Ajax will find out on the 29th.
Ajax versus Czech opposition
Ajax visited Prague twice in UEFA competition in recent
years, both times with a game against Sparta ahead, at
their Toyota Arena. On both occasions Ajax returned
to The Netherlands with a single point in their
pockets: the Champions League encounter of
14 September 2005 ended in 1-1. Just over one year
later, on
23 November 2006, the two teams settled for a rather dull
0-0 draw in the UEFA Cup group stage. The only time Sparta
visited Amsterdam in recent years was on
22 November 2005 and Nigel de Jong took the
Amsterdammers by the hand and led them to a win of 2-1. The 23
November 2006 fixture in Prague was the only Ajax vs
Sparta Prague encounter that season, as teams in the UEFA Cup
group stage meet one another only once.
These three recent games against Sparta Prague are
Ajax's only ones in UEFA competition against a team from
the modern Czech Republic. However, the Amsterdammers had
three confrontations in the past with sides from the former
republic of Czechslovakia. Ajax managed to eliminate only
one of them, namely Sparta Trnava in April 1969 (semi-final of
the European Champions Cup), but that one doesn't really
count because they were from the eastern part of Czechoslovakia
that is called Slovakia today - not the Czech
Republic.
The other two Czechoslovakian opponents Ajax played in UEFA
competition in the 20th century were both from the
capital of Prague. In March 1967 Ajax were paired with
Dukla Prague in the quarter final of the European Champions
Cup. The Czechs notched a 1-1 draw in Amsterdam and knocked
Ajax out in Prague: 2-1. Two years later, in April
1969, Ajax once again travelled to the 'City of Kafka',
this time for a game against Bohemians FC. The
Amsterdammers booked a 1-0 win in the home leg, but
lost by the same score in Prague and collapsed in the
penalty shoot-out: 4-2.
Ajax have met Sparta, Dukla and Bohemians... but Slavia?
Never. Not even in a friendly. Mind you: so
far, Ajax played
five official UEFA matches in the city of
Prague - and they never won. Slavia, in their
turn, played Champions League qualifiers five
times before, but they never made it to the group stage.
On the eve of their first ever head-to-head encounter both
clubs will be hoping that six is their lucky number. (MP)
Sources: Ajax.nl, Slavia,cz, Wikipedia
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