After a successful spring, there is no reason to change. Coach Kronďák will continue to lead the second league Chrudim

At the end of the autumn part of the 2021/2022 season the situation of the Chrudim team in the second football league was not pleasant. After gaining only thirteen points in the autumn, the club’s management dismissed coach Jaroslav Vesely in the winter and Radek Kronďák took over the team instead. He made Chrudim an almost unbeatable team in the spring.

Their only loss since the round of 16 came in mid-March at Třinec, which was also heavily involved in a fight for survival. In the end, they managed to leave Ústí nad Labem behind by five points and save themselves. After the end of the season, Chrudim were even ten points ahead of the relegation runners-up in tenth place.

“It all looks like a fairy tale, but after the match with Trinec, the direct participant in the fight for salvation, when we got a goal in the 95th minute and felt a great injustice after the match, I didn’t feel so good. If I had known then that it would be our only loss in the spring…,” admits Kronďák in an interview for the MFK Chrudim website.

The former Teplice player and long-time coach of Vltavín recently worked as a scout for Viktoria Plzeň. He returned to the coaching position by taking over the “áčka” of Chrudim. And it was a very successful return. In the second half of the recently finished season of the Fortuna National League, he and his charges picked up 25 points, the third highest spring total of any team.

However, the road to the happy ending was not without problems. “In January, a covid and quarantine, in March a postponed match in Trinec, then a failed match with Taborsk and then the terrifying idea of 9 matches in 27 days,” recalls the fifty-one-year-old coach.

The basis of the success was a solid defensive effort and the confident performance of goalkeeper Jan Floder. “After Martin Šejvel was suspended and Ondrej Kesner was injured, a new defensive four crystallized and it stayed that way.

We were a bit lucky, but I hope that favours the prepared ones… And in goal, Jirka Floder was an independent unit. He really had a great spring and helped us a lot with his performances,” praises his team Kronďák, who also praises the performances of striker Firbacher and midfielder Řezníček.

Thanks to the improved performances and results, the successful connection will continue. “The contract in Chrudim continues and I have no reason to change anything at the moment. We have started something and I have the desire to continue it, it will be important how we can maintain the squad in order to make the best possible follow-up to the spring season,” confirms Radek Kronďák staying on the Chrudim bench.

According to him, the summer preparation for the upcoming season will start on Tuesday 14th June. The complete composition of the participants of the next season of the second highest football competition in the Czech Republic is not yet known due to the unfinished barrage and the still unfinished ČFL and MSFL. What is certain is that after six years another club with the abbreviation MFK in its name, namely the one from Karviná, will return to the Fortuna National League.

Source: MFK Chrudim, Fortuna National League