Staropramen Prague players didn’t mess around and turned the game around on the Olomouc court

They started the game well, leading by two goals shortly before the break. But even that didn’t help the Mighty Ducks. Staropramen Praha turned the opening quarter-final of the Superleague of Small Football playoffs around and beat the home team Olomouc Mighty Ducks 4:3 in Hněvotín.

The Prague team is in a much better starting position for the rematch, which they will host on Sunday at 7:30 pm. “It’s definitely a very hard-earned victory, we played a very difficult game, we didn’t even come in big numbers. When we had so many excuses and injuries I thought we had to put in a really good performance to pull it off, which we did.

Now we have to prepare well for Sunday. We’ll see what Olomouc comes up with, we want to do well in the match of course. Nothing is decided, but we have a lot in our hands in the quarterfinals, it will be about us,” said Prague captain Stanislav Mařík.

The Hanaks missed last year’s playoffs and will do their best to extend their season on Sunday. “We have to put more quality and fight into the game and win both the game and the overtime. It will be tough but not unmanageable. It would definitely be stupid to go there just to play. We have to win and do our best,” encouraged Olomouc midfielder Lukáš Vychodil.

His two assists gave Olomouc a two-goal lead in the opening match. He set up a goal for Tomas Malenda in the second minute and Lukáš Kaďork a minute before the break.

“I wouldn’t say that the home team surprised us, we came with a plan and even though we were down in the first half, we managed to play quite well. We created a lot of chances which we didn’t convert. It wasn’t until a minute before half-time that we reduced the deficit, and that gave us some composure. We knew that if we kept going, we would create chances. We believed we could do it,” said Czech international Mařík.

In the last minute of the first half, Daniel Reiter scored the equalizer. “We created several actions to increase our lead. We should have scored at 3::0, 4::0 and they wouldn’t have had a chance to catch up to us at all.

Instead, we got a stupid goal at 2::1, and the game was breaking at that state. If we had nailed it at 3::0, the game was over. Instead, the visitors scored a contact goal at 1::2 and they were back, they got into the break and it was tough,” regretted the Olomouc midfielder.

In the 45th minute, Mařík equalised and right after that Jindřich Novotný sent Prague into the lead. “When we scored 2:2 and then immediately with a goal to make it 3:2, I started to believe that we could take away a good result. When you think about it, a draw is enough from away games, if you can manage at home. We were always calm that Olomouc had to score two goals, so we concentrated on defending to somehow keep it together,” the Prague striker explained.

Although Vojtech Pazdera equalised, Novotný decided Staropramen’s win in the 55th minute. “Prague had quality, they didn’t lose a single game in the regular season. We knew that they were going to be a tough opponent, the guests played very calmly the whole time, even though we were leading, they didn’t mess around, they still played with quality, which paid off in the end and scored one more goal. Towards the end we played without a goalkeeper, we had pressure but we lacked more quality of the final,” regretted Vychodil.

Olomouc Mighty Ducks – Staropramen Praha 3::4 (2::1)

Goals and assists:: 2. Malenda (Vychodil), 29. Kaďorek (Vychodil), 47. Pazdera (Kryl) – 30. Reiter (Vít), 45. 30. Novotný (Mařík), 55. Referee:: Pfeifer – Perutka. Penalty:: Janotka – Reiter, Kubek.

Olomouc Mighty Ducks:: Marek Kalina (Tomáš Zeman) – Marek Pešák, Jiří Kiška, Michal Galus, Vojtěch Pazdera, Pavel Kryl, Lukáš Kaďorek, Jan Šuba, Jan Tögel (C), Lukáš Vychodil, Tomáš Janotka, Jakub Hegr, Tomáš Malenda.

Staropramen Praha:: Lukáš Vít – Václav Socher, David Baran, Stanislav Mařík (C), Jindřich Novotný, Daniel Žížala, Jakub Kubek, Daniel Reiter.

Author: Jaroslav Kára