Marked for Leonardo Bortoli
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match14 Sep 2026
4 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.
Match12 Sep 2026
4 matches without a win for Zlate Moravce
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around Zlate Moravce are no longer polite ones.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Words at Zlate Moravce training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Levan Nonikashvili is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Squad14 Sep 2026
David Jackuliak was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.77, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Squad14 Sep 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Matěj Helebrand, and the manager let it.
Match12 Sep 2026
2‑2, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Denis Duga dropped after a run of poor form
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Off the bench and decisive: Adam Pudil
The substitution nobody applauded turned out to be the whole story. Zlate Moravce were going nowhere until he came on.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match19 Aug 2026
FK Senica are out and Zlate Moravce go through, 1‑0 the final word. The bracket opens up a little, and everyone allows themselves a look at it.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Adam Pudil, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 7.88
A mark of 7.88 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Market24 Aug 2026
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Matěj Helebrand falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
The terraces24 Aug 2026
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Adam Pudil has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Squad24 Aug 2026
The manager makes an example of Martin Bukata
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Adam Pudil in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Zlate Moravce this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 16. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Vojtěch Kubista dropped after a run of poor form
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad17 Aug 2026
Denis Duga in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Zlate Moravce this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match15 Aug 2026
3 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
Squad17 Aug 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Denis Duga, and the manager let it.
Match15 Aug 2026
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 17. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Daniel Kutík falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Gregor Tóth dropped after a run of poor form
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
Market17 Aug 2026
It is the least glamorous business a club does and the reason seasons do not collapse in February. Celso Castillo is here for the weeks when three men are injured and somebody still has to play.
Market17 Aug 2026
Nobody sells a season ticket on a signing like this. Every manager who has been through a bad October wants one anyway, and Zlate Moravce have gone and got theirs early.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad3 Aug 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Vojtěch Kubista and Zlate Moravce agree another 2 years.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Denis Duga was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Levan Nonikashvili falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
The terraces3 Aug 2026
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Patrik Richter has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Market3 Aug 2026
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.