Marked for Maxim Mateáš
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match13 Nov 2027
7‑1, and the margin flattered nobody — it could have carried another goal or two without complaint. Afternoons like this are why people keep coming.
Squad15 Nov 2027
The match ball belongs to Mykola Kukharevych, whose 3 goals turned a difficult afternoon into a procession.
Player ratings15 Nov 2027
A brace, and Tigran Barseghyan takes the afternoon — 8.23
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Tigran Barseghyan provided it, and the 8.23 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
The dugout15 Nov 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Slovan Bratislava may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad15 Nov 2027
Danylo Ignatenko and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Player ratings15 Nov 2027
A performance of 10.00 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Match13 Nov 2027
8 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Slovan Bratislava and Spartak Myjava in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Player ratings15 Nov 2027
Marked 9.13 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Squad15 Nov 2027
Defences have started doubling up on Mykola Kukharevych
12 goals and a season average of 7.21 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match16 Oct 2027
4‑0, and the margin flattered nobody — it could have carried another goal or two without complaint. Afternoons like this are why people keep coming.
The dugout18 Oct 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Slovan Bratislava may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Match16 Oct 2027
The unbeaten run reaches 8. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Squad18 Oct 2027
Words at Slovan Bratislava training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Tigran Barseghyan 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.
Player ratings18 Oct 2027
Marked 9.37. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Slovan Bratislava.
Squad18 Oct 2027
Peter Weiss 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 Slovan Bratislava this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The terraces18 Oct 2027
At 22 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Squad18 Oct 2027
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Slovan Bratislava are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Loan watch18 Oct 2027
“I did not go to MFK Skalica to sit and watch. I want to come back to Slovan Bratislava and fight for my place.” 3 appearances in 14 matches say the rest.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings20 Sep 2027
Successful dribbles: 38. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad20 Sep 2027
Danylo Ignatenko and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad20 Sep 2027
A move Martin Gomola would have made for nothing
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Martin Gomola is living that version at Slovan Bratislava, and it tends to show in the first month.
Squad20 Sep 2027
Tigran Barseghyan 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 dugout20 Sep 2027
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
Loan watch20 Sep 2027
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Slovan Bratislava, and 3 appearances in 10 say he has earned the hearing.
Player ratings20 Sep 2027
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 16 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
The dugout20 Sep 2027
Tigran Barseghyan has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Slovan Bratislava will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
The dugout20 Sep 2027
The form table has caught Tomáš Vaclík
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market6 Sep 2027
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at MFK Skalica, and it is not being withdrawn.
Match4 Sep 2027
MFK Skalica win it in stoppage time
The board had gone up, the arguing had started, and then the ball was in the net in the 93th minute. Spartak Myjava will replay every second of the added time for a week.
Market6 Sep 2027
The bid was some way short and MFK Skalica did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Boardroom6 Sep 2027
Window shuts: 20 in, 12 out at MFK Skalica
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 20 arrived, 12 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
The dugout6 Sep 2027
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Market6 Sep 2027
The fee is $660.0K, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Slovan Bratislava drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
Squad6 Sep 2027
Damián Bariš 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.
Squad6 Sep 2027
Words at MFK Skalica training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Richard Ludha 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.
Match4 Sep 2027
It finished 2‑1, and it was Josimar Alcócer’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to MFK Skalica.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market23 Aug 2027
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and MFK Skalica waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Slovan Bratislava is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Market23 Aug 2027
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Nino Kukovec had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
Squad23 Aug 2027
Danylo Ignatenko and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match21 Aug 2027
MSK Zilina left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Player ratings23 Aug 2027
Successful dribbles: 18. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad23 Aug 2027
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Loïc Bessilé was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad23 Aug 2027
9 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
Loan watch23 Aug 2027
“I watch every Slovan Bratislava game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at MFK Skalica runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
The dugout23 Aug 2027
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑1, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market12 Jul 2027
“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.
Squad12 Jul 2027
The step up is real for Ivo Schär
At 14 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Transfer targets12 Jul 2027
MFK Skalica have gone to AS Trencin with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Squad12 Jul 2027
Damián Bariš 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.
Squad12 Jul 2027
Words at MFK Skalica training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. David Jablonský 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.
Market12 Jul 2027
AS Trencin are about to pick up the phone
A conversation is coming this week. MFK Skalica will put a number on him, and from there it stops being football and becomes arithmetic.
The dugout12 Jul 2027
Adam Morong gets it from the manager
“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.
Squad12 Jul 2027
The system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.
The dugout12 Jul 2027
Mário Hollý knocks on the manager's door
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at MFK Skalica, and both men came out saying it was fine.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market5 Jul 2027
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at MFK Skalica, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market5 Jul 2027
The interest is real enough to have reached print. MFK Skalica have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Transfer targets5 Jul 2027
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. MFK Skalica have done the hard part with Slovan Bratislava, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Squad5 Jul 2027
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Adam Morong and MFK Skalica agree another 2 years.
Squad5 Jul 2027
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and David Jablonský was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad5 Jul 2027
Mário Hollý and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Transfer targets5 Jul 2027
DAC Dunajska Streda have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
Boardroom5 Jul 2027
Intake day at the MFK Skalica academy
5 arrivals, an average age nobody would call a squad, and a set of parents being shown around a building their sons will spend more time in than at home. The scouting has already happened; today is only the paperwork.
The dugout5 Jul 2027
Adam Morong has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at MFK Skalica will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.