Marked for Marek Pekarik
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad5 Oct 2026
Marek Pekarik damages knee ligaments — 17 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 17 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Squad5 Oct 2026
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Sapovnela know it.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Jesús Rueda 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 52. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Marek Pekarik damages knee ligaments — 24 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 24 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.84 at 36, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Jesús Rueda 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 Sapovnela this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Victor 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.
Match26 Sep 2026
It finished 1‑0, and it was Rodrigo Alvarenga’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Sapovnela.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad21 Sep 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Marek Pekarik
32 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Sapovnela lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Patryk Konik gets the move he always wanted
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Patryk Konik has just signed for Sapovnela, and for once the answer mattered.
Squad21 Sep 2026
The manager makes an example of Jesús Rueda
“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.
Match19 Sep 2026
Guria left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 18. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Market21 Sep 2026
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad14 Sep 2026
Marek Pekarik damages knee ligaments — 38 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 38 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Match12 Sep 2026
No end in sight to FK Senica's wait for a win
7 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at FK Senica has to find a result from somewhere.
Match12 Sep 2026
The goals have deserted FK Senica
6 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at FK Senica can tell you which week it ends in.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Patrik Danek 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.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Words at FK Senica training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Milan Rusnak 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.
Loan watch14 Sep 2026
“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 FK Senica, and 0 appearances in 5 say he has earned the hearing.
Squad14 Sep 2026
The manager has not finished forgetting Patrik Hubocan's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
Match12 Sep 2026
Ninety minutes, two goalkeepers with clean gloves, and not one finish worth keeping. MFK Michalovce will be the happier side with the point.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 9. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad7 Sep 2026
Marek Pekarik damages knee ligaments — 45 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 45 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Match5 Sep 2026
6 matches without a win for FK Senica
The run now stands at 6, and the questions being asked around FK Senica are no longer polite ones.
Market7 Sep 2026
“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 FK Senica, and it is not being withdrawn.
Match5 Sep 2026
5 matches without a goal for FK Senica
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 5 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Squad7 Sep 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at FK Senica this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Erik Weiss pulls a muscle — 15 days out
The injury that keeps coming back, keeps being rushed back from, and quietly costs more careers than the dramatic ones. 15 days is the estimate; the honest figure depends on whether anybody is patient.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Juraj Bero 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.
Player ratings7 Sep 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.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
Some games turn on a moment; this one turned on a man. 7.08 on the card, and the FK Senica support went home talking about one name.