Marked for David Darida
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match7 Nov 2026
0‑3 to Slavia Prague, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
Squad9 Nov 2026
David Darida breaks a bone — 14 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 14 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Match7 Nov 2026
No end in sight to Karviná's wait for a win
5 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Karviná has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Words exchanged at Karviná
Filip Prebsl 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.
Squad9 Nov 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Jakub Lapeš and Karviná agree another 3 years.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
The manager makes an example of Filip Prebsl
“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.
Boardroom9 Nov 2026
Nobody left the Karviná dressing room in a hurry
The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 16. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad9 Nov 2026
A row about effort at Karviná
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Kristián Vallo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
In brief
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The dugout
The view from the dugout
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The dugout
A promise honoured for Tomáš Břečka
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The dugout
Rok Štorman knocks on the manager’s door
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad2 Nov 2026
A fracture rules David Darida out for 24 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Karviná will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Match31 Oct 2026
No end in sight to Karviná's wait for a win
4 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Karviná has to find a result from somewhere.
Match31 Oct 2026
0‑1 to Sparta Prague, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
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.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑1 Matej Barak left the room before anybody could ask which.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 14. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Looking ahead2 Nov 2026
The leaders are next for Karviná
Slavia Prague top the table and they are coming into view. Nothing to lose, which is what every manager says before losing.
Squad2 Nov 2026
At 20 he was the best of everybody his age in the division for one weekend. Nobody should build a career on it and everybody quietly does.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
Rok Štorman 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 Karviná, and both men came out saying it was fine.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad26 Oct 2026
32 days out for David Darida after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Karviná will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Squad26 Oct 2026
A row about effort at Karviná
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Kristián Vallo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad26 Oct 2026
10 new faces, and Karviná are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
1 error, one goal, and a night in front of the same three seconds. He will see it tonight, tomorrow and probably in February, and everybody who has played knows exactly which frame he keeps stopping on.
Match24 Oct 2026
It finished 1‑1, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
The manager has not finished forgetting Tomáš Břečka'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.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Matej Barak chose the glass-half-full version of 1‑1; the supporters left with the other one.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
Kahuan Vinícius has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Karviná 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 dugout26 Oct 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad19 Oct 2026
A one-man rearguard from Jakub Lapeš
There were 9 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Squad19 Oct 2026
41 days out for David Darida after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Karviná will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Match19 Oct 2026
Every point is an argument now for Karviná
Position 14 and 9 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Nino Milić is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 22 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Match17 Oct 2026
0‑1 to Banik Ostrava, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad19 Oct 2026
A row about effort at Karviná
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Kristián Vallo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
“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.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
The manager makes an example of Jan Chytrý
“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.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 14. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.