Marked for Norbert Pekarik
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match24 Feb 2029
35 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Squad26 Feb 2029
16 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Dukla Banská Bystrica lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Squad26 Feb 2029
Alex Húdok 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 Dukla Banská Bystrica this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad26 Feb 2029
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Juraj Chvátal was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Match24 Feb 2029
A 2‑0 win over MSK Zilina B, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Player ratings26 Feb 2029
Marked 8.09 — 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.
Player ratings26 Feb 2029
Successful dribbles: 15. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
The dugout26 Feb 2029
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Milan Rusnak on a 2‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
The dugout26 Feb 2029
No place for Peter Kings on the big day
He found out with everybody else, an hour before kick-off, from a sheet of paper on a wall. Nobody at Dukla Banská Bystrica pretended it was anything other than a decision about him.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad19 Feb 2029
Norbert Pekarik damages knee ligaments — 26 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 26 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.
Squad19 Feb 2029
Alex Húdok and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Player ratings19 Feb 2029
Successful dribbles: 21. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad19 Feb 2029
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Stanislav Olejník was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Looking ahead19 Feb 2029
MSK Zilina B next, and the two sides the division is watching meet each other. Whoever wins will be told nothing is decided in the same breath as being congratulated.
Loan watch19 Feb 2029
“I watch every Dukla Banská Bystrica game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at DAC Dunajska Streda runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Squad19 Feb 2029
5 new faces, and Dukla Banská Bystrica 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.
The dugout19 Feb 2029
He found out with everybody else, an hour before kick-off, from a sheet of paper on a wall. Nobody at Dukla Banská Bystrica pretended it was anything other than a decision about him.
The dugout19 Feb 2029
Juraj Chvátal has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Dukla Banská Bystrica 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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match10 Feb 2029
34 matches unbeaten here. Every visiting manager is asked about it in the week before, which is precisely why it keeps going.
Squad12 Feb 2029
35 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Dukla Banská Bystrica lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Match12 Feb 2029
First, on 60 points. The table is a fact and a fact is allowed to be enjoyed, which is as far as anybody at the club is prepared to go in public.
Squad12 Feb 2029
Lorenzo Villa and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Boardroom12 Feb 2029
The accounts make uncomfortable reading. Wages first and ambition second is the order of business at Dukla Banská Bystrica now.
Squad12 Feb 2029
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Juraj Chvátal was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Player ratings12 Feb 2029
Marked 8.26 — 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad5 Feb 2029
A knee injury of the worst kind for Norbert Pekarik
42 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Dukla Banská Bystrica lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The dugout5 Feb 2029
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Dukla Banská Bystrica have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Boardroom5 Feb 2029
Deadline passes with 5 signed and 5 gone
That is the business done at Dukla Banská Bystrica until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
Squad5 Feb 2029
Alex Húdok 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 ratings5 Feb 2029
Juraj Chvátal ran the middle of the pitch — 7.28
He won it back and then made something of it, which is two jobs and the reason the scoreline looks the way it does. 13 combined actions and a mark of 7.28, and not one of them will make a highlights package.
Squad5 Feb 2029
Words at Dukla Banská Bystrica training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Juraj Chvátal 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.
Match3 Feb 2029
Beaten 1‑3, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Looking ahead5 Feb 2029
The big one: Púchov come into view
Two sides from the top of the table, one afternoon, and a month of talk decided in ninety minutes. Dukla Banská Bystrica will not use the word title this week and will not stop thinking it.
The dugout5 Feb 2029
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Kristián Mihálek, and the manager let it.