Marked for Peter Vindahl
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match23 Aug 2028
A 2‑1 win over Jihlava, and the draw for the next round can be watched with some interest for once.
Match23 Aug 2028
Matěj Valenta wins it after the whistle should have gone
91 minutes played. Matěj Valenta found the finish in time that only existed because of earlier delays, and Jihlava went from a point to nothing inside one movement.
Match26 Aug 2028
The unbeaten run reaches 12. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Player ratings28 Aug 2028
Two goals and a mark of 8.42 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Market28 Aug 2028
“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.
Squad28 Aug 2028
Íñigo Martínez 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.
Match26 Aug 2028
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Sparta Prague and Banik Ostrava in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Market28 Aug 2028
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Tomáš Vlček wants continental football; whether Sparta Prague can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Squad28 Aug 2028
Adam Karabec 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market29 Nov 2027
David Lášek has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Sparta Prague they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad29 Nov 2027
Íñigo Martínez 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.
Squad29 Nov 2027
David Lášek is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 19 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.
Squad29 Nov 2027
Sivert Mannsverk 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.
Match27 Nov 2027
Adam Karabec scored, and precious little else went right: 1‑2 to Zlin, and a quiet walk to the dressing room.
Squad29 Nov 2027
The manager makes an example of Peter Vindahl
“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 ratings29 Nov 2027
A performance of 8.60 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Boardroom29 Nov 2027
The music was off and the showers ran late. What was said in that dressing room stays there, but Saturday will publish the minutes.
Player ratings29 Nov 2027
The chances came and went for Matías Arezo
7 shots, and a count that reads like a good afternoon until you check the other column. Strikers survive weeks like this on the understanding that the chances keep arriving; the day they stop is the day it becomes a problem.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings15 Nov 2027
Defensive actions: 30, and a clean sheet at the end of it. A centre-half's best afternoons look like nothing happening, which is precisely the point.
Squad15 Nov 2027
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Squad15 Nov 2027
Íñigo Martínez 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 ratings15 Nov 2027
Marked 8.19 — 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
“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.
Squad15 Nov 2027
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
Player ratings15 Nov 2027
Defensive actions: 16. He was first to everything and second to nothing, and the goalkeeper had an easy day because of it.
Player ratings15 Nov 2027
Successful dribbles: 10. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad10 May 2027
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Sparta Prague will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad10 May 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sparta Prague this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Loan watch10 May 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 Sparta Prague, and 9 appearances in 39 say he has earned the hearing.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad8 Mar 2027
Jhoanner Chávez: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Sparta Prague have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad8 Mar 2027
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Íñigo Martínez and Sparta Prague agree another 2 years.
Squad8 Mar 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sparta Prague this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings25 Jan 2027
Successful dribbles: 32. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Match25 Jan 2027
44 points on the board and a place in the leading group. Nobody at the ground is saying the word out loud yet.
Market25 Jan 2027
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Sparta Prague can pretend not to have heard.
Squad25 Jan 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sparta Prague this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match23 Jan 2027
1‑3 to Teplice, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad25 Jan 2027
The manager makes an example of Lukáš Haraslín
“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.
Boardroom25 Jan 2027
The manager kept them in and said what needed saying. A response is expected on Saturday, and if it does not come the questions move upstairs.
Squad25 Jan 2027
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
Squad25 Jan 2027
Peter Vindahl lets one through his hands
A defender's mistake gets tidied up by somebody else; a goalkeeper's ends up in the net. He knew before the ball crossed the line, and so did everybody in the ground.