It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at DAC Dunajska Streda this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Christián Herc, and the manager let it.
Squad12 Oct 2026
The manager has not finished forgetting Matej Trusa'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.
Simen Juklerød 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ammar Ramadan 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.
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 3 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
8 attempts, none of them in. He got into the right places all afternoon, which is the hard part, and did the easy part badly — and that is the version of a bad day a manager can live with.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at DAC Dunajska Streda this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
0‑1 to MSK Zilina, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Uroš Kabić 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.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. DAC Dunajska Streda told Taras Kacharaba something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
6 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.
Every touch is being weighed now, in print and everywhere else. Some players grow into that and some are quietly ruined by it, and nobody knows which in advance.
Ammar Ramadan 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.
The shape wanted a different profile against this opponent, which is a real football answer and no comfort at all to the man it is about. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Eymard Bationo signs something — a contract at DAC Dunajska Streda or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
3 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Ammar Ramadan 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.
A 2‑1 win over Spartak Trnava, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
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.
Marked 8.40 — 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at DAC Dunajska Streda this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
“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 DAC Dunajska Streda, and it is not being withdrawn.
The offer from Spartak Myjava for Bálint Csóka was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Ammar Ramadan 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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Uroš Kabić has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Christián Herc was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.16. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Máté Tuboly and DAC Dunajska Streda agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Eymard Bationo, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 7.71
A mark of 7.71 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 20-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
“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 DAC Dunajska Streda, and it is not being withdrawn.
Some transfers need a press campaign. This one needed a shirt with the old number on it. Nahuel Ciro is a DAC Dunajska Streda player again, and the town has its story of the summer.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at DAC Dunajska Streda this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Marked 8.35 — 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.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Nino Kukovec 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.
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.
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Eymard Bationo did not need any: 8.21, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
The offer from MSK Zilina for Nino Kukovec was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
“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 DAC Dunajska Streda, and it is not being withdrawn.
Simen Juklerød 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ammar Ramadan 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.
Podbrezova will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Ousman Kujabi has pre-agreed a move to DAC Dunajska Streda, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 20-year-old it feels ownership of. Eymard Bationo has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Zlate Moravce will want this one forgotten quickly: 4‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. DAC Dunajska Streda were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Viktor Đukanović provided it, and the 8.76 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at DAC Dunajska Streda this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Marked 8.94 — 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.
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.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Uroš Kabić 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.
At 20 he is being measured against the rest of the division's kids and coming out in front. The senior version of this award is where the club would like this to lead.
The offer from Slovan Bratislava for Ammar Ramadan was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
Eymard Bationo, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 7.60
A mark of 7.60 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 20-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at DAC Dunajska Streda this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Samsondin Ouro 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.
“We pay for this every fortnight. The least we want is somebody who looks like he cares.” 7 of the 30 senior players walked off into it; the rest were not playing.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Aljaž Ivačič and DAC Dunajska Streda agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Simen Juklerød 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.
The name of Máté Tuboly has come up in conversations DAC Dunajska Streda were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ammar Ramadan 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.