A brace, and Michal Faško takes the afternoon — 8.41
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Michal Faško provided it, and the 8.41 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 MSK Zilina this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
An error at the back is a moment; an error in goal is a goal. Alessandro Nunziante knows it, the crowd knew it instantly, and there was nobody behind him to make it anything else.
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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” MSK Zilina have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
There were 89 minutes on the clock and MFK Ruzomberok had all but banked the point. Football rarely reads the room, and MSK Zilina did not stop to explain themselves.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
A brace, and Lukáš Juliš takes the afternoon — 8.30
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Lukáš Juliš provided it, and the 8.30 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
3 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Miroslav Káčer 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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Xavier Adang 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.
In brief
Player ratingsNinety minutes of Regő Szánthó at his very best
Player ratingsUerdi Mara was on a different afternoon to everybody else
Player ratingsNinety minutes of Kristián Bari at his very best
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Pavol Šafranko. 2‑0 against MFK Michalovce, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Marked 8.25. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at MSK Zilina.
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
Martin Šulek was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.15. 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.
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
Pavol Šafranko was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.00. 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.
Something was said to Alessandro Nunziante and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
10 goals in 10 games at Petržalka — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at MSK Zilina updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
Position 3, 19 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at MSK Zilina this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Ondrej Pekarik after 0‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Miroslav Káčer 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.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Filip Kiss’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and MSK Zilina needing him to play as if none of it matters.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Uerdi Mara signs something — a contract at MSK Zilina or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at MSK Zilina, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at MSK Zilina. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
2 goals in 4 games at Petržalka — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at MSK Zilina updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
Miroslav Káčer 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.
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.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Filip Kaša, and the manager let it.
Squad5 Oct 2026
12 new faces, and MSK Zilina 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.
9 goals in 7 games at Púchov — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at MSK Zilina updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Ondrej Pekarik after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 21 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.
The fixture the rest of the division is looking forward to more than either of the sides in it. Both know a win changes the season and a defeat does not end it, which is what makes it hard to play.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at MSK Zilina can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Ondrej Pekarik kept it short after the 3‑1 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
Michal Faško 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 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.
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
Nobody at MSK Zilina is suggesting he is out of form. The manager simply wanted somebody with a different set of qualities for ninety specific minutes, and there is nothing a player can train to fix that.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. MSK Zilina know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Slavia Prague is saying, and nobody at MSK Zilina is enjoying the guessing.
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.
Miroslav Káčer 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.
MSK Zilina asked and Viktoria Plzen said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Some games turn on a moment; this one turned on a man. 7.94 on the card, and the MSK Zilina support went home talking about one name.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Ondrej Pekarik kept it short after the 1‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
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.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 22 arrived, 15 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
The deal that would have taken Andrei Gabriele Florea to MFK Ruzomberok has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to MSK Zilina with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.
Everything agreed with Slavia Prague, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
MSK Zilina had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Viktoria Plzen, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
$760.0K was the most the club would pay and Tatran Prešov were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at MSK Zilina this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Words at MSK Zilina training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Albi Doka 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 last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. MSK Zilina have lost him in all but the paperwork.
“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 MSK Zilina, and it is not being withdrawn.
Sabah did not want to sell and the number is why they did. $1.4M for Pavol Šafranko, and the expectation that arrives with him is the kind no amount of settling-in period softens.
MSK Zilina have gone to Tatran Prešov with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Boards get told what they have done wrong for years and hear nothing on the days they get it right. This is one of those days: Pavol Šafranko from Sabah for $1.4M, and a ticket office having a very good morning.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. KFC Komárno have kept their man, and MSK Zilina go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The accountants will call it good business and they will be right, which is not the point anybody outside the boardroom is making. Samuel Ďatko was one of the reasons people came, and $1.1M does not replace that by itself.
The clubs have shaken hands with KFC Komárno; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
MSK Zilina have gone to Sabah with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at MSK Zilina this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
MSK Zilina asked and MFK Ruzomberok said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. MSK Zilina have lost him in all but the paperwork.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Albi Doka is living that version at MSK Zilina, and it tends to show in the first month.
MSK Zilina asked and Spartak Trnava said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
MSK Zilina have gone to Podbrezova with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Miroslav Káčer 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 interest is real enough to have reached print. MSK Zilina have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Words at MSK Zilina training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Albi Doka 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.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Uerdi Mara is living that version at MSK Zilina, and it tends to show in the first month.
This is not cover and nobody is pretending it is. $750.0K has been paid because Martin Šulek is straightforwardly better than what was already here, and the club has decided to stop waiting.
MSK Zilina had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at KAA Gent, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
He left as a boy and has come back still knowing where the away end is. Most signings have to be explained to a town; this one needed a photograph and nothing else.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. AEL have kept their man, and MSK Zilina go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The terraces10 Aug 2026
MSK Zilina spend $750.0K on the signing the town wanted
It is the rarest sequence in football: supporters ask for something, and the club goes and does it. $750.0K for Martin Šulek, and for one week nobody is complaining about anything.
MSK Zilina asked and Slovan Bratislava said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The name of Michal Svoboda has come up in conversations MSK Zilina were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; MSK Zilina are dealing with a man who wants a different country.