Three out of three ain't bad...

Lombardos the Kangaroo ceremonially places the first ball
of the new season on the Dolicek centre circle.

As Meatloaf never sang unless he got the words of his own song wrong.

Yes, who'd have thunk it possible, but with the blog already three games old, we got nothing but winners on here so far.

Today was the first game at Dolicek (yes, I have finally managed to cement in my head the name of our stadium though arsing myself to put the Czech diacriticals in is another matter. Basically, there should be a hacek on the c making a "ch" sound and one of the vowels is a bit longer than the others but I forget which one, all of which is of minor significance anyway.)

COME ON! (Slight tangent - as I type today's match report, in another window I have a live feed from this evening's Gambrinus Liga 1 match between Brno and Liberec. I bet on all six Czech games today - one accumulator as always, and one Trebles bet. With five games played, I have got two right meaning I need Brno to win to at least get my stake back - plus a pointless smidgen extra - and start again with the Carling Cup midweek. That COME ON! up there is the point when Brno took a 36th minute 2-0 lead. Any further updates and I will also put them in blue for coherence or to enable you to skip over them and follow )

Anyway, back to Bohemians, and the atmosphere at the ground was fantastic. We may have been relegated but this was still a huge (relatively) crowd, the drums were banging complimented by this season's new addition - a crashing cymbal - and the singing was loud and proud. I had a really strange tear-in-the-eye moment of being so glad to have come to the Czech Republic to live.

And the atmosphere was really cranked up after five minutes when our first set piece floated into the Opava box and was headed into the net by one of their players. So that's two goals for Bohemians this season and neither scored by a bloke wearing green and white.

For the next 20 minutes there was a reasonable amount of Bohemians endeavour and I did wonder for a while whether we were going to absolutely tank Opava - touted by my Czech friends as serious contenders along with us for promotion. But then Same Old Bohemians came out, the ones I remember from last season, and there was sloppiness and neurotic defensive tactics. After 30 minutes a really clumsy tackle from behind maimed our striker Dalibor Slezak and he had to go off, bringing lanky Milan Skoda into the fray early. Late in the first half, keeper Radek Snozik made a great save with an out-stretched leg to ensure we went in at the break still ahead.

At half time someone in the Bohemians hierarchy clearly decided the lethargy was nothing to do with the lazy-arse players or the beating sunshine but us lazy slobs in the stands so they decided to crank up the emotional feel-good factor (HT Brno 2 Liberec 0).

Defensive stalwart and club captain, Karel Rada, who retired at the end of last season was wheeled out and presented with a giant season ticket for life. I assume the giant factor was just so we could all see what it was and that he won't really be expected to lug this huge piece of plastic to every game from here til the end of his days, but the sentiment was not lost. He got a standing ovation, he scampered to the hardcore fans behind the goal with the Kangaroo (but alas did not do the customary roly-poly Lombardos does) and everyone was pumped up again.

Especially our dynamic midfielder Jan Moravek and Skoda who between them carved out three chances, all pretty much replicas of each other, in the first five minutes of the second half. The first one Skoda managed to poke over the bar despite being just a few yards out and the other two the Opava keeper saved. At least there was a bit more dynamo about us.

But Opava still looked lively too and could easily have caught us out. At one point there was some really frantic pinball in the box and later one of their strikers had the ball in the net from one particularly speedy counter attack but thankfully he was offside and it got rightly ruled out.

As we entered the four minutes of injury time, I got that sense of deja vu. This is the bit where we always fuck it up. Always. True to form, we conceded possesion and a breakaway move saw their striker clean through on goal and brought down by one of our centre backs (I think it was Marek Nikl but the whole thing was a panicky blur). It was a definite penalty. No debate, I already assumed it had been given.

But NO. Bohemians in last-minute-stroke-of-luck shocker. The referee waved play on. For which he was rightly berated by many Opava players, one of whom got booked. From there on, I figured even we would have the wherewithal to hang on for the win and we did - though manager Pavel Hoftych was throwing a right tizzy in the technical area and doing a lot of watch-pointing. At the end, the referee was surrounded by disgruntled Opava players, Bohemians' peacemakers and Lombardos the Kangaroo for good measure.

So there it is. Two games. Two 1-0 wins. Two own goals. We are going up, said We. Are. Going up!

MEANWHILE...

For me, it was an appetiser, for you it will be a tasty dessert (Brno 3 Liberec 0. I think my stake has been saved) to send you on your way. But this morning, I hauled myself out of bed at 8am - yes, on a Sunday, I know - to go to another match that was happening in Prague, the Liga 1 match between Teplice and Viktoria Zizkov. The first in my six-way accumulator (and treble), I figured that after a 4-0 win on the opening day, Teplice were a shoo-in (Brno 4 Liberec 0. Phew!) cos Zizkov are a bit shit really. I have never had any respect for them since they mugged us with some snide tactics last season. So I wanted to go and watch my accumulator get off to a good start and that was my justification for wandering across town for the 10.15am kick off.

It didn't start well and after six minutes, a really fluid and impressive passing move from Zizkov saw them (Brno 4 Liberec 1. Fahkin hell, I am trying to type here...) go one nil up. Tits, I thought, or something like that, but I consoled myself with the memory that much as I don't like Zizkov, I also don't like Teplice that much. Especially a baldy guy who plays on the right wing, looks old enough to be my grandad and yet still has more football oomph about him than I ever will. I hate that. I remember my now-back-Stateside Bohemians' ally Paul (should I use fake names for non-blog contributors? Sod it, it's a popular enough name. He'll never get traced) and I bitching furiously about this old coot and his nippy turn of pace when Bohemians played them last season. I assumed Teplice would turn it round.

It took them 30 minutes to get a shot on goal. But at least that did wake them up a bit and they started to press with a bit more urgency. The ball went out to baldy coot on the right wing but he was a bit isolated and an attentive defender pressed him back. Suddenly he was under a bit of pressure and there was no cover whatsoever. Baldy man decided that what the game really needed right now was a kamikaze back-pass from the halfway line so he hoofed it to the goalkeeper.

Who I can only assume got caught short in the middle of a nice dream about meerkats, misjudged the bounce terribly and then flapped a la Paul Robinson when it was all much too late. The ball went over his head and into the goal.

From this point on, I discarded the accumulator and chose to hope stupid Teplice got mullered instead. They never looked remotely competent throughout and Zizkov hit the bar twice in the second half before adding a third deep into injury time. I later learnt that many Teplice players (possibly up to eight) had been laid out with some Tottenham-style lasagne issues and that they had tried to get the game re-scheduled at the last minute.

For most of the day, I had just assumed it was cos the dopey bastards couldn't handle an early Sunday morning.