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| Welcome to .... |
Like yesterday's visit to Benesov, I was looking for a Czech cup game within distance of Prague. Well, you don't get much more within distance than Prague itself. It was fairly centrally located too, close to Holesovice train station and not far off Letna.
If only everything
was as simple. Let's just say the last
mile took me three, as I found the highways not quite as promised. Even when I did make it to the stadium I had
to walk around three sides to get in. Mind,
if you walk through the Restaurace Lokada, you can avoid the turnstiles entirely
and get in through there.
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| The 'stadium side' of the restaurant. |
I'd missed the first
10 minutes. Loko, in the regionalised 3rd
tier, were playing host to top division FK Teplice. I could hear the Teplice fans (and their
drum). About 10 of them. Most of the rest were probably locals amazed
to see the visit of Teplice to this tiny stadium.
The crowd, maybe 350,
were all on one side of the pitch. The
main (only!) stand had 5 rows but did at least cover most of the length of the pitch,
apart from a small area at one end where some stood leaning over the fence.
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| One strains for a view, the other reads his programme. |
The far side also
looked like it had a small terrace, now covered in hoardings and unused –
though the dugouts were on this side.
Handy for being blinded by the sun, at this time of day. To the right of the main stand was the wall
of the stadium, while to the left behind the goal, was a practice pitch. Good for giving the kids something to do when
they're bored.
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| The dugouts and (very) small terrace. |
Thanks to the road
layout (and my ineptitude) I missed the first goal. Teplice were already one up and by half time
it was 0-2. I wandered off for my second
beer and a klobasa (sausage), via a dilapidated tennis court behind the main
stand. I thought it was an old railway
embankment till I discovered the terrace, as well as the old floodlights. I'm sure sports facilities were better / more
numerous back in the (Communist) day.
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| Back of the stand...an overgrown tennis court. |
Second half, I sat at
the Teplice end of the stand. I'd had to
stand up in the opening 45 (35?) and I was tired. Teplice scored a third. It was turning into a rout, as a player
showboatedly flicked it through his own legs and across the onrushing keeper
for someone else to score. Too easy. Another goal, musta been the 2nd,
the keeper is off his line and the winger crosses it hard behind him…only for
the keeper to catch it and carry it over his own line.
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| Match action. |
But then complacency
hit. Loko were given a penalty for a
trip and a couple of minutes later they'd headed in from a free kick while an
attacker was wrestled to the ground. If
the pen had been given, he'd have been looking at a sending off. However, despite a couple of small scares,
Teplice held on and were into the last 16.
Now, which is the best way back?
The Damage:
CHK 80 ent
CHK 50 klobasa
CHK 26 beer (x2)
= CHK 156
The Tunes:
The Digging Remedy (Plaid)
Late Night Tales (Nils Frahm)
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| One side of the 'stadium'... |
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| ...then another. |
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| Back of the Main Stand. |
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| Balcony in Main Stand. |
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| The view from the seats. |
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| Full time. |
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| Every perimeter should have a hedge. |
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| The main entrance. |
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| Teplice corner. |
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